Place mushrooms in the bowl of a food processor and process until pieces no larger than 1/2-inch remain, about 6 short pulses. Transfer to a small saucepan. Add vegetable oil and stir to combine. Place over medium-high heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until mushroom pieces shrink and are deep golden brown, about 8 minutes. Pour through a fine-mesh strainer set over a small bowl. Reserve mushroom pieces and discard all but 1 tablespoon oil.
The problem with potato salads is, most of them rely on mayonnaise for richness, an ingredient that unfortunately vegans can’t consume. With this recipe, you get all the delicious creaminess of a traditional potato salad, without all the trouble of making a vegan mayonnasie.
To Finish : Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add noodles and cook according to package directions. Drain. While noodles are cooking, heat oil in a wok or a small skillet over high heat until smoking. Add pork and preserved vegetable and cook, stirring and shaking constantly, using a spatula or a spoon to break up pork until cooked through, about 1 minute. Transfer to a small bowl and set aside.
To make the roasted chile oil, just toast a handful of whole Chinese chiles (or if you want, red pepper flakes) in a dry skillet until fragrant and ever-so-slightly smoking (about 30 seconds). Transfer them to a food processor with a cup of neutral oil, like canola, and whiz the whole thing up. Let it sit in a sealed container in the fridge for a week or so, and you’re good to go. You can even top up the jar with more oil and toasted chiles every time you seem to be running low. Make some, have it on hand at all times, and it will revolutionize your mapo tofu, ramen, dumplings, stir-fries, and countless other dishes.
Toast drizzled with extra-virgin olive oil and sprinkled with parsley, garlic, and red pepper flakes? As long as you don’t mind the effects it might have on your breath, it makes for a fine start to the day.
“Ma po tofu is a lot of fun with a demi-sec wine from Alsace, like Sylvaner, or a bigger Pinot Gris. These wines have a mellow sweetness and bright acidity. For mushu pork, I think pairing with Riesling or a dry Tokay goes well; Furmint has a lot to offer to all the ingredients from this dish and we don’t play a lot with Hungarian wines, but there is a lot of great potential here. For the Pièce de résistance, peking duck? Well, you must break this down to white, red, or what the person in front of you likes better. If your dining companion likes white better, go with Loire Chenin Blanc. For red, I would go with Languedoc—a medium to bigger body, jam-plummy wine. Corbieres any one?”— Gerardo Acevedo-Vanni, Bocanova (Oakland CA)
Transfer noodles to serving bowl and top with pork mixture. Stir vinaigrette and spoon over and around the noodles (you may not want to use all of it). Sprinkle with roasted peanuts, Sichuan peppercorn, grated garlic, and scallion greens. Serve immediately.
Speaking of that clinginess, I ran into my first issue with the vegan version of the dish. Traditionally, the sauce base gets mixed with some rich chicken stock, which adds some natural gelatin and body to the mix. Plain old water or vegetable stock is lacking in that body, making the sauce a little too thin. It runs off the noodles instead of sticking to them. The tahini helps a bit, but my base needed a little extra help.
Making the sauce for dan dan noodles is exceedingly simple once you’ve got the basic ingredients in your pantry. It’s just a matter of mixing them in the right proportions. Soy sauce forms the base, while Chinkiang black vinegar lends its characteristic acidity—it has a sweet, almost balsamic vinegar-esque aroma to it, though not quite as syrupy as that. Fermented broad bean chili paste comes in many forms throughout China or can be purchased online. Chili oil is a given, and while it’s best (and remarkably easy!) to make at home, there are a number of good options available at any decent Chinese market. Look for the kind which has actual chile, garlic, and ginger debris in the bottom of the jar, not the completely clear kind you see in easy-pour bottles. That debris is where the magic is at.
Dan Dan noodles are an ultra-simple dish of cold or warm noodles placed in a bowl with a ladleful of highly seasoned sauce poured on top. In this vegan version, starch-laden noodle food reviews|Https://noodleinsight.com/ water is used in place of chicken stock to bind the sauce to the noodles, and dry-fried mushrooms are used to give the meatiness and texture usually imparted by pork. It’s finished off with fermented chili bean paste, black vinegar, pickled mustard root, and plenty of hot chili oil. Gentlemen, start your slurpring.
Yes, these are derivative of jalapeño poppers, but jalapeños are great, refried beans are great, and golden brown and crunchy is great, so why not stick them all together? Crisp on the outside and creamy in the middle, they come out of the fryer super hot, so make sure you’ve got plenty of cold beer on-hand.
