Tan Tan Men Ramen

[TheTInCook]

Anyone got a recipe/guidelines?

[_john]

guidelines:

-chicken carcass based soup flavored with ginger and long onion.

-add sesame paste, hot bean paste (Doubanjiang), light soy to the bowl before adding soup slowly to emulsify the sesame paste.

-freshly ground Szechuan pepper and lots of chili oil poured on top.

- scoop of ground pork that is cooked with tian mian jian (sweet bean sauce) and Shaoxing wine on top of the soup.

-some kind of blanched green vegetable on top, usually bokchoy.

*you can add a little vinegar, minced long onion, ground ginger, coarsely ground sesame seeds, sesame oil, oil flavored with long onion, and sugar at the same time as you add the sesame paste to the bowl to taste.

[TheTInCook]

Thanks!

Can hoisin or yellow bean paste/huangdou jian be used in place of the sweet bean sauce?

The doubanjiang is used raw and isn't fried first?

Edited March 28, 2012 by TheTInCook (log)

[_john]

the doubanjiang is raw as far as I know. I guess you can substitute but I would be worried about the ground meat becoming too sweet.

I forgot to mention that you should adjust the seasoning of the broth with salt so that when you add the hot bean paste it is slightly over seasoned. When you add the sesame paste the oil will lessen you perception of the saltiness and you will get the right balance.

Here is a cold version. It is in Japanese but you can get a feel for how things should look. This videos also shows you how to make your own sesame paste.

[TheTInCook]

Neat video! I had no idea that sesame paste needed so much oil added to it.

I'll try and get some of the tian mian jiang. I've never had it before. Always assumed it was just hoisin with out the five spice.

This reminds me of a test I want to try. Roasting tahini to turn it into Asian style sesame paste. Be great to just have to stock the one jar.