Dan Dan Noodles

Like any red blooded Jewish American, I love Chinese food.  I would definitely have my last meal at Kirin, I would just have the ever present problem of figuring out what to order.  Tonight I made Dan Dan Noodles, they're no Combination Chow Fun, but they were tasty on not too hard to make.  I found the recipe on SeriousEats.com, if you're not reading it, you should be.

I have always been nervous about making any type of Asian food at home.  The dishes often call for special ingredients that I never have on hand, and the dishes just seem a bit intimidating.  I have made a few Asian dishes now though, and the nice thing about the ingredients is you generally just have to buy them every once in a while.  I bought fish sauce, peanut oil, and hot sauce a few months back and now have the ingredients on hand whenever I want to satisfy my Chinese food cravings.  The nice thing about the Dan Dan Noodles is that I already had almost everything required (expect the Sichuan peppers which I never found).

12 ounces Shanghai-style noodles or udon

3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3/4 pound ground pork
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped peeled ginger
3/4 cup chicken stock
2 tablespoons chili oil, or to taste
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
4 teaspoons tahini (sesame seed paste)
1 teaspoons Sichuan peppercorns, ground in a mortar and pestle
Pinch of sugar
4 tablespoons chopped roasted peanuts
1 bunch scallions, thinly sliced

Heat a pot of water to a boil for the noodles.  As the water comes to a boil, heat the oil in a wok or a large skillet over medium-high heat.  You want the pan really hot, so the oil just starts to smoke.  Add the pork with salt and pepper and cook for a few minutes breaking up the meat.  While the pork is still pink, add the ginger and finish cooking the pork the rest of the way through until browned.  

After about 8 minutes, or until the meat is cooked, add the rest of the ingredients for the sauce: hot sauce, red wine vinegar, tahini, stock, and soy sauce.  This is also the point where you stir in the Sichuan peppercorns if you can find them.  I'm not sure what flavor they add, but I did not feel like the dish was missing anything. Reduce the sauce which takes about 7 minutes, the noodles take about 4 minutes to cook so add the noodles to the boiling water about halfway through.  Once noodles are cooked add them to the sauce and stir.  Mix in the peanuts and scallions and you're all set.

The whole dish comes together in 20-30 minutes.  The only thing that took long was getting the water to boil on a weak electric stove.  This recipe is enough for 4 people, since the wife is still out of town I had a great dinner and lunch for a few days as well.  

Hey, I love Chinese delivery as much as the next guy, probably more than the next guy.  But, next time you're craving Chinese, take a stab at making it at home, it's not as hard as it seems.