Dan Dan Mien

One of my favourite Chinese dishes is impossible to find this side of the big pond! So I looked up recipes and this is what we had for supper. It may not be to the average American taste, so just look it over before you try it! :)

First, brown and thoroughly cook about a pound of ground pork, and dash a bit of soy sauce on it.

Set the ground pork aside, but keep the pan for the juices and flavour and add the following:

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 T minced ginger
1 chopped onion
optional: about 1/2 cup grated carrot

Saute all that for a few minutes.

Put those cooked ingredients into a bigger pot and add the following:

1/2 c. water - or better yet, a homemade bone broth - chicken or beef (this made a world of difference last time I made it)
freshly ground Sichuan peppercorns (just a little or a lot if you want more spice)

salt (a few sprinkles, more or less to your taste)

Let it sit and begin to simmer.

Then add the following to the pot:

1/4 c. tahini (cheaper at Asian food stores)

1/4 c. peanut butter (I think the natural or non-sweetened kind would work better, but we just had the normal stuff)

1 bullion cube (chicken flavour) - or you can just use more salt or chicken broth

In a separate pot boil up your Chinese egg noodles in some chicken broth, or water. You can half cook them, as they'll continue to cook in the main pot - this is just so they don't absorb all the moisture and you'll have some soup - otherwise it becomes too thick at the end.

Add some chopped up spring onions - as much as you like, and 1-2 T of sesame oil (good flavour).

Traditionally this is a spicy hot dish, and recipes call for chili oil and chili flakes. Some might want to skip it, but it does give it a great kick.

Mix the peanut flavour broth with the noodles and serve with soy sauce and Chinese Black Vinegar (Chinkiang brand is best I think! :) )

All but Caleb liked it. And he's a bit picky sometimes. He asked, 'Are there mushrooms in here?' Of course there weren't! But he was suspicious.