Chinese Sichuan/hunanese Dan Dan Noodles

[Jingthing]

I want to share a recipe I developed which I feel is really special. It is a fusion of Sichuan and Hunan recipes for spicy chili garlic peanut butter noodles; the main feature of the Sichuan is the hot and numbing peppers (also known as Sichuan peppers or prickly ash) which are available in Thailand and the Hunan part is the addition of chicken and vegetables (cukes and scallions). You might want to just think of it as Chinese chicken salad with a big kick.

The portions are guidelines, experiment based on taste and portion needed:

Ingredients:

Peanut Butter or Tahini, 2 tablespoon

Sichuan Peppers, 1 tablespoon REQUIRED for the authentic taste http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sichuan_pepper

Chopped fresh garlic, 1 tablespoon

Brown sugar, 1 teaspoon

White vinegar, 1 tablespoon

Soy sauce (regular) 1 tablespoon

tea or chicken broth 1/8 cup

Sesame Oil 1 tablespoon

Thai red peppers, chopped, to taste

Peanuts, crushed

scallions chopped

cucumbers, sliced thin

cold coked chicken, sliced

Linguine (yes Italian pasta, ha ha) or any Asian WHEAT noodle, hot or cold (poor cold water over cooked noodles)

Prepare noodles and drain, if cold noodles desired pour cold water over the cooked noodles, for Asian wheat noodles you may need to rinse in cold water to clean off the starch

Sauce: combine all the wet ingredients and also chopped garlic. peanut butter, and Thai chilies

Prepare the Sichian peppers, heat a dry pan to medium heat, "cook" the peppers for a minute and shake the pan frequently

Add the Sichuan peppers to the sauce mixture

Sauce the noodles. Add the cukes, scallions, and cold chicken. Mix it all up. Garnish with peanuts. You will love it.

Once you assemble the needed ingredients, this is a super easy meal to make. You will have to make a few times to get the balance right for your taste, more vinegar, more peppers, less sugar, etc.

If you are not familiar with the tongue sensation of Sichuan peppers, you are in for some tongue fun (they tingle and sizzle) but they are really not hot so you also need real hot peppers as well for balance. I like the flavor better with broth than with tea. Hunanese use a rice noodle instead but I think the Sichuan version with wheat noodles is much tastier.