Cold chicken noodles with sesame dressing

It hot hot hot over here. I just want to keep away from cooking as much as I can.

Cold noodles is something which is quite appetising in this warm weather. Cold noodles with sesame dressing 'ma jiang ren mian' 麻醬冷麵 is common in northern part of China as a snack for the warm summer. This cold dressed noodles can be plain (vegetarian) with a bit of vegetables like bean sprouts and/or cucumber. For meat eaters add some precooked/cold shredded meat (any type), boiled, steamed or roasted. I have a cold roasted chicken and some chicken jelly from the chicken juice collected during roasting, so ideal to make up some cold noodles. The sesame paste dressing is a classic Sichuanese/ Beijingnese style.

The good thing with cold noodles is it can be made in advance eaten at room temperature or eaten cold after cooling in the fridge. Minimum cooking is required.

Here is the rough idea how to make this noodles:

Noodles: Any kind of dried noodles or homemade rustic noodles. Cooked then cooled with room temperature/ice cold water. Mix with a little plain cooking oil or sesame oil if you are not going to eat right away, so the noodles will not stick together.

Vegetables: Shredded cucumber and/or lightly blanched bean sprouts. Blanch the bean sprouts with boiling water for about 10 - 15 seconds then rinse with cold water. You can also add shredded carrot, lettuce, tomato slices, or even pineapple pieces if you wish

Meat: Any kind of cold meat. Preferably shredded or sliced

Garnish: Chopped spring onion, chopped coriander (cilantro) and roasted sesame seeds.


The dressing: Recipe enough for 2 people

2 - 3 tbsp of thick sesame paste, preferably Chinese like this one bought or homemade, if not can sub with tahini or less authentically with peanut butter

2 tbsp Chinkiang black rice vinegar or other rice vinegar

1 - 4 tsp chilli oil, or much as you like preferably with some of the chilli sediment in the bottle which has more flavour. Can use any type of chilli oil, incl. this Sichuan style or HK style

2 - 3 tbsp soy sauce or to your taste, or depends on if the stock is salty

a little stock bullion powder (optional if stock/stock jelly is not available mix with some water or if the stock you have is not flavourful enough)

pinch of ground sichuan pepper

2 - 3 tbsp of fairly concentrated stock (vegetarian) or meat juice/jelly/stock (like chicken or others) or some of this Knorr real stock in a tiny tub. For this recipe I used the chicken stock jelly collected when roasting the chicken. How I make this jelly is put about 1.5 cup of water in the roasting tin, put the chicken on top on a rack. Let the chicken juice drip on the the water. When the chicken is done, the water is reduced and leaving a concentrated chicken stock. Put the juice into container, chill and remove the fat on top.

a little toasted sesame oil or oil floating on the jar of sesame paste.

* If you like garlicy flavour you can add some grated/finely chopped garlic, I find garlic overpowered the flavour of nutty sesame.


To make up the dressing:
Warm the thick sesame paste in the microwave for few seconds till softened or stirred briskly till mixable.
Warm the stock if it is in jelly form to dissolve.
Then mix all the ingredients together, taste and add more of any if required to your own taste.

To assemble the noodles:
Put the noodles onto individual deep dish or pasta bowl.
Pile on chosen vegetables and meat.
Sprinkle with garnishes.
Drizzle on the dressing.
Serve.

Mix everything together and get something like this:


You might also like:
Zha Jiang Mian 炸醬麵 - Fried sauce noodles
Dan Dan Mian
Chicken noodle salad 雞絲拌麵
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Posted by Sunflower at 20:50 4 comments   Links to this post
Category 1. CHINESE, 1a. Szechuan, 1e. Beijingnese, Noodles
TUESDAY, 23 FEBRUARY 2010

Beijing Pizza 韭菜糊餅

韭菜糊餅 Jiu Chai Hu Bing

Some people called this Beijing pizza, it's an old Beijing style snack 'xiao chi 小吃', made with a thin crunchy cornmeal crust topped with Chinese chives (garlic chives), egg and a little dried shrimp for a more savoury flavour. Very tasty.

Pictures are a bit fuzzy due to the hot steam.


Here is the recipe - make an approx. 1 x 25cm round pizza (pancake)

Ingredients:

about 80 g cornmeal, coarse or fine (coarse cornmeal gives a harder and crunchier crust)
about 70 - 80ml (g) of boiling water*, if using cold water use around 60 - 70ml
about 1/4 tsp salt

* you can also use cold water, I find hot water makes the cornmeal absorbed more water making the crust less gritty.

1 heap tbsp of dried shrimps, soak for few minutes and finely chopped (if you don't like dried shrimp can leave this out but it does give a lot of savoury flavour to the pizza)

2 eggs, beaten
cooking oil

about 125 - 150 g Chinese chives or garlic chives 韭菜 (gau choi in Cantonese, jiu chai in Mandarin), finely chopped
a little salt
a little ground pepper
a little sesame oil

Method:
Mix the cornmeal and pinch of salt together then mix with water. Leave to rest for 10 - 15 minutes so the cornmeal can absorb the water.
Add about 2 - 3 tbsp of cooking oil to wok or frying pan, fry the dried shrimp at medium high heat for about 1 - 2 minutes till it is no longer too fishy smelling and getting a bit brown. Turn the heat to high, and drizzle in beaten egg while stirring to form fine bits of scrambled egg. When the egg is set heat off.
Mix egg and shrimp mixture with chives, seasoned with a little salt and pepper.
Using a cold dry frying pan (I used a 30cm non stick frying pan), sprinkle the wet cornmeal onto the pan and spread it out/press with a soft spatula or fingers to form an even thin crust. Then spread the green mixture on top. And drizzle a little cooking oil around the rim of the crust. Lid on and let this cook at medium heat for about 6 - 8 minutes or till you feel the lid is really hot (need the steam to cook the chives) and the bottom crust is golden brown or you may see the crust lifting up around the rim. Then it is ready to transfer onto a plate. The crust is quite solid so it is quite easy to move it.
Sprinkle with a little sesame oil and more ground pepper if you like. Cut into wedges and serve straight away.