Ingredients: oil, onion, cilantro roots, minced garlic, ginger · 45 min cook time · 645kcal · ~₩8,620
Ingredients
0.5cup oil, 0.125ea onion, 2ea cilantro roots, 4cloves minced garlic, 1inch ginger, 1ea Chinese black cardamom, 1ea star anise, 250g minced pork, 1tablespoon tomato paste, 1tablespoon Sichuan chili bean paste (Pixian Doubanjiang), 1tablespoon Hunan chopped fermented chilies (Duo Jiao), 450g chopped tomatoes, 1tablespoon starch, 1.25cup water, 2tablespoon soy sauce, 0.5teaspoon dark soy sauce, 0.5tablespoon oyster sauce, 0.25teaspoon MSG, 0.125teaspoon salt, 0.125teaspoon chicken bouillon powder, 230g rice noodles, 0.125teaspoon Sichuan pepper powder, 1teaspoon chili flakes (toasted or smoked), 1tablespoon chopped roasted peanuts, 1ea minced spicy fresh chili, 10g chopped culantro, 10g chopped cilantro
Instructions
1. To make the Dai version of garlic oil, toss in a half cup of oil, an eighth of an onion, and a couple cilantro roots into a wok. Fry those over a medium flame until the onion is nice and golden, about 10 minutes. Then shut off the heat and remove those two things.
2. To that oil, toss in four cloves worth of minced garlic, one inch smashed ginger, one Tsao Kuo Chinese black cardamom, and one star anise. Then swap the flame to medium-low and let those fry until the garlic is just barely starting to get golden, about 4-5 minutes. Then shut off the heat, let that garlic continue to fry with the heat off for another minute. Then remove and reserve those spices.
3. Transfer the garlic oil to a bowl and reserve.
4. Strain in four tablespoons (a quarter of a cup) of our garlic oil back into the wok. Over a medium-high flame, start to fry 250 grams of minced pork. Fry that for about 5 minutes or so, or until things are almost starting to brown and release a touch of oil.
5. Heat off, scoot that up the side of the wok and let a bit of the oil drain off. Then we'll add in our sauce substitute: one tablespoon each of tomato paste, Pixian Doubanjiang, and Hunan Duo Jiao. Over a low flame, fry those three things together until the oil is stained nice and red, about 2 minutes. Then mix everything back together and add in some chopped tomato (450g, X-cut, blanched, peeled, stem removed, chopped into a rough mince).
6. Add back in those spices that we reserved from before and fry that all over a medium flame for about 10-15 minutes. After that time, your tomatoes should be good and broken down and starting to fry in a bit of that red oil once again.
7. Add in a slurry: one tablespoon of starch mixed in with a cup and a quarter of water. To that mix, also add in our seasoning: two tablespoons soy sauce, half teaspoon dark soy for color, half tablespoon oyster sauce, quarter teaspoon MSG, and an eighth teaspoon each salt and chicken bouillon powder. Mix that all real well, and then you'll toss that into your sauce. Let it continue to cook for about 3-4 minutes or until it's all thickened to your liking.
8. Remove and reserve the sauce. The sauce itself is done.
9. To one serving of rice noodles (230g fresh or 120g dried), toss in an eighth teaspoon each salt, MSG, Sichuan pepper powder, one teaspoon chili flakes (preferably a toasted or smoked sort), and smother over a third of a cup of your sauce. Then drizzle over a tablespoon of the garlic oil together with the fried garlic that's inside, a tablespoon of chopped roasted or toasted peanuts, one clove of minced garlic, one chili worth of a minced spicy fresh chili, and a bit of herbs (10g chopped culantro and 10g of cilantro).
10. Mix it well and devour.
11. The night before work, you want to cook your rice noodles first. Soak them in cold water until they are soft, about an hour. Then quickly toss it in boiling water to cook it until al dente for about 30 seconds. After that time, rinse it right away. Toss it in cold water and keep on lifting and jiggling it until it completely cools down. This process will take about 2-3 minutes. You can actually feel the texture of the rice noodle changing in your hand, especially when it's starting to get slippery. After rinsing, let it drain on the side, and when the surface of the rice noodles is not wet anymore, you can bag it up and keep it in the fridge.
12. The night before, quickly chop up some garlic, fresh chilies, cilantro, and culantro. Toss them all into a little baggie. Separately, mix the chopped peanuts with all the seasonings (1/8 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp MSG, 1/8 tsp Sichuan pepper powder, 1 tsp chili flakes). That's all of the prep for our lunch next day.
13. The next morning, pack everything up, bring it along, and keep it in your work fridge.
14. For lunchtime, when you want to eat it, you will notice that the rice noodles staying in the fridge is kind of hard and actually not good. You can revive them by using the technique of Maowing. Pour in some hot water from the water kettle or even from the hot water button from the water dispenser. Submerge the rice noodles, jiggle to loosen it up for about 15-30 seconds. Then you can drain the water well, and now your rice noodle will be bouncy again and ready to be mixed.
15. Nuke your sauce until it's warm or kind of room temperature, up to you. Toss it onto your rice noodle together with the rest of the topping.