Sesame and chilli oil noodles

Anna Jones has written so many great cookbooks you'd think she wouldn't have anything more to say but her new book, Easy Wins, which features 12 hero ingredients including the tahini in this recipe, may be her most inspiring yet. It's exactly the kind of easy, delicious food I want for a midweek meal.

Anna writes: Lucky and Joy is a Chinese-influenced restaurant local to me with brightly painted walls and food that slaps you in the face with flavour. For the last year or so I've been eating their sesame noodles most weeks. This is a quick version of cold sesame noodles I made when I was craving them but they were shut for a holiday. It uses tahini as opposed to Chinese sesame, which is not traditional in any way, but it is what I always have at home so...

SERVES 2 AS A MAIN, 4 AS A SIDE

150g medium dried egg noodles 
1 tablespoon peanut butter
2 tablespoons tahini
1 tablespoon soy sauce or tamari
1 clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
2-3 tablespoons chilli oil or chilli crisp
a bunch of spring onions (about 6), trimmed and finely sliced
4 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds (white, black or both)

Cook the noodles
Cook 150g medium dried egg noodles in boiling salted water for a minute less than the packet instructions, until al dente. Drain and rinse under cold water.

Make the tahini sauce
Whisk together 1 tablespoon peanut butter, 2 tablespoons tahini, 1 table spoon soy sauce and 1 finely chopped clove of garlic. Add 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil and between 75ml and 125ml room-temperature water (depending on the thickness of the tahini) and whisk until you have a smooth, pourable sauce about the thickness of double cream.

Toss together and serve
Toss the cold noodles in the tahini sauce and scoop into bowls, then top each with 1-2 tablespoons of chilli crisp, adding a little at a time until it's the right kind of heat for you (you can always serve extra on the table). Scatter over a trimmed and finely sliced bunch of spring onions and finish each bowl with a tablespoon of toasted sesame seeds.

What to drink: Hard to beat a beer with this, most probably a lager. If you're serving it midweek you might want to make it alcohol-free. (I like Lucky Strike)

Extracted from EASY WINS: 12 flavour hits, 125 delicious recipes, 365 days of good eating by Anna Jones (Published by 4th Estate on 14th March 2024 at £28). Photography by Matt Russell.

 

 

Spicy sesame ramen salad

I love the recipes in Tim Anderson's new book Your Home Izakaya which is subtitled 'fun and simple recipes inspired by the drinking-and-dining dens of Japan' but this ramen salad really stood out for me and I can't wait to make it.

Tim writes: "The Japanese version of Sichuanese dandan noodles is tantanmen: ramen with spiced minced (ground) pork in a luxurious yet aggressive broth made from copious amounts of ground sesame and chilli oil. A variant sees these flavours translated into a massively flavourful noodle salad for all seasons, served cold but with plenty of carbs and fat to fill you up and plenty of chilli heat to keep you warm. If you have the chilli oil and sesame dressing ready to go (store-bought is fine), it’s really quick to put together, too.

SPICY SESAME RAMEN SALAD
冷やし坦々麺サラダ HIYASHI TANTANMEN SARADA

Serves 2 or up to 4 as part of a larger meal

2 tbsp chilli oil, or more, to taste
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 cm (½ in) piece of ginger root, peeled and finely chopped
150 g (5 oz) minced (ground) pork
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp mirin
100 g (3½ oz) beansprouts
2 portions ramen noodles
90–100 ml (3–3½ fl oz/scant ½–â…“ cup) sesame dressing (below)
1 cucumber, julienned
2 spring onions (scallions), very finely sliced at an angle
1 punnet salad cress
1 tbsp sesame seeds, crushed to the consistency of coarse sand
a few pinches of shichimi and sanshō (optional)
1 egg yolk

METHOD

Open a window or put your extractor fan on. Heat the chilli oil on a medium-high heat in a frying pan (skillet) and add the garlic, ginger and pork and stir-fry for about 5 minutes, breaking the pork up as you go. Add the soy sauce and mirin and continue to cook for another 5 minutes or so until the liquid has reduced completely. Set aside and leave to cool while you prepare the rest of the dish.

Bring a saucepan of water to the boil and blanch the beansprouts for 30–60 seconds until just cooked, then remove with a sieve or slotted spoon and run under cold water to stop the cooking. Allow the water in the pan to come back to the boil, then cook the noodles until a bit softer than al dente – they will firm up when you chill them, so they should seem a bit soft. Drain the noodles and rinse them under cold water, using your hands to toss them to make sure you remove as much residual starch as possible.

Combine half of the beansprouts with all of the noodles and toss together with half of the dressing. Transfer to a serving dish, then layer the remaining beansprouts on top of the noodles, along with the cucumber and spring onions. Drizzle over the remaining sauce and extra chilli oil, if you like, then garnish with the cress, sesame seeds and spices. Place the egg yolk in the centre and mix everything well before eating.

This would be good with edamame or a couple skewers of yakitori, recipes for which are both given in the book

Tim suggests pairing this with a a very cold beer or barley tea.

Sesame dressing

This recipe calls for Chinese or Japanese-style sesame paste which is made from toasted sesame seeds but tahini is OK too - it will provide a lighter flavour

Makes about 400ml (13 fl oz/generous 1 1/2 cups)

4 tbsp sesame seeds
180g (6 1/2 oz) sesame paste or tahini
150ml (5 fl oz/scant 2/3 cup) unsweetened soya milk
2 tbsp sesame oil
3 tbsp vinegar (I'm guessing rice vinegar here FB)
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dashi powder

Tip the sesame seeds into a frying pan (skillet) and set over a medium-high heat. Cook the sesame seeds stirring constantly for about 10 minutes until they are noticeably more aromatic and darker in colour. Remove from the pan and leave to cool. Coarsely grind the sesame seeds in a mortar, food processor or spice mill, then add the remaining ingredients and stir until the sugar dissolves. Keep in the fridge for up to a week.

Extracted from Your Home Izakaya by Tim Anderson, published by Hardie Grant at £25. Photography by Laura Edwards.

Prawn, lime, peanut and herb rice noodles

If you've always thought cooking for yourself is a bit dispiriting buy Signe Johansen's book Solo which is full of delicious and inspiring recipes like this zingy pad thai-ish dish of prawn noodles.

Signe writes: This is a super dish to rustle up when you’re tired and hungry - it takes just minutes to prepare and can be eaten either hot or at room temperature. An ice-cold beer alongside wouldn’t go amiss, but a glass of green or jasmine tea also makes an excellent accompaniment.

WARNING: this recipe includes peanuts

Serves 1 (generously. It would easily stretch to two FB)

100g thick or thin rice noodles

vegetable or sunflower oil, for frying

150g raw shelled prawns (or defrosted frozen ones)

1–2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 green chilli, finely chopped

1 spring onion, thinly sliced

small bunch of mint and/or coriander, roughly chopped

1 small carrot, coarsely grated or cut into ribbons with a vegetable peeler

small handful of salted peanuts, roughly crushed

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

lime wedge, to serve (optional)

For the sauce

grated zest and juice of 2 unwaxed limes

1 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp soft light brown sugar or palm sugar

1 red chilli, finely diced

1 garlic clove, finely grated

Combine the ingredients for the sauce in a bowl.

Cook the rice noodles according to the packet instructions until al dente, drain,

toss them in the sauce and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat a little oil in a skillet or frying pan over a medium heat, add the prawns and fry for a few minutes until golden-pink and opaque – remove them from the pan as soon as they’re done so they don’t become tough. Add the garlic, chilli and spring onion to the same pan once you’ve removed the prawns and fry gently for a couple of minutes, then remove the pan from the heat and return the prawns to the pan so all the flavours blend.

Serve the noodles in a shallow pasta bowl or on a dinner plate and scatter over the prawns, herbs, carrot and crushed peanuts. Season to taste and add a lime wedge, if you wish.

Variation: Feel free to add other vegetables such as chopped pepper, broccoli or beansprouts (raw or cooked). I sometimes like to add edamame beans, broad beans and grated courgette, too.

What to drink: I had a bottle of Japanese koshu wine open which went perfectly but a dry riesling or grüner veltliner would also be delicious

Extracted from Solo by Signe Johansen published by Bluebird Books at £16.99. Photograph © Patricia Niven.