Cumin pork noodles
These flavour-packed noodles are coated in a delicious sauce made with cumin seeds, Sichuan peppercorns and other tasty aromatics. It requires a little bit of TLC, but I promise that the results are well worth the effort!
For this recipe you will need a pestle and mortar.
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns
- 1 tsp dried red chilli flakes
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed
- 4 tbsp vegetable oil, plus extra for cooking
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 tbsp Chinese black rice vinegar (can substitute for rice vinegar, if absolutely necessary)
- 1 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine (can substitute for dry sherry vinegar, if absolutely necessary)
- 1 tsp sugar (any type)
- 250g/9oz pork mince
- 200g/7oz dried noodles (any type)
- small handful fresh coriander, roughly chopped
- sea salt
Method
Toast the cumin seeds and Sichuan peppercorns in a dry frying pan set over a medium heat until fragrant, around 1 minute. Transfer to a mortar and pound with a pestle until coarsely ground, then add the chilli flakes and garlic and pound again to combine.
Heat the vegetable oil in a small saucepan set over a high heat until shimmering. Carefully pour the hot oil over the aromatics in the mortar.
Add the light soy sauce, oyster sauce, black vinegar, Shaoxing wine and sugar to the bowl and mix to combine. This is your sauce.
Heat a splash of vegetable oil in a non-stick frying pan or wok set over a medium–high heat. Add the pork mince and stir-fry for 5–8 minutes, or until no longer pink and beginning to brown, then season with salt. Add the sauce, simmer for 1 minute, then remove the pan from the heat.
Meanwhile, cook the noodles according to the packet instructions, then drain.
Add the noodles to the saucy pork and put the frying pan over a medium–high heat. Stir-fry for 2 minutes, or until the noodles are nicely coated in the sauce and everything is heated through.
Remove the frying pan from the heat, add the fresh coriander and toss to combine, then divide between bowls and serve.
Recipe Tips
This dish is inspired by cumin lamb noodles, which as the name indicates, uses lamb instead of pork and is usually made with hand pulled noodles. I’ve opted for pork as I prefer the taste and it’s considerably cheaper, but feel free to use your meat of choice. Alternatively, you could keep the recipe meat-free by using pulled oyster mushrooms or crumbled tofu instead.
Any type of noodles will work in this recipe, but I like using dried Taiwanese-style sliced noodles, which are available in most asian supermarkets, online and in some large supermarkets.