Spicy Dan Dan Mein

My hands are on fire, unable to be extinguished.  I've lavishly lathered lime juice and cold water over ever crevice of my fingers to what feels like a 2nd degree burn.  The pain jolts and sears as my fingers pounces (not so elegantly) on the keyboard, even with Keiko Matsui' smooth piano jazz playing in the background.  This time.  I only dealt with 2 red thai chilies, it's capsaicin branding every open pore of my hands.  When I had made the hot sauce to accompany the Hainanese Chicken, over 20 red thai chilies were used.  I felt as if my fingers were going to fall off.

This is where the concept of "pain & pleasure" come in play.  There's an enjoyment one cannot deny itself when it comes to consuming spicy food.  It excites our palette.  Enhances our food experiences as well as broaden food selections. It provides warm glowing sensation that coats our tummy post meal.  But if you had to prepare your own raw chilies to enhance your dish, please, do yourself a favor and wear kitchen gloves, unless of course.... you like the pain post prepping chilies.

It was during my research about various types of Japanese ramens did I come across Dan Dan Mein,(Japanese version is called "Tantanmen")  which apparently, according to social media consensus, originated from Szechuan, China; a sesame base sauce toss with noodles, topped with minced pork and vegetables on the side.  A typical road side, fulfilling street dish that requires only a pot of rolling water to cook the noodles, it's sauces and toppings pre-made by the vendor at the crack of dawn.   Upon request, a pre-fixed amount of noodle is dropped in the rolling pot of water, with smooth fluid moments, the vendor spoons in the required amounts of sauces, usually a combination of sesame paste, soy sauce, homemade chili oil with seeds, sugar, and black vinegar into the bottom of the bowl, the now cooked noodles, sieved from any excess liquid is place on top of the sauces, minced meat, green onions and vegetables topped up and served with a pair of chopsticks.  In a blink of an eye, this perfect harmony bowl of noodles is served, all you have to do is toss the noodles with the sauce with your chopsticks until every strand of noodle is coated with the sauce.  It really is that simple.  

To make the mince meat:

1/2 pound ground pork 

2 red thai chilies (optional)

1tbsp each of, chili paste, soy bean paste - if not already sweeten, add 1tsp or so of brown sugar

1tsp of grated ginger

3 cloves of garlic - finely diced

2 tbsp of pickled sichuan mustard vegetable (sold in asian groceries in small foil packs usually sold at $0.39 per pack) 

2 stalks of the white portion of green onion

1.  In a medium high pan, coat bottom with olive oil.  Once hot, throw in chilies and garlic.  toss for a few second until fragrant, throw in ginger, pickled mustard and white portion of green onion.  Toss.  Throw in minced ground pork and separate into tiny tiny bits with a wooden spatula.  When it is 3/4 cooked through, add in the soybean paste, chili paste and sugar.  Toss and coat each tiny piece of ground pork.  Cook for another 6-7 mins on medium high, constantly mincing the meat with the wooden spatula.  Once cooked, turn off the heat and set aside. 

Prepare your choice of vegetables you like.  I chose to use bak choy as the natural sweetness and texture will compliment well with the noodles when tossed with the sauce and meat.   All I did was boiled the vegetables for 1 min and shocked the cooked veg. in cold water to stop from further cooking and maintain the fresh greenness.  Over cooked vegetables will have a yellow tone to it. 

Let's prepare the sauce.  All you need is the following to make one serving.  Add sauce to bottom of a bowl.

1 tsp and a bit of sesame paste 

1 tsp of dark soy sauce 

1 tsp of soy sauce

1 tsp of sugar

1 tbsp of chili oil (add as little of as much as you like:)

1.5 tbsp of black vinegar

Boil a desired amount of noodles (dried or freshly made :)  ) into a pot of rolling water.  Cook accordingly but do not overcook.  Mushy noodles makes for an unpleasant texture. 

Strain noodles using a seive and toss in the bowl of sauce.  Top with meat and vegetables. 

Using a pair of chopsticks and a spoon, toss and coat each strand of noodles with the sauce from the bottom.  

 You are now ready to enjoy this simple simple meal:)

Hainanese Chicken ~ Singapore style

Chicken breast, whether it is fried, breaded, grilled, steamed, boiled, stripped, cubed or shredded has no place in my fridge.  From the grocery store or on the menu of some fancy restaurant where there are at least 10 utensils before you, it's white, dense meat does not make me salivate.  In fact, my face naturally distorts itself like the "The Persistence of Memory" painting by Salvador Dali.  There was even a period of time where the moment I see some sort of chicken breast dish served at a restaurant, it would make everything else non chicken related dishes around it look displeasing.  Yes. I can be quite the drama queen. :D

So how did I ever come to love Hainanese Chicken?  I couldn't honestly tell you but I have this inking feeling it was force fed to me.  Suddenly, with a slap across the face, I shake myself out of the chicken slumber dump and thoroughly enjoy every bite this dish has to offer.

Hainanese Chicken - from "Chatterbox" Mandarin Orchard Hotel, Singapore

Originated from Hainan, China, hence the name "Hainanese Chicken" Southeast Asia like Singapore, Malaysia & Thailand has really taken this beloved dish and made it uniquely theirs.   During my travel to Singapore a year and a half ago, my first & many other meals there was none other than their famous Hainanese Chicken.  Unique to the Singaporean way of eating this dish, are the 3 sauces; the smooth spicy hot sauce, dark sweet soy sauce and the ginger/green onion oil sauce. Apparently, the usage of the sauces is individualized to personal preference.  Me? the combination of all 3 sauces together on the poached chicken with chicken stock rice is the perfect way to enjoy it.  :)

Since my daily diet lacks substantial white protein and the North American way of cooking chicken breast/meat just doesn't fancy my taste buds, I've decided to challenge my culinary skills and try out this age old dish.

This recipe is best made with naturally raised, farm fed birds since you will be able to enjoy the meat at its purest form.  If you are not fortunate like myself to slit the throat of a chicken and de-feather it, get one from your local chicken butcher shop, preferably organic.  Trust me, there will be a difference in flavour.

I purchased my beheaded chicken, legs wrapped around itself at "Sanagan's Meat Locker" Kensington Market, Toronto, it's supplier; King Capon.  If I am at all honest, after my first attempt of making this dish, I would try another supplier.  (Should you have any recommendations as to where I should purchase a fine bird in Toronto, preferably plucked and beheaded. drop me a msg)

dirty birdy :S

Directions in preparing the chicken:
1.  Soak the whole chicken in a bath of generous amount of salt water.  Using salt, scrub at every crevice of the chicken, cleaning and plucking out any unwanted hair.  Rinse under cold water and repeat scrubbing until satisfactory.

clean birdy :D 

2.  Stuff the clean bird with a handful of full stalk green onions and 3-5 finger size ginger.

3.  In a pot, fill with cold water halfway, add 3 finger size ginger and 4 cloves of garlic.  Submerse your stuffed bird into the cold bath.  Turn the heat to medium high.  Once you see soft rolling bubbles on the surface, quickly turn the heat down to low.  Simmer on low for 35 - 40 mins with the lid of the pot slightly off the surface allowing heat to escape.  You are essentially poaching your chicken in the aromatic broth now.

4.  When the time is almost up, prepare a bucket of ice bath.  Gently take out the chicken from the pot and quickly dump it in the ice bath and leave it submersed for at least 5-10mins. This way, the skin and the fat under the skin will gelatinize, adding to the silken texture of the meat.

ice bird ;D 

5.  Bring out your clever and chopping board.  Place the chicken on the board and chop off the legs and wings from the body and place them onto serving plate.  Next, chop the body lengthwise down the middle into two halves.  Chop each halve into 2 halves lengthwise and chop into pieces opposite direction.  Repeat for all halves.  Please excuse the photos as I had to resort to my iphone camera since I was on a time crunch.

cooked birdy :D 

chopped birdy :D 

6.  Taste test the meat on its own, unadulterated version.  You'll understand why a high quality chicken is preferred for this dish. :) Set aside.

7.  While the chicken is poaching, prep the ingredients required to make the 3 sauces and rice as shown in the photo below.

8.  Soy Sauce:  In a small sauce pan on medium low heat, add 1/4cup of dark soy sauce and 1tsp of white sugar.  Stir with a spatula until sugar is dissolved. Once you start to see smoke, turn off the heat and transfer sweeten dark soy sauce to a small bowl.

9.  Chili Sauce: In the same pan, on medium heat, add 3-4tbsp of vegetable oil.  Once oil is hot, add in garlic, chili and scallions.  Cook for 5 - 7 mins.  Transfer all ingredients to a blender and blend until it becomes a smooth consistent paste.  Add a little bit of water to aid its smooth consistency.   If you wish, strain the sauce through a cheese cloth for a smoother texture.

10.  Ginger & Green Onion Sauce: In a clean pan on medium high heat, coat bottom of pan with 1/4 cup of vegetable oil.  Once oil is hot, add in grated ginger and toss until fragrant, for 2 mins.  Add in green onion, dash of salt and white pepper.  Cook for another 2 -3 mins.

Note: No recipes were followed to make the sauces, it was more of an intuiative thing so feel free to change up the ingredients to your own taste.

You now have all 3 sauces ready!  Let's make the rice.

11.  To make the chicken flavoured rice, you'll need to soak 2 cups of rice for 1/2hr in water.  This will allow the chicken stock infuse into rice quicker during the cooking process.

12.  In a heavy bottom pot, medium high heat, add in your chicken fat and coat the bottom of pan.  Once it starts to sizzle, add in diced scallions.  Cook until fragrant and add in a dash of white pepper.  Drain the soaked rice well and toss into pan.  Toss and cook for 2mins.  Pour in 2 cups of chicken stock from the pot used to poach the chicken.  Cover.  Once it begins to bubble on the top surface, quickly turn down the heat to low and allow to steam with the lid completely on pot for 18-20mins.  Do not uncover during this time as the moisture will escape and rice will be not cook evenly.

must keep pot covered to cook rice evenly

9.  Turn off the heat once rice is done.  The rice will be semi-translucent, like so.

Let's plate and eat :)

Note:  Sauces made serves about 5 - 6 people and can be kept, each in its sealed container for up to 2 weeks in the fridge.