Category: Main Course
Ants Climbing a Tree - TastyPlanner.com
Chef: Mikroskopic
One of the better known Sichuan dishes is ???? (ma3yi3 shang4shu4 – ants climbing a tree). Highly seasoned ground pork is cooked with bean thread noodles so that as you lift your chopsticks, bits of meat cling to the noodles like ants climbing up a tree.
My attempts at Chinese cooking often turn out badly for reasons that I don’t understand, but I figured that a dish this simple might be within my grasp. The only specialty ingredient here is dou ban jiang – spicy fermented bean paste. The most efficient way is to start your water boiling for the noodles, chop the vegetables, and then begin cooking the noodles just before you start to cook the other ingredients. If you have everything on hand, it is about ten minutes’ work.
Recipe Source: http://frugalcuisine.blogsp...
Ingredients
120 g (three single serving bundles) of bean thread noodles
1 tsp of ginger
2 mild red chilies
4 green onions
3 Cloves Garlic
2 tbs of oil
1/2 cup of finely ground Pork (or Chicken)
1 tsp of white sugar
1 tbs sesame oil
1 1/2 tbs dou ban jiang
1 tbs ground red pepper (more or less depending on how much of a chili head you are)
1 tbs soy sauce
2/3 of a cup or so of water
Instructions
Bring a litre or so of water to boil and cook 120 g (three single serving bundles) of bean thread noodles for 2 minutes. Drain and set aside.
Chop 3 cloves of garlic, 1 tsp of ginger, 2 mild red chilies, and four green onions. Save some green onions aside for garnish and start cooking everything else in 2 tbs of oil until fragrant, then add 1/2 cup of finely ground pork and cook together until pork is cooked through. Add 1 tsp of white sugar, 1 tbs sesame oil, 1 1/2 tbs dou ban jiang, 1 tbs ground red pepper (more or less depending on how much of a chili head you are), 1 tbs soy sauce, and 2/3 of a cup or so of water. Cook til you have a uniform, soupy mixture and then add the drained noodles. Mix everything together until noodles absorb the water and then garnish with reserved green onions. Serves 2-3 with rice and another dish.
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Recipe Comments
This was a fun recipe to make for the kids. We all liked it and will make it again. I doubled it and saved the ground red pepper for the table. Also, I cooked the pork first and drained the fat. I could only find black bean sauce w/garlic at the grocery store and since I didn’t have time to get to the specialty store, that is what I used. I threw in a fistful of shredded carrots with the red chilies also – more veggies for the kids can’t be a bad thing!
