Chongqing Noodles

Thin noodles under a bowl sauce where the spooned sediment from the bottom of the chilli oil matters more than the oil itself.

Not vegetarian — contains lard.

Ingredients

For each bowl

• 2 tablespoons chilli oil sediment, from the bottom of the jar
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon black vinegar
• 1 teaspoon ground roasted Sichuan peppercorns
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed to a paste
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons hot stock
• 1 tablespoon lard, melted

On top

• 500 g thin fresh wheat noodles
• 80 g preserved mustard stem, finely diced
• 60 g roasted peanuts, crushed
• 200 g pea shoots or small leafy greens
• 4 spring onions, sliced

Method

1. THE SEDIMENT IS THE POINT, NOT THE OIL. Chilli oil separates in the jar into clear red oil on top and a thick layer of fried chilli and seed at the bottom, and almost everyone spoons from the top. Here you push the spoon down and bring up the sediment. The oil carries colour and heat; the sediment carries everything the chilli actually tastes of, and a bowl made with the clear oil alone is bright red and nearly flavourless.
2. AND THERE IS A SPOON OF LARD IN EACH BOWL. It is not optional and nothing vegetable replaces it: it melts into the sauce and gives it the weight that holds the chilli on a thin noodle. Without it the sauce slides off and sits in the bottom of the bowl.
3. Stock heated and kept hot. Lard melted.
4. Into each bowl, in this order: garlic paste, peppercorn, sugar, both soys, vinegar, then the chilli sediment on top of them.
5. The hot stock and the melted lard poured in and stirred once to bring it together. It should be loose and dark red.
6. A large pan of water at a rolling boil. The greens blanched 30 seconds, lifted out with a spider, and divided between the bowls.
7. Noodles into the same water, loosened at once, boiled 60 to 90 seconds. These are thin and go from firm to soft very quickly, so start tasting early.
8. Lifted straight from the water into the bowls with the water still clinging. NOT DRAINED IN A COLANDER -- what clings is half the liquid the sauce needs.
9. Preserved mustard stem, peanuts and spring onion over the top.
10. Turned over from the bottom before eating, so the sediment comes up through the noodles rather than staying under them.

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