Biangbiang Noodles

Dough ripped by hand into wide belts and finished by pouring smoking oil over dry chilli and garlic in the bowl.

Vegan.

Ingredients

For the noodles

• 500 g strong white flour
• 260 ml water
• 6 g salt
• oil, for coating

For the bowls

• 4 tablespoons coarse chilli flakes
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 spring onions, sliced
• 2 teaspoons ground roasted Sichuan peppercorns
• 6 tablespoons flavourless oil
• 3 tablespoons black vinegar
• 3 tablespoons light soy sauce
• a handful of blanched greens

Method

1. THE OIL IS POURED OVER SMOKING AND IT IS THE LAST THING THAT HAPPENS. Chilli flakes, raw garlic and spring onion sit DRY on top of the noodles, and oil heated until it just begins to smoke is poured straight onto them. It fries them in the bowl in about two seconds. Oil that is merely hot leaves the chilli raw and the garlic sharp; oil taken too far burns both, and the difference between the two is a few seconds of watching the pan.
2. THE DOUGH IS RIPPED, NOT ROLLED OR CUT. Each piece is stretched by hand until it tears down the middle of its own accord, and the belts come out uneven -- thick at the edges and thin in the middle. That unevenness is the texture of the dish and a machine-cut noodle of even thickness is a different thing entirely.
3. Flour, water and salt brought together and kneaded 5 minutes to a stiff dough. Rested 30 minutes covered.
4. Kneaded again 3 minutes -- it comes smooth easily now -- then divided into 8, each rolled into a fat finger, coated in oil and laid in a dish touching. Rested at least 2 hours under the oil, and 4 is better.
5. Take one piece and press it flat with the heel of the hand into a rectangle about 15 cm long.
6. Press a chopstick lengthways down the middle to leave a groove -- not through, just a deep line.
7. Hold both ends and SLAP the middle of the strip down onto the worktop while pulling your hands apart. It lengthens. Slap and pull, slap and pull, until it is about an arm's length.
8. Now tear it down the groove from the middle outwards, leaving the two ends joined, and you have a loop of two belts. Drop it into boiling water.
9. Boiled 2 minutes, until they float and look glassy at the edges. Lifted straight into bowls with a little of the water clinging.
10. Onto each bowl: chilli flakes, garlic, spring onion and peppercorn, piled in the centre and left DRY.
11. The oil heated in a small pan until the surface shimmers hard and the first wisp of smoke lifts off it. Poured over the heap in each bowl -- it will hiss and foam.
12. Vinegar and soy round the edge, greens on the side, and turned over before eating.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under China · All recipes