← Nouns Cooking · Chinese

Ingredients

• 300 g fresh wide wheat noodles (or 150 g dried knife-cut noodles)
• 4 baby bok choy, quartered
• 3 cloves Garlic, finely grated
• 2 Spring onion, whites minced, greens sliced
• 1 tbsp Chinese chilli flakes
• 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
• ¼ tsp ground cumin
• ¼ tsp ground Sichuan pepper
• ¼ tsp Salt
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1½ tbsp Chinese black vinegar
• 1 tsp Sugar
• 4 tbsp neutral oil
• 1 handful Coriander (cilantro), chopped (optional)

Method

1. Stir the soy sauce, vinegar and sugar together and divide between two wide bowls.
2. Cook the noodles in a big pot of boiling water until chewy-tender, adding the bok choy for the last 1 minute. Drain and divide between the bowls.
3. Pile the garlic, spring-onion whites, chilli flakes, sesame seeds, cumin, Sichuan pepper and salt in a neat mound on top of each portion.
4. Heat the oil in a small pan until it is shimmering and just starting to smoke. Carefully ladle it over the spice mounds: it will hiss and sizzle and the garlic will turn fragrant.
5. Scatter with the spring-onion greens and coriander, then toss everything together well and eat straight away.

Tips

• The oil must be really hot to toast the spices, so use a dry ladle and keep children well back.
• Add a spoonful of stir-fried tomato and egg on the side for the classic Xi’an three-in-one bowl.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Omnivore's Cookbook What To Cook Today