I would say the noodle to Chinese is like the oatmeal to westerners. Noodle is a must have food in the pantry of most Chinese families. And the ways Chinese people cook noodle varies. I would say there are thousands of noodle recipes in China, vary from complicated restaurant standards to what we called “soy sauce noodles” which the simplest noodle recipe only have one seasoning – soy sauce. Noodle in China mainly have 2 versions, the dry version and the wet version. And mostly it requires to use the chicken stock instead of plain water in order to make the dish fresh and healthy. I’ve introduced one noodle recipe from my hometown – http://ariels-love-kitchen.com/?p=224 Chongqing Noodle. And today I will introduce the other noodle recipe which is also from Sichuan cuisine.

The mushroom needs to be dried mushroom, and you can get it from most of the Asian grocery shops. Put few mushrooms (5-6 mushrooms) into the luck warm water overnight if you wanna to make it as a breakfast, or 2 hours before cooking.

For the noodle, I suggest to use the yellow alkaline noodle, but if you can’t get one, try to buy the traditional Chinese dry noodle from the Asian grocery shops. And also the round noodle tastes better for this recipe. For cooking noodles, put the noodle into boiled water (following the instruction on the bag), and then take it out and put into a bowl of cold water. By following this step, the noodle will be tender and more fresh.

Also I cut all ingredients into small chunks in order to make a better presentation. You can adjust the ingredient based on your personal preferences. This time I add carrots, potatoes and dry mushrooms.

Mushroom spicy noodle

Serving for 2

Ingredients:

• 2 spoon of Sichuan soy bean paste
• Chicken stock (as needed)
• 2 spoon of Soy sauce
• 1 spoon of black vinegar
• 1 spoon of sugar
• 1 spoon of pepper oil
• 2 garlic (cut in mince)
• 2 spring onions (cut in small chunks and separate the white part and the green part)
• 100g beef mince
• 1 carrot (cut in small chunks)
• 2 potatoes (cut in small chunks)
• 5-6 dry mushrooms (moisturized at least 2 hours before cooking, and cut in small chunks)
• 200g Sichuan style round dry noodle – 100g for 1 person

Instructions:

1. Preparing the noodle, boil and cool down, set aside
2. Heating some oil in a pan, fry the beef mince until the blood is steamed out
3. Add garlic mince and spring onion white, mixing well
4. Add the Sichuan soy bean paste, mixing together, continue frying for around 2 minutes
5. Add the carrots, potatoes and dry mushrooms, mixing well
6. Add the chicken stock (I prefer to have a lot of chicken stock). Cook until carrots and potatoes get fully cooked
7. In the mean time, adjust the flavor of the stock, add soy sauce, black vinegar, sugar and pepper oil  (I even added the Japanese Mirin because I love sweeter flavors)
8. Add noodles, cooking until the stock gets boiled again
9. Quickly add the spring onion green, mix well, and turn off the fire
10. Serve in a big bowl, and scatter some spring onion green chunks on the top