Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking (39 page)

SHANGHAI NOODLES WITH DRIED SHRIMP AND SPRING ONION OIL
KAI YANG CONG YOU MIAN 開洋蔥油麵

This deceptively simple dish is packed with flavor and totally irresistible, a southern Chinese equivalent of the Italian
spaghetti all’aglio, olio e peperoncino
, in which a seemingly tiny amount of seasonings makes a whole bowlful of pasta taste delicious. With a simple cucumber salad or some other light and refreshing side dish, it is a perfect lunchtime snack. The origins of this recipe are said to lie near the City God Temple in Shanghai, where it was cooked up by one of the street vendors who gathered there to serve visiting pilgrims. For this dish, you need the more substantial dried shrimp rather than the paper-thin ones (see
Glossary
).

This recipe serves two people.

2 tbsp dried shrimp

2 tsp Shaoxing wine

7 oz (200g) dried noodles of your choice, or 11 oz (300g) fresh noodles

4 spring onions

5 tsp light or tamari soy sauce, to taste

Salt (optional)

6 tbsp cooking oil

Place the dried shrimp in a small bowl with the Shaoxing wine and just enough hot water from the kettle to cover them. Set aside for 30 minutes. Bring a large panful of water to a boil for cooking the noodles. Smack the spring onions lightly with the side of a cleaver to open up the white parts slightly, then cut them evenly into 2½–3 in (6–7cm) sections. Pour the soy sauce into your serving bowl with a little salt, if you like.

Heat the oil in a wok over a high flame. Add the spring onions and stir-fry until they are turning a little golden. Drain the shrimp, add them to the wok and continue to stir-fry until the spring onions are well-browned and wonderfully fragrant, but not burned. Then set aside this fragrant oil, with the spring onions and shrimp.

Boil the noodles to your liking, then drain them well and place them in the serving bowl. Put the spring onions, shrimp and their fragrant oil on top. Mix everything together very well with a pair of chopsticks before eating.

ZHAJIANG NOODLES
ZHA JIANG MIAN
炸醬麵

“Fried sauce noodles,” or
zha jiang mian
, is a Beijing speciality that is now popular all over the country. The classic version uses hand-pulled noodles, a rich sauce of ground pork cooked with sweet fermented wheat paste and a selection of fresh, crisp vegetables, all mixed together at the table. It’s a whole meal in one bowl and absolutely delicious. This version of the recipe was taught to me by Jia Suxiang, in her kitchen in Beijing.

The meat sauce can be made in advance and refrigerated or frozen until you need it.

This recipe serves two people.

2 tbsp cooking oil

1 tsp whole Sichuan pepper

2 star anise

4¼ oz (125g) finely chopped or coarsely ground belly pork

2 tbsp finely chopped ginger

1 tbsp Shaoxing wine

5 tbsp sweet fermented sauce

Salt, to taste

7 oz (200g) dried Chinese wheat flour noodles, or 11 oz (300g) fresh noodles

To serve, any or all of the following

Small section of cucumber

1 celery stick

1 small carrot

Some Chinese cabbage

1 small piece of purple-hearted Chinese radish (
xin li mei
)

Good handful of beansprouts

Handful of cooked green soy beans or peas

A few slices of red chilli (optional)

Add the oil to a seasoned wok over a high flame and swirl it around. Immediately add the Sichuan pepper and star anise and stir-fry for a few moments until they smell delicious. Then remove the spices with a slotted spoon, leaving the fragrant oil in the wok.

Add the pork and stir-fry until it has become pale, pressing the meat with the back of your ladle or wok scoop to help separate it out into little morsels. Then add the ginger and stir-fry until you can smell it. Add the Shaoxing wine, stir once or twice, then add the sweet fermented sauce. Stir-fry for a few moments more until it smells rich and delicious, then cover the pork generously with water. Bring to a boil, then simmer over a low heat for about 15 minutes, until the sauce is dark and luxuriantly thick. Season with a scattering of salt (the sauce should be intensely-flavored and seem on its own a little over-salted, because it will be used to flavor the bland noodles).

When you wish to eat, bring a pan of water to a boil. Cut whichever you are using of the cucumber, celery, carrot, cabbage and radish into fine slivers. Blanch the beansprouts and all the vegetables except for the cucumber in the boiling water; they should remain a bit crisp. (It is best to blanch each vegetable separately, using a slotted spoon to remove them from the water.) Refresh the blanched vegetables immediately under a cold tap and drain well. Reheat the pork sauce.

Cook the noodles, rinse briefly under the tap, shake dry, then divide between two serving bowls.

Add some of each of your vegetables to the bowls. Top with the pork sauce. Stir everything together with chopsticks before eating, scattering with chilli slices, if you like.

HANGZHOU BREAKFAST NOODLES
CONG YOU BAN MIAN
蔥油拌麵

This is an utterly simple noodle dish that I came to adore in Hangzhou, where I ate it for breakfast many times in a travellers’ hostel at Manjuelong, the village on the outskirts of the city that is famous for its osmanthus flowers. Eat it on its own, or with a couple of eggs, fried on both sides and served on a separate dish with a drizzle of soy sauce as seasoning. This recipe serves two people.

4 spring onions, green parts only

7 oz (200g) dried noodles of your choice, or 11 oz (300g) fresh noodles

5–6 tbsp cooking oil, plus more if cooking eggs

1–2 tbsp light or tamari soy sauce, to taste, plus more if cooking eggs

2 eggs (optional)

Bring a panful of water to a boil. Finely slice the spring onion greens.

Boil the noodles to your satisfaction. Drain them and divide between two serving dishes. Scatter over the spring onions.

Heat the oil over a high flame until sizzling hot. (Test it by ladling a few drops on to the spring onions: if it sizzles furiously, the oil is ready. Do not overheat the oil.) Ladle the oil over the spring onions on both piles of noodles. Pour the soy sauce over the noodles and serve.

If using the eggs, fry them on both sides until golden and serve on a separate dish, with a dash of soy sauce as seasoning.

Stir the noodles together with chopsticks before eating.

XIE LAOBAN’S DAN DAN NOODLES
NIU ROU DAN DAN MIAN
牛肉擔擔麵

This legendary recipe comes from a small noodle shop in Chengdu that was erased a few years ago when the whole neighborhood around Sichuan University was redeveloped. It was a tiny place on the ground floor of an old wooden house, tiled in white, with a few tables spilling out into the street, but it sold the best Dan Dan noodles in the city and arguably the world. Before it was demolished, I managed to coax the proprietor, Mr. Xie, into giving me his recipe, and this is it. Somehow, this dish more than any other sums up for me the story of Chengdu street food and the atmosphere of the now-demolished old city. “Dan Dan” refers to the shoulder poles that old-fashioned street vendors once used to transport their stoves, ingredients, bowls and chopsticks around town.

This recipe serves two people. I’ve given instructions for making one big bowlful, but you can assemble it in two separate serving bowls in the traditional manner, if you prefer.

1 tbsp cooking oil

3 Sichuanese dried chillies, snipped in half, seeds discarded

½ tsp whole Sichuan pepper

½ oz (25g) Sichuanese
ya cai
or Tianjin preserved vegetable

4 oz (100g) ground beef

2 tsp light soy sauce

Salt

7 oz (200g) dried Chinese wheat flour noodles, or 11 oz (300g) fresh noodles

For the sauce

¼ tsp ground roasted Sichuan pepper

2 tbsp sesame paste

3 tbsp light soy sauce

2 tsp dark soy sauce

4 tbsp chilli oil with its sediment

Salt, to taste

Add the oil to a seasoned wok over a medium flame and swirl it around. Immediately add the chillies and Sichuan pepper and stir-fry briefly until the oil is spicy and fragrant. Take care not to burn the spices. Add the
ya cai
and continue to stir-fry until hot and fragrant. Add the meat and increase the heat to high, splash in the soy sauce and stir-fry until the beef is brown and a little crisp, but not too dry. Press the beef against the wok with your scoop or ladle as you go, to encourage it to separate into little morsels. Season with salt to taste. When the meat is cooked (it should only take a couple of minutes), remove the mixture from the wok and set aside.

Place the sauce ingredients in a serving bowl and mix well.

Cook the noodles. Turn into a colander, rinse and drain, then place in the serving bowl. Sprinkle with the meat mixture, give the noodles a good stir until the sauce and meat are evenly distributed, and serve.

VARIATION

Vegetarian dan dan noodles
This tastes stupendous. Soak one large dried shiitake mushroom in hot water for 30 minutes. Slice off and discard the stalk and finely chop the cap. Snip 3 dried chillies in half or into sections, discarding the seeds as far as possible. Heat 1 tbsp cooking oil in a seasoned wok over a medium flame. Add the chillies and ½ tsp whole Sichuan pepper and sizzle until fragrant, taking care not to burn them. Add ½ oz (25g) Sichuanese
ya cai
or Tianjin preserved vegetable and the mushroom. Stir-fry until they smell wonderful, seasoning with 2 tsp light soy sauce and 1 tsp dark soy sauce. Remove from the wok. Prepare the bowls with the sauce in the main recipe, add the cooked noodles and then your vegetarian topping. Mix well before eating.

CLASSIC DAN DAN NOODLES
DAN DAN MIAN 擔擔麵

Addicted as I am to Mr. Xie’s Dan Dan noodles (tap
here
), I have to admit that this classic recipe is also glorious. As with the other version, it serves two people, either in one big bowl to share, or in two separate bowls. If you wish, you can blanch a handful of leafy greens in the noodle cooking water and add to the bowl, as shown in the photograph.

3 tbsp cooking oil

4 oz (100g) ground pork

2 tsp Shaoxing wine

1 tsp sweet fermented sauce

1 tsp light soy sauce

Salt

7 oz (200g) dried Chinese wheat flour noodles, or 11 oz (300g) fresh noodles