Dan Dan Noodles with Szechuan Chilli Oil

Now entering spice-ville

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If you’ve not been introduced to Sichuan cooking before, let me do so now.

Reader, meet Sichuan (otherwise known as Szechuan). An addictive, mouth-numbing flavor bomb of a cuisine from southwest China, whose backbone is chilies and Sichuan peppers. And lots of both.

One of the most famous Sichuan dishes is Dan Dan noodles. A steaming bowl of pork mince mixed with wheat noodles and an unholy level of chili oil.

I’ve been making Dan Dan noodles for years and they went through a few iterations (there are thousands of versions out there) before I settled on this one.

They’re pretty easy to adapt to your storecupboard - and spice tolerance - so much so I make them on the road pretty often, even when I don’t have every single ingredient to hand.

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The chili oil:

• 1.5 tbsp sichuan peppercorns lightly crushed