Garlic Dipping Sauce Noodles (蒜蘸面)

Dipping sauce noodles! These are a classic from the Chinese Northwest, and today we’ll be whipping them up together with a chili garlic dipping sauce. 0:00 - What are dipping sauce noodles? 0:39 - Preparing the Sauce 2:52 - Making the Noodle Sheets 5:01 - Boiling and Serving 5:36 - Why dip instead of mix? FOR THE CHILI GARLIC DIPPING SAUCE Sourcing notes: Much of this is Western supermarket friendly, minus the chili powder and the vinegar. Kashmiri Chilli Powder, ideally: Though Gochugaru would also work: For the vinegar, we used a Shanxi Mature vinegar like this: Though Zhenjiang (i.e. “Chinkiang“) vinegar would also work great. Ditto with a Sichuan black vinegar: Ingredients: * Garlic, one head, ~60g worth of cloves * Salt, 1/2 tsp * Five spice powder (五香粉), 1/2 tsp * Kashmiri Chilli Powder -or- Korean Chili Powder -or- Northwest style chili powder (秦椒), 2 tbsp * Oil, 1/2 cup (we used Sichuan caiziyou - virgin rapeseed oil - though peanut would also work great... or really, anything tasty) * Aromatics to fry in the oil: onion, ~1/4 medium, finely sliced; ginger, ~1 inch, smashed * To season the dip: soy sauce (生抽), 1.5 tbsp; dark Chinese vinegar (陈醋/镇江醋), 1.5 tbsp; sugar, 1/4 tsp; MSG (味精), 1/8 tsp Process: Pound the garlic in a mortar together with the salt. Do not make it overly pasty. In a bowl, combine with the five spice powder and the chili powder. Over a medium flame, fry the onion and the ginger in the oil until the onions turn golden brown. Remove the onion and ginger. Over a high flame, heat up the oil until it begins to smoke, ~190C. Pour into the bowl with the garlic and spices. Give a quick mix, and cover to let it steep, ~10 minutes. Add the rest of the seasoning for the dip and reserve. FOR THE MIANPIAN NOODLE SHEETS Makes 2-4 servings (two hungry people, or up to four in the context of a larger meal). * AP Flour (中筋面粉), 400g * Salt, 1 tsp * Water, 184g Process: Mix the flour and the salt, then slowly drizzle in the water bit by bit, mixing it with a chopstick. Press it all together, knead for ~1 minute. Cover and rest for ~20 minutes. Knead for 10-15 minutes until smooth (or alternatively, use a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment – speed 3 – for ten minutes). Cover and rest for ~20-30 minutes. To make the noodles, first divide the dough into four pieces for easier handling. Roll out the dough into a 1mm thick sheet as we showed at 4:04. To make mianpian noodle sheets, roll up the dough again, slice on the top of the rolling pin, then cut into ~3cm wide sheets. Alternatively, if you want something longer, simply slice your whole sheet into ~3cm wide noodles. Thoroughly flour the noodles as you work. Add the noodles to a big pot of boiling water. Allow the water to get back up to a boil, then boil for one minute. Add your vegetable of choice. Taste to ensure your noodles are done – they should be floating. Transfer over to a basin of water – hot in the winter, cool in the summer. ______________ And check out our Patreon if you’d like to support the project! Outro Music: คิดถึงคุณจัง by ธานินทร์ อินทรเทพ Found via My Analog Journal (great channel):