I've already waxed lyrical about Fuchsia Dunlop and the way her books have transformed my cooking and eating. Arguably, the greatest lesson I've learnt from her is how a well-stocked storecupboard (costing probably about £15 every four months or so) can keep you in tasty meals, even when pennies are scarce. Even during the last week of the month, with the aid of a couple of sauces and a small packet of pork mince from the freezer, where the organic mince lives, portioned into single-serving freezer bags, I can whip myself up something that isn't just a decent meal - it is a real treat.
I love noodles: whether they are these spicy, chilli-oil spiked dan-dan noodles; milky, porky tonkotsu; the fish laksa my dad used to make, with slippery, wide rice sticks; pad thai, complete with dried shrimp and peanut garnish; or the wide, hand-pulled wheat noodles, served with cumin-scented lamb stew, that I had at Xi'an Famous Foods in New York's Chinatown. Fuchsia's recipe, which can be found here, is the noodle incarnation I turn to when I would like something home-made and including the savoury bulk of pork mince, but I am also a great fan of her 'Chef Chen Dailu's spicy sesame noodles', from Every Grain of Rice, and the noodles I gobble most frequently are the ones she names 'Fuchsia's emergency midnight noodles', from the same book. The latter is really just a dish of dried wheat noodles, boiled and dressed with scallions, chilli oil, vinegar and soy, and topped with a fried egg. I often add shredded spinach or kale, tossed into the noodle water to wilt it, to up the veg quotient.
I couldn't pick a single photo to illustrate this post - but the gallery below should demonstrate just what a cornerstone this dish is in my kitchen!
