Dan dan noodles

Noodles

Did I tell you that I love Jamie? I did, didn’t I? O no… I can almost hear you thinking; not another rant about Jamie Oliver and how wonderful he is… lol… Well, I will not be doing that, but I will tell you that I think his Iphone app is just fabulous. I got the 20 minute meals for my Iphone and it is incredibly handy! And – most importantly – the recipes that are there to be found are great too. Or at least the ones I have tried so far (four down, many more to go) were incredibly tasty in that good old fashioned Jamie way..

Ok, I will stop now to not piss of any Jamie-hater out there. (and yes, I know you are there!) But you cannot deny the fact that the guy can cook. And I mean seriously cook. Good old fashioned home cooking! And this wonderful recipe is another great example of his art.

Dan Dan Noodles

It might not be the most photogenic dish out there, but it sure was tasty.

You see one of the downsides of owning your own business is that time tends to get away from you real fast (which I am sure everyone has actually) and before you know it you spend more and more time behind the computer and less time cooking lovely dinners. In order to still keep us reasonably well fed and to prevent us from running to the snackbar, macdonalds or local pizzeria all the time I try out really quick recipes and with really quick I mean anything below 30 minutes (not counting the shopping ofcourse) and I won’t complain if it takes – o, let’s say 15 minutes. Quick and tasty are the keywords here and bonus points if it is healthy too.

So this noodle recipe (and don’t ask me why it is called dan-dan noodles; I am just stating the name as given by Jamie… But I will share the recipe with you

Dan Dan Noodles (serves 2)

200 gr beef mince

2 tsp szechuan peppercorns

1 cube chicken stock

3 medium dried red chilies

2 garlic cloves

1 small bunch spring onions

1 lime

150 gr dried egg noodles (I used Udon noodles, as I love Udon noodles)

2 tsp runny honey

2 medium bok choi (couldn’t find bok choi, so I used paksoi…)

2 tbsp dark soy sauce

75 ml vegetable oil

Fill your saucepan with water and bring it to a boil, crumble in the stock cube and once boiling turn the heat down slightly and keep at a simmer.

Place a wok on a medium heat and crumble in the dried chilies. Toast for a minute or so. Add the vegetable oil, then pour all of the chillies an most of the oil into a bowl and put to one side.

Turn the heat up to high and add the beef. Stir-fry for 10 minutes or until crispy. Meanwhile peel and slice the garlic, Trim and chop the spring onion and grind the Szechuan peppercorns in a pestle and mortar. Cut the lime into wedges for later.

Tip the noodles into the boiling stock and separate them with tongs to ensure they don’t stick together. Cook according to packet instructions.

When the beef is done, spoon any fat out of the pan. Add the honey and stirfry for another minute until all the mince is coated and sticky. Pop the wok in the oven to keep warm.

Cut your bokchoi into quarters lenghtways and drop them in with the noodles for the last minute of cooking.

When your noodles and bokchoi are cooked, scoop out a cupful of the water to keep, then drain in the colander. Tip your noodles, bok choi and the cup of water back into the hot pan. Add your raw garlic, soy sauce, ground szechuan peppercorns and as much chili oil as you dare and give everything a good mix together. Cover with a lid.

Get your warmed bowls out of the oven and divide the noodles between them. Get your wok of crispy beef out of the oven and spoon the beef over the top of your noodles. Drizzle with a little extra chili oil then scatter each portion with chopped spring onions. Serve with lime wedges for squeezing over…. Mmmmmm…

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Tagged as: Asian, jamie oliver, noodles