Easy weeknight ”Dan dan Mian” (Dan dan noodles)

Ready in 20 minutes, no joke.

This Sichuan dish is one of my favorite quick noodle dishes to make. It’s packed with savory flavors and a nice spicy punch! For this recipe, I use ground pork, but you can easily replace it with ground beef, veal, or even chicken. If you’re vegetarian, I think a firm tofu could be used as well instead. Just make sure you cut it in small pieces.

This recipe doesn’t pretend to be authentic, but it’s the way I’ve come to do it at home when I have a craving for these noodles!

Ingredients :

1. 1lb ground pork
2. 1 tbs high-heat resistant oil, like canola oil.
3. 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
4. ½ inch ginger cube, finely minced
5. 3 or 4 green onions, finely chopped
6. Optional : sichuan pepercorn (half a teaspoon).
7. 1 paquet of wheat noodles, of your desired thickness (I use something close to the thickness of a ramen noodle).
8. 2 cups of chicken broth (can also use veggie broth or water if none is available).
9. 1.5 tbs of ”doubanjiang”, also known as ”hot pepper and bean paste”, commonly sold in asian stores.
10. 2 tsp of soy sauce (low sodium is good for this one).
11. Hot oil, to taste (chinese hot oil is best here).
12. Extra topping of your choice (i.e. veggies, like Chinese preserved mustard greens or bok choy).
13. **Optional edit: Sesame paste (aka Tahini), about a tsp per bowl.

Directions :

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil (that will be for the noodles).
2. In a pan with high sides, heat up the oil on high heat. Add the garlic, ginger and sichuan peppercorns and sauté them until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
3. Add the meat of your choice to the pan, and break it up to cook evenly. Reduce the heat to medium-high.
4. Once the meat is thoroughly cooked and broken up into small pieces, add the doubanjiang and the soy sauce. Mix to coat evenly.
5. Add the chicken broth and bring to a simmer. Let the sauce simmer with the meat until the noodles and the rest of the toppings are ready.
6. Add your noodles to the pot of boiling water and cook according to package instructions.
7. Since I’m eating this with sautéed bok choy, I used another pan to cook my bok choi with a little oil and garlic while the noodles were cooking.
8. To plate up, use a bowl in which you will first place the noodles, then the meat with some broth, and top it with the green onion and the additional topping of your choice. Then, if you want a little extra kick, feel free to drizzle on some hot oil.
9. ** I have heard that the traditional way of plating this dish is to first place the toppings in the bowl, then top it with the noodle. The person eating the dish then needs to mix it up himself or herself 🙂 For the optional tahini teaspoon, place it with the toppings at first in the bowl. It will dissolve easily with the broth.
10. Enjoy!