My Szechuan Noodles

Ingredients

• ⅓ teaspoon mushroom or other MSG powder (chicken, etc.)
• Chili oil
• Lao Gan Ma Chili in Oil & Chili Crisp (I prefer the Chili in oil, though a little Chili Crisp can be nice)
• Garlic (not more than 2 cloves, finely minced)
• Dried Chili (the Chengdu dried are amazing, and totally different than Western)
• Tahini or deep sesame paste (⅓ teaspoon)
• Any amount of dried peppers to taste (use less “Danshan” type chili/fennel than usual)
• Optional: ⅓ teaspoon Chinese vinegar
• Sugar to taste (not optional)
• Chinese five spice
• 1 teaspoon Chinese soy sauce
• Salt to taste
• Noodles

Instructions

1. Prep the bowl: Compose all the ingredients above into a large serving bowl.
2. Cook: Boil the noods.
3. Bloom: Ladle about ⅓ or ½ of a cup of the boiling noodle water over the mix in the bowl. This is the key step—it 'blooms' the spices and takes the raw edge off the garlic.
4. Finish: Add the noodles to the bowl and mix thoroughly.

My base recipe for Szechuan noodles (noods).

Almost all of these are optional, though the sugar is essential for the “warming” effect.