My Szechuan Noodles

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Table of Contents

My base recipe for Szechuan noodles (noods).

Ingredients

Almost all of these are optional, though the sugar is essential for the “warming” effect.

  • ⅓ teaspoon mushroom or other MSG powder (chicken, etc.)
  • Chili oil
  • Lao Gan Ma Chili in Oil & Chili Crisp (I prefer the Chili in oil, though a little Chili Crisp can be nice)
  • Garlic (not more than 2 cloves, finely minced)
  • Dried Chili (the Chengdu dried are amazing, and totally different than Western)
  • Tahini or deep sesame paste (⅓ teaspoon)
  • Any amount of dried peppers to taste (use less “Danshan” type chili/fennel than usual)
  • Optional: ⅓ teaspoon Chinese vinegar
  • Sugar to taste (not optional)
  • Chinese five spice
  • 1 teaspoon Chinese soy sauce
  • Salt to taste

Process

  1. Prep the bowl: Compose all the ingredients above into a large serving bowl.
  2. Cook: Boil the noods.
  3. Bloom: Ladle about ⅓ or ½ of a cup of the boiling noodle water over the mix in the bowl. This is the key step—it “blooms” the spices and takes the raw edge off the garlic.
  4. Finish: Add the noodles to the bowl and mix thoroughly.