Our Chinese New Year meals are finally done! It took us 17 days to get seven Chinese meals on the table, but we did it! And in our defense, we were out of town last weekend so that caused some delays. Anyway, I said at the beginning that I would make noodles and now I finally have. Well, I guess there were noodles in our Red Braised Beef Noodle Soup (Hong Shao Niu Rou Mian), but it was a soup and the noodles weren't the focus (although I would argue that they were the most delicious part of the soup once they soaked up the broth). And Alex and I have been wanting to make Dan Dan Mian for awhile now, so it seemed silly not to make them as part of our Chinese New Year project. And to go with the noodles I wanted to make a vegetable side. So I settled on Flowering Chives with Smoky Bacon, which I have also been wanting to make for awhile now, partially because the recipe required so few ingredients and was very simple. It was the type of side that I thought Alex and I could make easily at any time and serve for a simple dinner with some steamed rice.
I really like Dan Dan Mian, but I think this version wasn't my favorite version that I have ever tasted. Part of it was how incredibly salty the dish turned out. Now it could have been the fact that our ya cai was saltier than usual or the fact that we accidentally added a little extra soy sauce to the pork topping. Either way, it was very salty. I briefly thought about rinsing off the ya cai (and I wish we had to cut down on the saltiness), but I forgot once we got down to cooking. Oops. I know that Fuchsia Dunlop has at least three different recipes for dan dan mian in Land of Plenty and - two using pork, one using beef, two using sesame paste, etc. I also know that one of the restaurant versions I have tried also involved cilantro, which I appreciated. Anyway, the biggest problem with this version of dan dan mian aside from the saltiness is the lack of any sort of peanut or sesame. Who has ever heard of dan dan mian without some form of peanuts or sesame paste? If I had read the recipe a little more closely before proceeding and thought about it a bit, I would have thrown some sesame paste in. Or just tried another one of her recipes. Oh well. I also would have added a pinch of sugar to the sauce and cut down on the amount of the ya cai. I think 2 tbsp of the ya cai would have been more than sufficient. Or I would have thoroughly soaked it first in several changes of water. We also upped the amount of Sichuan peppercorn, which I would highly recommend if you enjoy the flavor of numbing pepper. Next time I will try one of Fuchsia Dunlop's other recipes - one that involves sesame paste! As for the Flowering Chives with Smoky Bacon, I really enjoyed it. I thought it made a really nice side dish and I would make it again. Upon further reflection, I'm not sure if I could eat it as my entire meal but it is so easy to make that we could easily make it as an accompaniment to almost any Chinese entree.
Recipe after the jump!
Traditional Dan Dan Noodles
Land of Plenty: Authentic Sichuan Recipes Personally Gathered in the Chinese Province of Sichuan
By Fuchsia Dunlop
INGREDIENTS:
12 oz. fresh Chinese noodles, or 8 oz. dried Chinese noodles
For the sauce:
1 tbsp melted lard or peanut oil
4 tbsp Sichuanese ya cai or Tianjin preserved vegetable
3 scallions, green parts only, thinly sliced on the bias
1 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce
2-3 tbsp chili oil to taste
1 1/2 tsp Chinkiang or black Chinese vinegar
1/2-1 tsp ground roasted Sichuan peppercorns (we used a heaping tsp)
For the pork topping:
a little peanut oil
4 oz. ground pork
1 tsp Shaoxing rice wine or medium-dry sherry
2 tsp light soy sauce
salt to taste
Heat 1 tbsp peanut oil in a wok over high flame. Add the ya cai or Tianjin preserved vegetable and stir-fry for about 30 seconds, until it is fragrant. Set aside. Add another tbsp of oil to the wok and reheat, then add the ground pork and stir-fry. As the meat separates, splash in the wine. Add the soy sauce and salt to taste, and continue to stir-fry until the meat is well cooked, but not too dry. Remove from he wok and set aside. Finely slice the scallions.
Put the fried vegetable and all the other sauce ingredients into a serving bowl and mix together.
Cook the noodles according to the instructions on the package. Then drain them and add them to the sauce in the serving bowl. Sprinkle with the meat mixture and serve immediately.
When the bowl is on the table, give the noodles a good stir until the sauce and meat are evenly distributed.
Flowering Chives with Smoky Bacon
Adapted from Land of Plenty: Authentic Sichuan Recipes Personally Gathered in the Chinese Province of Sichuan
By Fuchsia Dunlop
INGREDIENTS:
8 oz. flowering chives or garlic chives, chopped into 1 1/2 to 2-inch sections (flowering bulbs discarded)
3 1/2 oz. bacon, cut into 1-inch thick slices (you want thinly sliced bacon, not thick meaty slices)
2 tbsp peanut oil
salt to taste
1 tsp sesame oil
Heat the oil in a wok over medium-high heat. Add bacon and stir fry until cooked, about 1-2 minutes. Add chives and stir-fry until they are tender (flowering chives take a little longer to cook), about 2 minutes. Season with a pinch of salt to taste. Remove from heat and stir in sesame oil.
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