lessons from the hutong: dan dan mian (noodles)

We cooked this simple noodle dish at the end of the day after we'd just consumed about 18 dumplings each - it was so delicious we managed to squeeze it in.

Despite the seemingly long list of ingredients, it's a quick and easy recipe.

There is one unusual ingredient in the dish which is a key element of dan dan noodles. It's a Sichuan preserved vegetable called 'mustard greens' which I saw in the market in Beijing. It looks like the mutant cousin of a bulb of garlic - unfortunately I didn't photograph it but there is a pic on wiki under 'zha cai'. the packet we used calls it ya cai, which I think is more commonly used, though I'm wondering if ya refers to the greens and zha refers to the bulb. I believe the 'suimi' part simply means 'finely chopped'. Some people seem to think you need to rinse the ya cai to reduce the saltiness - we didn't so I wouldn't bother.

The noodle dough is very similar to pasta dough, though the liquid element is approximately half egg / half water, whereas pasta tends to be wholly reliant on egg. The technique for folding and cutting the dough differed, and I would suggest employing the approach used for pasta (folding the sides in to meet in the centre and repeating, then sliding the back of the knife down the centre where the folds meet, lifting and shaking out the pasta so that the lengths fall out on either side).

~noodle dough~
200g flour
1 egg
50-60g water

Mix well and knead until smooth. Rest for 30 minutes in a bowl covered with a wet cloth. (Use this time to prepare the seasoned pork.) Roll it out until it is a large, thin piece. Dust it well with flour, fold into the centre and cut into 1cm widths.

~seasoned pork~
100g lean minced pork, marinated with 2t wine
50g Sichuan preserved vegetable (sumi ya cai)
1t minced ginger
1t minced garlic
3 spring onions (if you are using the giant Chinese spring onions, just use 1) (white part only), diced into 5mm pieces
1t light soy sauce
1/2t dark soy sauce

Heat 1T peanut or rapeseed (canola) oil in a wok. Add ginger, garlic and spring onion, stir until fragrant and add the minced pork, stirring until cooked. Add the light and dark soy sauce, stir for 30 seconds and then add the ya cai. Mix well and remove from the heat.

~sauce~
2t garlic, crushed to a paste
3 spring onions, finely chopped (or 1 Chinese spring onion)
salt (to taste - 1/4t)
1.5t sugar
1T light soy sauce
2T dark soy sauce
1T chili oil (more, to taste)
1/2t sesame oil
300ml chicken stock

Put all the sauce ingredients into a bowl and mix well. Cook the noodles for two minutes in boiling water, add some greens (po choi, spinach, or choi sum) for one minute and drain. Add to the bowl holding the sauce and top with the pork mixture. Give it a good stir. Adjust seasoning if desired (particularly chili oil), and serve.