陕西臊子面 (Shaanxi Saozi Mian)

The name of this dish literally translates as "Shaanxi sauce noodles". The final product is a delicious lightly spicy, savoury, and sour noodle soup. Full of pork belly, fried tofu puffs, carrots, potatoes, wood ear fungus, and lily blossoms. But the first step is making the intensely flavourful meat sauce. Once the concoction is complete, you make the rest of the soup and then add the sauce, which then gets ladelled over freshly cooked noodles and topped with thin ribbons of omelette and a mix of garlic chives and green onions. The finished product is incredibly delicious and satisfying. This one is definitely a keeper!

Hanzi: 陕西臊子面
Pinyin: Shǎnxī sàozǐ miàn
English: Shaanxi sauce noodles

陕西臊子面

Slightly adapted from The Woks of Life

Ingredients

Meat Sauce

• 2 Tbsp. oil
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 3 star anise
• 3 bay leaves
• 2 Tbsp. minced ginger or ginger paste
• 450g pork belly, cut into 5mm dice
• 2 Tbsp. 老干妈 (Laoganma)¹
• 1/4 c. 绍兴酒 (Shaoxing wine)
• 1/2 c. black vinegar
• 1/2 Tbsp. five-spice powder
• 2 Tbsp. light soy sauce
• 2 tsp. sugar

Soup

• 1-2 Tbsp. oil
• 1 Tbsp. minced ginger or ginger paste
• 1/2-3/4 c. diced carrots
• ~1 c. diced potatoes
• 20g dried wood ear fungus, rehydrated
• 5-6g dried lily blossoms, rehydrated
• 1 Tbsp. oyster sauce
• 6-8 c. chicken or vegetable stock
• 8 fried soy puffs, quartered

Toppings

• 1 tsp. cornstarch (cornflour)
• 4 tsp. water
• 2 large eggs
• 1-2 tsp. oil
• 450g dried spaghettini or other thin wheat noodles
• 1/3-1/2 c. chopped garlic chives
• 1-2 green onions, chopped

Directions

1. Heat the oil over medium-low heat.
2. Add the cinnamon stick, star anise, and bay leaves and cook, stirring occasionally, until oil is infused (2-3 minutes).
3. Add the ginger and pork belly, increase heat to medium, and cook until meat is opaque.
4. Add the Laoganma (or chiles and salt, if using) and cook for another 5 minutes.
5. Add the Shaoxing wine, vinegar, five-spice powder, soy sauce, and sugar and bring to a boil.
6. Lower heat slightly and cook until sauce is slightly reduced (6-8 minutes). Remove from heat and set aside.
7. Heat the oil for the soup over medium heat.
8. Add the ginger and stir-fry for 30-60 seconds.
9. Add the carrots and potatoes and cook for 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally.
10. Drain and chop the wood ear fungus and the lily blossoms and add them to the pot with the vegetables.
11. Add the oyster sauce and cook for 2-3 minutes.
12. Add the stock, soy puffs, and the meat sauce prepared earlier and bring to a boil.
13. Simmer for 10 minutes.
14. Meanwhile, mix the cornstarch with the water and then beat in the eggs.
15. Heat the remaining oil over medium heat.
16. Pour in the egg mixture and cook until eggs have set.
17. Carefully flip and cook for ~30 seconds on the other side.
18. Remove omelette from pan and cut into ribbons. Set aside.
19. Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil and cook the noodles according to package directions. Pasta should be fairly al dente and not too soft.
20. Drain noodles and portion out into bowls.
21. Ladel a generous quantity of the soup over the noodles.
22. Top soup with some omelette ribbons, garlic chives, and green onions and serve immediately.

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¹ The original recipe called for 1/4 c. of oil (rather than just 2 Tbsp.) here + 2 Tbsp. Sichuan chile flakes and 1 tsp. of salt. I didn't have any Sichuan chile flakes and didn't want to try to go out and get yet another variety of chiles, so I reduced the oil, omitted the salt, and swapped out the chile flakes for the same amount of 老干妈. This gave me the heat, salt, and extra oil all in one. And, I must say, I'm quite happy with the results. Would definitely be happy to go that route again! ^Back

I had originally been hoping to do a nian gao stir-fry for dinner tonight, but the Kidlet got sick last Wednesday, so we've all been trying to isolate just in case it's the COVIDs. (Her RAT came up negative but... given everything we know about Omicron, I figure there's still a good chance that's what she has.) She's double vaxxed and TF and I are triple vaxxed and she's bounced back really fast, so I figure we should probably be alright to start going out again by tomorrow. But that left me with nothing for dinner for tonight. So it was off to the Woks of Life blog with me to search for more dinner inspiration.

This clay pot rice dish sounded tasty and easy. We don't have a clay pot to cook it in, but I reasoned that the tagine would work well as a stand-in for a Chinese-style clay pot (it did). And it would allow me to use up the rest of the chicken thighs that I got in the last grocery order. Plus it would be an opportunity to try cooking with dried lily buds. (Which I have in the pantry, but hadn't gotten around to using yet.)

This recipe needs a little bit of advanced planning due to the soaking involved. But other than that, it's very easy and simple to put together. I like the one-pot nature of the dish, but I'd be curious to try the rice-less steamed version sometime too. I also realized (only after I actually began cooking everything -- that it's basically devoid of vegetables. So I would recommend having some vegetable sides on hand to serve with it. (In my case, I went for a quick cabbage stir-fry.)

Chicken and Mushroom Clay Pot Rice

Slightly adapted from Woks of Life

Ingredients

• 6 dried shiitake (black) mushrooms
• 10g dried lily buds
• 5g dried wood ear mushrooms¹
• 200g skinless boneless chicken thighs, sliced
• 1 Tbsp. cornstarch (cornflour)
• 1 Tbsp. light (regular) soy sauce
• 2 tsp. oyster sauce
• 1 tsp. 绍兴酒 (Shaoxing wine)
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. sesame oil
• 1/8 tsp. white peppercorns, ground
• 1 c. uncooked rice²
• 1 c. chicken stock
• 1 Tbsp. oil
• 1/4 tsp. salt³
• 1 slice fresh ginger, julienned
• 1 scallion, chopped, greens and whites separated

Directions

1. Place the shiitake, wood ears, and lily buds each in a separate bowl and enough boiling water into each to cover them. Set aside to soak for 2 hours.
2. Drain the shiitake, trim the stems off, and slice them.
3. Drain the lilies, trim the bottom 5mm of the stems, and place them in a bowl with the sliced shiitake.
4. Drain the wood ears, rinse them off, roughly chop them, and place them in the bowl with the shiitake and lilies.
5. Add the chicken to the bowl.
6. Add the cornstarch, soy sauce, oyster sauce, wine, sugar, sesame oil, and white pepper and mix to combine.
7. Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes.
8. Add the rice to the clay pot along with enough water to cover it by a few cm. Set aside to soak for ~30 minutes.
9. Drain the rice and add the stock, oil, and salt (if using).
10. Get out the chicken mixture and stir it up.
11. Layer the chicken mixture over the rice.
12. Sprinkle the ginger and the green parts of the scallions over the chicken mixture.
13. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat⁴ and cook for 2-3 minutes.
14. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook for 25 minutes.
15. Remove from heat, sprinkle with scallion greens, and serve.

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¹ I didn't have any wood ear mushrooms on hand, so I substituted an equal amount of Chinese black fungus. My understanding is that they're a bit smaller and taste a bit different than wood ear mushrooms, but I had to roll with what I had available. ^Back
2 The original recipe calls for jasmine rice. I opted to use long-grain brown rice. I have given the instructions for (white) jasmine rice here. You will need to increase both the liquid and the cooking time for brown rice. ^Back
3 If you're using commercial chicken stock, omit the salt. If you're using a homemade stock without too much salt, you will probably want to add the salt. ^Back
4 I'm always nervous about putting clay cookware directly on the cooking elements, so I use a flame tamer (or in this case a cast iron pan) under it to avoid hot spots. This however, did cause my tagine to take a little longer to heat up. Possibly this is why I found I didn't really need to extend the cooking time for my rice today. (Although I did use ~1/2 c. extra liquid.) ^Back