Chinese · Main
Dan Dan Noodles
- Intermediate
- 30 min
- roughly 1 of 4 for cost
Leads with toasted, nutty warmth throughout, real fire that builds and stays, trailing gentle sweetness.
Ingredients
- 400g fresh wheat noodles
- 200g ground pork fried crisp with 1 tbsp sweet bean or hoisin
- Per bowl: 1 tbsp sesame paste or tahini, 1 tbsp chili oil, 2 tsp soy, 1 tsp black vinegar, ½ tsp sugar, ground Sichuan pepper
- Hot noodle water to loosen
- Scallions, crushed peanuts, wilted greens
The skills inside
The words inside
Sesame: Seeds, Tahini & BeyondBlack Pepper & the Pepper Family
Allergen screen
Found: gluten · nuts · peanuts · soy · sesame
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Build the sauce in each serving bowl.
- Fry the pork topping until crispy and dark.
- Cook noodles; loosen each sauce bowl with 3 tbsp noodle water.
- Noodles in, pork on top: everyone mixes their own.
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Keeping the cooking liquid 60 recipes
- It was actually kept: the liquid went into a container rather than down the drain, and the volume saved is enough to be worth using.
- It is clean: strained of solids and grit, and not clouded with the debris of whatever broke up in it.
- It tastes of what it cooked and tastes concentrated rather than washed out, and it is not so salty or so bitter that the only honest use is the bin.
- It was cooled quickly and stored cold, not left standing warm on the stove to be dealt with later.
- Used, it does the job the dish gives it (carrying flavour into a sauce, loosening the dish, or setting when chilled) rather than merely adding water back.
Where it goes wrong The pot was left to cool slowly on the stove and only strained the next day, so it soured overnight: what should have been the best ingredient in the dish goes in the bin, and the recipe gets water instead.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Off-dry Riesling (Mosel Kabinett)
- Also Right
- Gewürztraminer or off-dry Chenin
- From the Taps
- Crisp lager or pilsner
- Zero-Proof
- Agua fresca or iced jasmine tea
Sugar, cold, and low alcohol are the fire code: sweetness tames capsaicin while acid resets the palate; tannin would fan the flames.
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