I made a variant on a recent Dan Dan Noodles recipe from the NYT and the result was delicious– so I’m jotting down some notes to remember.
I generally followed the recipe, with substitutions based on what I had in the pantry.
For the main sauce, I combined:
- 3 T tahini as stand-in for chinese toasted sesame paste
- 1 T toasted sesame oil (to add a little of the flavor I’m missing from not having the right sesame paste)
- 2 T of soy sauce (the excellent Amber River– it’s sold as finishing soy sauce but hey, the sauce is a major part of the flavor of this dish)
- 2 T of mala chili crisp, bringing all the chili crisp flavors plus the tingling heat of sichuan peppercorn
- 2 tsp brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp Chinkiang black vinegar
I then adjusted to taste– I think I added a bit more sesame oil and chili crisp.
I sauteed 1/2 cup of chopped pickled mustard greens from Cultured Pickle Shop (in lieu of the sichuan fermented mustard greens) in neutral oil– this added some great flavor. I tossed half of these into the sauce, above.
I sauteed 2-3 cloves of minced garlic with the remaining mustard greens, then fried a block of crumbled tofu (since I didn’t have ground pork). A lot of moisture came out of the tofu which took a while to cook off– next time I should press the tofu under weight first (and perhaps use an extra firm tofu). I added some of the flavors from the recipe (Shaoxing rice wine, soy sauce) but didn’t have tian mian jiang or hoisin so I left those out.
I set this aside and broke down some large bok choy (I used 2 but would use 4-6 next time to make more of a side dish, as they really cooked down). I sauteed the white stems with garlic for a few minutes to soften, then added the greens.
I boiled fresh noodles and splashed a little (maybe 2T) of the boiling water into the sauce to thin it out, mixed drained and rinsed noodles with the sauce, and topped it with the tofu, bok choy, and some crushed peanuts.