This is not a strictly gardening blog-I did threaten in the beginning to share recipes with you, using things grown in my urban garden.
Like this amazing and delicious new favorite recipe:
Ants Climbing Trees
Besides the fact that the name is so funny, I had a bag of bean thread vermicelli knocking around the cabinet for ages, and I wanted to use them up. Haven't we all done that? Gone to the Asian store, bought a bunch of weird and exciting and generally cheap things, and then not known how to cook with them?
Enter my friend MR, who for my birthday this year gave me this book:
Noodle. Complete with a noodle identification section (you really need it for the noodles from that part of the world), and a cross-referenced list of recipes featuring specific noodles, it's really the go-to guide for this kind of cuisine.
Ants Climbing Trees is from the Sichuan province, known for spicy food-but the beauty of this noodle dish is it's only as spicy as the pepper you put in.
Enter my first ripe Hot Portugal Pepper.
There's always a tingle of anticipation and fear as you put a piece of unknown-strength pepper in your mouth. This one is quite strong, but not unbearable. Probably comparable to a Serrano. Of the pepper seen in the photos, we used 1/6, and could actually have doubled that. It seemed to have lost a bit of its intensity in the stir-fry process.
Here's the recipe, it is a piece of cake, and so inexpensive. Most importantly, it tastes like the best Chinese take-out you've ever had: warm, salty, a little spicy, lots of texture, and immensely satisfying.
Ants Climbing Trees
8 ounces ground pork
2 T light soy sauce (use regular if that's all you've got-I did)
1 T sugar
1 T chile bean sauce
1 tsp. cornstarch
7 ounces bean thread vermicelli
3 T peanut oil (I used olive oil with a splash of sesame)
1/2 bunch green onion, finely chopped. Save a bit of green parts for garnish.
1 small red chile, finely chopped. As mentioned previously, add to taste, or use a sweet pepper.
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 T dark soy sauce
Combine pork, light soy, sugar, chile bean sauce, and cornstarch and let stand for 20 minutes.
Get some water boiling (I used my teakettle, and you'll want 4-6 cups-enough to cover the vermicelli)
After the pork has marinated, cover the vermicelli with the boiling water and let stand 3 or 4 minutes. Drain and set aside.
Heat the oil in a wok or large pan, and stir-fry the green onion and chile for 30 seconds.
Add the pork and stir-fry 3 or 4 minutes.
Add the noodles and mix well.
Add chicken stock and dark soy, bring to a boil and cook a few minutes longer, or until the noodles have absorbed the liquid.
Scatter with green onions and serve.
I dare you not to eat seconds!
