Name: Dan Dan Mian
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon light soy sauce; 250 g (9 oz) pork mince (ground pork); ½ teaspoon light soy sauce; ½ teaspoon ground white pepper; 1 teaspoon Chinkiang black vinegar; ½ teaspoon salt; 1 tablespoon grated garlic; ¼ cup ya cai (see Notes); 1 teaspoon sesame oil; 1 teaspoon Sichuan or regular chilli powder (see Notes); ½ teaspoon grated ginger; 2 tablespoons vegetable oil; ½ teaspoon grated garlic; 1 tablespoon chilli oil ( use Lao Gan Ma chilli oil); 1 teaspoon caster (superfine) sugar; 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce; 2 cups (500 ml) hot stock, or use a good-quality store-bought stock, plus extra to serve; 250 g (9 oz) dried thin wheat noodles; 1 tablespoon white tahini; 1 teaspoon ground Sichuan peppercorns, to serve

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Chinese-ish

By Joanna Hu and Rosheen Kaul

Published 2022

About

This is one of the recipes I’m proudest of. My sister and I spent years trying to find a version of dan dan mian (担担面) that resembled the one from our childhood. It was always too saucy and meaty, and too similar to another Chinese noodle dish called zhajiangmian. For me, the perfect dan dan mian is a small bowl of sesame paste-slicked noodles with a sprinkling of crispy pork. Fragrant with Sichuan pepper, dried chillies and ya cai (Sichuan pickled vegetable), th