Hey Hive!
We're back with more of our home cooking! If you're unfamiliar with this series, it's where I showcase some of the food we've been making at home since we've been cooking a lot nowadays! Both because it's cheaper and also healthier to cook for yourself compared to eating out.
While I usually stick to the usual recipes I do like to try new ones once in a while and figured I'd share the new ones I've tried once a month so here we go!
The other day we were shopping for groceries in the supermarket; which is actually one of our past times as well and where we often take photos like this:
But anyway, we saw something interesting on the shelf the other day that caught my attention. It was a pack of noodle soup, but not just any noodle - dan dan noodle soup! It was made by this Hong Kong brand called Lee Kum Kee, which also makes our favourite chili oil brand so we were surprised when we saw they made packaged soups as well.
I know some people will frown upon using these packages since it's mostly processed and I know it's a lot better to make stuff from scratch, but I'm just an average cook. That's why this series is called TacoCat (kinda) Cooks!
Anyway if you're unfamiliar, Dan dan noodles or dandanmian 担担面 is a noodle dish originating from Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province. It consists of a spicy sauce usually containing preserved vegetables, mustard stems, chili oil, Sichuan pepper, minced pork, and scallions served over noodles. The dish can either be served dry or as a noodle soup.
Source: Life of Simple Treats
The name refers to a type of carrying pole (dan dan) that was used by walking street vendors who sold the dish to passers-by. The pole was carried over the shoulder, with two baskets containing noodles and sauce attached at either end. (Source: Wiki)
I actually don't eat dandanmian that often; it's not really one of my favourite noodle dishes but Sean likes it more than me and since this was a packaged soup I was willing to give it a shot.
Here were the ingredients and directions of the noodle soup:
For the ingredients, I used some udon noodles we had lying around along with some vegetables and quail eggs that Sean wanted to try since it'd been a while since we had them. Udon noodles are not common for dandanmian but we didn't really have any other noodles I could use and it was going to expire soon so I just tried it.
Ingredients:
- 1 pack of noodles
- 1 pack of Lee Kum Kee dan dan noodle thick soup
- 1 carrot
- 4 shiitake mushrooms
- 3 stalks of xiao bai cai (or any green veggies)
- 1 pack of cooked quail eggs (optional)
- chicken strips (or minced pork if you have it)
I took a lot of liberties with this recipe since I just wanted to focus on the taste of the packaged soup, so I added some vegetables and meat we had lying around. This is obviously not authentic dandanmian but I really just wanted to see what the soup would taste like.
Step 1: Chop and wash all the vegetables, mushrooms, etc. then bring them to a boil in a pot. Add frozen chicken strips or other frozen meat if using.
Step 2: Add the noodles and boil for another few minutes (according to packaging). Once the noodles are cooked, drain the pot and set aside.
Step 3: If you use quail eggs like me, take out the quail eggs and wash them if needed. Since mine are pre-cooked eggs I didn't have to boil them together with the veggies.
Step 4: The soup package says you can technically reheat it in the microwave but since I already had a pot going I just boiled it on the stove.
Step 5: I also had to heat the quail eggs so it helped, and I heated them up together and let it simmer for a few minutes on low-medium heat.
Step 6: Dump the noodles and veggies back into the pot and stir it, making sure the noodles and soup are well incorporated.
Then it was time to serve! The soup was indeed pretty thick but not as thick as I imagined. It did have a very strong peanut aroma though. I didn't know this at the time, but apparently sesame paste or peanut butter is sometimes added to dandanmian, and occasionally replaces the spicy sauce, usually in the American Chinese style of the dish.
Even though udon is a pretty strange choice for dandanmian obviously most of the taste came from the soup and while it was not as spicy as I thought it was going to be, it was definitely quite salty. I did add some water to dilute it a little and it helped but the peanut taste was a little too strong for my liking. It definitely packed a lot of flavour in there for sure.
I'm not sure how authentic this soup is to dandanmian since it's not really like how I remember it tasting, but it was still pretty good overall. Granted I was a little biased against it already since I'm not a fan of dandanmian, but maybe the dry one would be more my style. Either way, it was still a good experience to try it but I rather make my garlic chili noodles for sure.
Thanks so much for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
Check out my previous post in this series!
Posted via foodiesunite.net