Dan Dan Noodle Soup
Hong Kong version of the famous Sichuan dan dan noodles. Less spicy and, above all, served with a broth based on sesame and peanuts. A recipe that takes some effort, but it's a pure delight.
Ingredients
- 250 g ground pork (50% fat / 50% lean)
- 400 g fresh Shanghai noodles
- 2 tbsp ginger
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp rice wine (Shaoxing)
- vegetable oil
- pepper
- 0,3 cucumber (garnish)
- 1 spring onion (garnish)
Seasoning
- 4 tbsp pickled mustard greens
- 10 tbsp peanuts
- 10 tbsp sesame paste
- 4 tsp chili oil
- 4 tbsp black rice vinegar
- 1 spring onion
Pork and chicken stock
- 1 kg pork bones (trotters + leg with skin)
- 1 chicken carcass
- 3 spring onions
- 5 cloves garlic
- 5 slices ginger
- 3 tbsp rice wine (Shaoxing)
- 1 carrot
- 1 celery stalk
- 1 red onion
- 10 Sichuan peppercorns
- 2 star anise
- 2 bay leaves
Method
Creamy pork/chicken broth
- 1The evening before, place the bones in water and refrigerate.
- 2The next day, discard the water, which will have soaked up the residual blood from the bones. Rinse, refill with fresh water, and boil for 10 minutes. Drain, rinse, and clean the bones thoroughly with a chopstick to remove any dark bits and keep our stock a nice clear color.
- 3In a pot, add the bones, spring onions, garlic, ginger, rice wine, and cover with water (5:1 ratio).
- 4Cut the carrot, celery, and onion and add them in. Also add the Sichuan peppercorns, star anise, and bay leaves.
- 5Cook over medium heat, covered, at a rolling boil for 8 hours. Skim during the first 20 minutes, and add boiling water as it evaporates. Strain. Set aside.
Preparation
- 6Chop the pickled mustard greens. Set aside.
- 7Toast the peanuts. Chop them. Set aside.
- 8Finely slice the spring onions. Set aside.
- 9Cut the cucumber into julienne for garnishing the bowls.
- 10Chop the equivalent of 2 tbsp of ginger and 2 cloves of garlic. Set aside.
- 11Finish chopping the meat by hand with a knife.
Meat
- 12In a pan over high heat, add oil and wait until it starts to smoke. Lower to medium heat, add the chopped garlic and ginger. Stir. Add the meat and cook.
- 13If you have meat with 50% fat, cook until it turns brown and crispy. If you have leaner meat, it's better to stop cooking once there is no more pink color, to prevent the meat from turning rubbery.
- 14Add the rice wine, soy sauce, and pepper. Stir and cook for 1 minute. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Set the meat aside and discard the fat.
Assembly
- 15In a bowl, add the pickled mustard greens, peanuts, sesame paste, chili oil, black rice vinegar, and spring onion. Mix. Divide this mixture between 4 bowls.
- 16Top up with the pork and chicken stock, previously reheated. Taste. Adjust the seasoning.
- 17Cook the noodles according to the package instructions. Place them in the bowls with the soup.
- 18Add the meat and garnish with chopped peanuts and cucumber sticks. Serve quickly.
Notes
You can use the creamy pork/chicken broth to make xiaolongbao. It's a great replacement for pork jelly once it's been reduced a bit. Pickled mustard greens are a typical Sichuan ingredient that also appears in the original dan dan noodle recipe. They come in plastic packaging or glass jars and can be bought in most Asian grocery stores. If needed, replace the Chinese or Japanese sesame paste with peanut butter rather than tahini. You can also make it at home by toasting white sesame seeds before blending them with black sesame oil. Tahini, being a paste of untoasted sesame, is not suitable. Mix oil and chili powder, let it rest, and recover this red, spicy oil. It keeps very well. Here's the recipe I use personally: Asian chili oil. The easiest is to ask your butcher to cut the pig's trotters lengthwise and the lower part of the pork legs into 2-3 cm slices. The idea is to open up the bones so they can be cleaned more thoroughly. The skin of the trotters, rich in collagen, will turn into gelatin during cooking.
