Published in 2014, MiMi Aye’s Noodle! was a huge success, and introduced many cooks to the delights of South East Asian noodle recipes. Read my review here and then head out to buy the ingredients for this delicious recipe.
MiMi Aye’s Spicy Sichuan Noodles (Dan Dan Mian)
Published with permissionAlso known as ‘dandan noodles’ abroad, this dish was traditionally sold by vendors walking the streets of the Sichuan province in China – it is named for the pole (dandan) that went over their shoulders. Baskets carrying the noodles and the meat sauce were attached at either end of the pole. In Taiwan and the US, sesame paste and/or peanut butter is added to the dish, but this is the classic version.
Servings 2 people
Ingredients
- 200 g fresh Shanghai noodles (cui main) or you can substitute 125g dried standard wheat noodles (lo mein) or medium egg noodles
- 1 tsp groundnut oil
For the stir-fry:
- 4 tbsp groundnut oil
- 1 tbsp Sichuan peppercorns
- 200 g minced pork
- 1 cm fresh root ginger , peeled and finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic , finely chopped
- 4 tbsp Sichuan preserved vegetables (zha cai) or Tianjin preserved vegetables (dong cai) , chopped
For the sauce:
- 1 tbsp Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
- 1 tbsp Chinese black vinegar
- 1 tsp chilli bean sauce
- 1 tsp caster sugar
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tsp dark soy sauce
For the garnish:
- chilli oil
- 2 spring onions (green and white parts), shredded
Notes
MiMi’s book includes a recipe for homemade chilli oil, but you can also use a shop-bought one – her preferred brand is Laoganma.
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a wok or large frying pan on a high heat. Add the Sichuan peppercorns and fry for 1–2 minutes until fragrant. Scoop out the peppercorns with a slotted spoon and discard.
- With the heat still on high, add the minced pork, ginger, garlic and preserved vegetables and stir-fry for 3–4 minutes until the meat is no longer pink. Add the wine, vinegar, chilli bean sauce, sugar and soy sauces and mix thoroughly, then stir-fry for 2–3 minutes, breaking up the meat into small pieces. Add 50ml water and bring the sauce to the boil. Turn the heat down to medium-low and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, if using Shanghai noodles, blanch them by pouring just-boiled water over them in a bowl and leaving them for 5 minutes. If using dried noodles, cook according to the packet instructions. Drain, then toss the noodles with the oil to prevent them from sticking together.
- Divide the noodles between 2 noodle bowls and top with the pork sauce, chilli oil and spring onions. Serve with chopsticks and Chinese spoons, telling the diners to stir the noodles before eating to make sure the sauce is evenly distributed.
If you decide to buy this book after reading our content, please consider clicking through our affiliate link, located within the post and in the footnote at the end.
Noodle! by MiMi Aye, published by Absolute Press, is available via Amazon UK for £12.99.
Please leave a comment - I love hearing from you!26 Comments to "MiMi Aye’s Spicy Sichuan Noodles"
I would definitely like this noodles! I am glad you included a bit of a history of this dish. It’s always nice to know something more about foreign dishes not only their names!
The history is part of the extract, it’s how MiMi introduced the recipe in the book.
The flavors in this dish look amazing. This is something my whole family would love.
I bet they would love it.
This looks so good! A little spicy, lots of flavor, yum. And, noodle dishes like this always appeal to me. I need to go over to the Asian market to get a few things on my list, I’ll make sure I have everything I need to make this one too!
Hope you love it!
I love noodle dishes like this! These flavors are so appealing!
Me too!
I love noodle dishes, too! This recipe looks amazing and sounds so perfect for noodle jones!
Noodle jones?
How I adore dan dan noodles but haven’t made them in ages. This version is now next up for me to try, sounds just prefect and I love the numbing heat of Szechuan chilli!
I like szechuan, as long as not too heavy handed!
I am really keen to make a vegan version of this. The flavouring is fabulous!
I think it would work very well for this dish.
This looks fab Kavey. I can’t get enough of authentic Chinese food since coming back from holiday. Will definitely give this a go 😀
Let us know what you think?
I love making my own sauces for stir fries and noodle dishes. This sauce sounds gorgeous – I’m intrigued by the black vinegar!
Such depth of flavour!
That is one fabulously delicious sounding recipe! There are some new intriguing ingredients in there, to me, I’ll have to look for them in my specialty foods shop and try it out!
Yes it’s much easier to find them these days but if your local places don’t stock, there are some really good online stores for Asian ingredients.
We made this ages ago and it’s great. We didn’t have the right pickled veg at the time so subbed in a bit of kimchi, but that worked fine.
Oooh nice sub, sounds ace!
I’ve not eaten nearly enough noodles or sichuan in my life. *added to to-do list*
Definitely something to eat more often! 😁
Hi Kavey, I’ve actually not tasted Dan Dan Mian before but I tried making it today for dinner. My hubby likes it a lot! I didn’t have Chinese black vinegar so I subbed it with balsamic vinegar 🙂 also didn’t use pork but a version of plant-based meat (Omnipork) which came out great!
Sounds really wonderful, and I know MiMi would love to see that her recipes are being adapted for people’s different diets and available ingredients! 👏