Dan Dan Mian

Chinese: 担担麵

Dan Dan Mian (noodles) is a popular Chengdu (Szechuan) street food. Legend has it that around 1841 a hawker named Chin Bau Bau walking the streets selling noodles, carrying two big baskets (front and back) on his shoulder using a bamboo pole called dan in Chinese. With these two baskets, one was the cooker the other was the ingredients and bowls for the noodles. His noodles were so famous the name carries on till today.

This is a simple stir-in noodles mix with a sauce made with sesame paste, preserved salted vegetable, a little pork (some recipes do not use pork). You can make everything in advance and mix together. Nice serves cold/warm too.

Recipe:-

Ingredients (per person)

80 g dry Szechuan plain noodles if you can get some, if not any Chinese noodles will do.

Sauce:

2 - 3 tbsp of cooked pork mince, cooked with garlic and some soy. (pork is optional, you don't need pork if you don't want to)

1 tbsp Chinese salted preserved vegetable, chopped. Traditional recipe use a preserved vegetable called ‘chuan dung chai - 川冬菜’ but I don’t think this is available in UK, can substitute with Szechuan Zha Chai - 搾菜 or Tianjin preserved vegetable - 天津冬菜 If you find it too salty, soak in water for a while.

1 – 2 tsp Chilli oil

1 tbsp Soy sauce (qty depends on your taste)

½ tbsp Sesame paste (Chinese or tahini)

1 tsp Sesame oil

½ tsp Chinese black vinegar

2 - 3 tbsp homemade pork/chicken stock (warmed) or hot water

Pinch of Ground Szechuan pepper (roast a few Szechuan peppercorns on a dry pan, then ground)

¼ - 1/2 tsp Garlic, mashed or grated

Garnish:

1 tbsp Chopped spring onion

1 tbsp Roasted peanut ( blitz in food processor or pound with a pestle and mortar)

Pinch of salt

Pinch of five spice

Method:

1. Mix sauce ingredients together.
2. Mix salt and five spice with the ground roasted peanuts.
3. Cook noodles as per instruction.
4. Mix cooked noodles with sauce.
5. Top with some hot stock if you like the noodles to be wet than dry.
   
6. Sprinkle on spring onion and spiced ground peanuts.