Healthy and quick suan la fen (hot and sour noodles)

Back in Singapore, my parents had almost an obsession with Sichuan cuisine. I never really understood their obsession with a cuisine so characterised by the copious amount of oil and Sichuan peppercorns that numb your tongue when you inevitably bite into one. Ed and I love our food incredibly spicy - yes, we're the type who see no shame in blowing our noses into tissues as we devour a startlingly spicy bowl of noodle soup that we topped up with more chilli. So we thought we were in for a good meal when we ordered one of the signature dishes in Sichuan cuisine - a ma la hot pot, until it was served and we ended up scooping out half of the contents of the hotpot. It was pure chilli oil.

However (yes, there's a point to all this), since we've moved to Cambridge, we've somehow come around to enjoying the cuisine much more. Perhaps it is because its familiar flavours remind us of home - at least of eating with my parents; or perhaps it is because they are also quite liberal in their use of vinegar, which we both enjoy (I'm salivating now just thinking about it). I have also started enjoying the tingling sensation of biting into the occasional Sichuan peppercorn.

Since eating out is at least twice, if not thrice, as expensive as eating in, it was inevitable that I would eventually stock up on the staples in the Sichuan cuisine and try my hand at it.

While I love the exploration involved in following a recipe to create a dish I had never made before, I love the process modifying a recipe to create something that suits my taste buds, even more. This way, I end up with a dish that ticks all the right boxes for me and leaves me amply satisfied.

That's exactly what happened when I tried to create the hot and sour noodles, which is more accurately known as Suan La Fen in mandarin. We first tried it in the much raved about Zhong Hua Traditional Snacks in Cambridge. Being pescetarian, our options were limited in the restaurant/cafe. But the Suan La Fen is a good enough dish on its own, pescetarian or not, and we've been happy to return for more.

While searching for suitable recipes, I found that there is quite alot of variation in the toppings. so I exploited this to my advantage. In the healthier (and pescetarian-friendly) version I made, I used a vegetable stock, added some seafood (squid, octopus, mussels and prawns), used less chilli oil, and added a generous amount of thinly sliced zucchini, chopped tomatoes, and fresh coriander. The raw vegetables helped take some of the edge off the heat and tartness of the dish. While the dish still has Sichuan peppercorns, I loved that it was incorporated in the form of powder so that you taste it with every mouthful, and not when you bite into a peppercorn.

I also took the liberty to take the lazier route. While most of the recipes I found off the web required creating a separate sauce that would be added to each individual bowl, I found that it was just as effective adding the sauce to the soup stock directly and adjusting the flavour in the soup stock. All the ingredients that needed to be cooked could be done so in this single pot. It was not just equally effective, it was also way more efficient. I couldn't imagine having to measure out accurately equal portions of sauce and broth for each bowl, even though I was cooking only for two.

The more significant lazy modification involved the vermicelli. The recipes I found required that I soak the noodles in hot water for 30 minutes. With a small kitchen and limited counter space, having one more receptacle lying around can become a hazard. So I tried adding the noodles to the soup stock directly, the way one would cook instant noodles. It worked just as well as soaking the noodles did, and required only a little bit of planning i.e. give the noodles some time to cook, timing the addition of other ingredients so that they all complete cooking at about the same time.

With all these modifications, what seemed like a complicated and time consuming dish is now almost as easy as making instant noodles. With all the ease and none of the msg, I'll definitely be making this more often.

HEALTHY AND QUICK SUAN LA FEN

Serves 2, recipe adapted from here

Ingredients

1 vegetable stock cube

3 tablespoons chinese chilli oil*

3 tablespoons Chinkiang black rice vinegar (substitute with regular rice vinegar if unavailable)

1 tablespoon sesame oil

2 tablespoons light soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorn powder**

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

3 teaspoons brown sugar

Sweet potato vermicelli (substitute with glass noodles / tung hoon, if unavailable)

Seafood of choice

A quarter portion of zucchini, thinly sliced

6 cherry tomatoes, chopped

Fresh coriander

More chinese chilli oil (optional)

Method

In a medium sized pot, bring to boil 800ml of water.

Add vegetable stock cube, chilli oil, vinegar, sesame oil, light soy sauce, sichuan peppercorn powder, black pepper, and sugar.

When the broth is boiling, add vermicelli. Ensure the vermicelli is fully submerged - you may need to use a pair of chopsticks to hold it down until it softens and remains submerged on its own.

When the vermicelli is almost cooked, add seafood. (If using frozen seafood, give the seafood more time to cook by adding it earlier.)

Once both vermiceilli and seafood are cooked, spoon them out into two large bowls and top with zucchini, tomatoes, coriander and more chilli oil.

Serve immediately.

*Chinese chilli oil is easily available in chinese grocery stores. Despite its name, it also contains chilli powder/flakes. When measuring 3 tablespoons of chilli oil, ensure you also include some of the chilli powder/flakes. It is also just as easy to make your own though. If you have all the ingredients for the Suan La Fen, save for the chilli oil, you have the ingredients to make your own chilli oil.

**You can grind your own peppercorn powder using whole peppercorns instead. Simply put the peppercorns through a food processor. Just remember that 3 tablespoons of peppercorn powder is not equal to 3 tablespoons of whole peppercorn.

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