Sour and fragrant Yunnan-style small pot rice noodles

Lately, I've been eating too much pasta and really wanted a change. Yunnan rice noodles are like Chongqing hotpot—the flavor is ingrained in the local culture. A trip to Yunnan is guaranteed to hook you; you'll crave it every day! To recreate that Yunnan taste, you need local ingredients like Zhang Yingchi sauce and pickled cabbage—these are the soul of the dish! The tangy pickled cabbage mixed with the sauce's aroma, combined with the meaty fragrance, is irresistible. Picking up a mouthful of rice noodles, each strand is coated in the thick sauce. Slurping them down, they're soft, chewy, and the sauce's salty, savory, sour, and spicy flavors explode on your tongue. The crisp pickled cabbage cuts through the richness of the minced meat, and then you bite into a poached egg soaked in broth. The layers of sour, spicy, fresh, and fragrant flavors build up, warming you from your tongue to your stomach with every bite. Finally, I've satisfied my craving for Yunnan rice noodles!

Ingredients

250g dried rice noodles
2 tablespoons of Yunnan-style fermented soybean paste (The soul. I recommend Zhang Yingchi or Zhaotong brands.)
150g Yunnan pickled vegetables
1 tomato
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
salt to taste
Chives (as needed)
Vegetables as needed
3 cloves of garlic
1 small piece of ginger
1 shallot
0.5 tablespoons dark soy sauce

Steps

Preparing the tomatoes: I prefer to singe them on the gas stove; the skin peels off easily, then I slice them thinly and set them aside. If you're lazy, you can blanch them in boiling water or peel them directly—do whatever's easiest!
Preparing the scallions, ginger, and garlic: Wash the ginger, shallots, and garlic, and chop them into small pieces. The finer the pieces are chopped, the more flavorful they will be.
Minced Meat Rally: Choose pork with a good balance of fat and lean meat, mince it, and adjust the fat-to-lean ratio to your liking. I think a 3:7 ratio gives it the best flavor. Once minced, set it aside and wait to be served~
Prepare all the vegetables: Wash and chop the chives into small sections. I also added spinach, which needs to be blanched first to remove its bitterness. You can also substitute other seasonal vegetables like cabbage or romaine lettuce.
Give your rice noodles a hot bath: Boil a large pot of water, add the rice noodles after the water boils, cook for 15 minutes, remove and rinse with cold water to remove the sticky residue, then drain. Don't skip this step, otherwise the rice noodles will be clumpy!
Fry a sunny-side-up egg until the edges are slightly browned, then add it in. The flavor is instantly enhanced, making the joy of slurping noodles reach its peak!
Heat oil in a pan, then add minced scallions, ginger, and garlic and sauté until fragrant. Add the minced meat and stir-fry until it turns golden brown. At this point, the aroma will be so enticing it will make the neighbor's kids cry!
Add sauce, pickled cabbage, and tomatoes: Push the stir-fried minced meat to the side of the pot. If there is not enough oil, add more. If there is enough oil, add Zhang Yingchi sauce directly. After stir-frying until the oil turns red, add Yunnan pickled cabbage and chopped tomatoes. Stir-fry evenly with the sauce. The sour and fragrant aroma will come out immediately. Add an appropriate amount of water to the pot. Add more if you want more soup.
Prepare the soul of the broth: Add two tablespoons of light soy sauce, one tablespoon of oyster sauce, half a tablespoon of dark soy sauce, a suitable amount of white pepper powder, and salt to the pot. The broth should be a little salty, as it will become less salty when you add rice noodles and vegetables later. Don't worry about it being too salty!
Rice Noodle and Vegetable Feast: I made enough sauce for two days, so I switched to a different pot. I cooked some sauce with the rice noodles, then added chives and blanched spinach and boiled for one minute. Finally, I added a crispy fried egg, and it was done! Time to grab the bowl and show off!
My obsession with Yunnan rice noodles – recreating that tangy, spicy, and savory flavor at home.