Dan Dan Noodles

Slice Spring onions thin on the bias and crush Roasted peanuts with the flat of your knife. Mash Garlic with a pinch of Sugar until it turns to a sticky paste. Toast Sichuan peppercorns in a dry pan over medium heat until it crackles and smells sharply citrusy, about 1 min 30 sec. Cool, then grind to a fine powder. Chop Ya cai very fine so no firm bits survive the frying. If yours tastes aggressively salty, rinse it and squeeze it dry in a cloth.

⚠ Tip: A quick crush and shake through a sieve is fine here: you want powder, not grit, or the numbing lands in one bite instead of spreading.

⚠ Tip: Ya cai is the backbone of the dish. Skip it and you are eating chilli noodles, which is a different, sadder bowl.

Divide between four deep bowls, layering in this order: 2 tbsp Chinese sesame paste, 4 tbsp Chilli oil, 2 tbsp Light soy sauce, 1½ tbsp Chinkiang vinegar, Garlic, then a scattering of ground Sichuan pepper. Add 4 tbsp Chicken stock to each bowl and leave the sauces sitting un-stirred.

⚠ Tip: Do not stir the sauce yet. The sesame paste sits under the chilli oil and mixes properly only when the hot noodles land on it and you toss at the table.

Heat the wok dry over high heat. Add 2 tbsp Neutral oil, swirl, then add Minced pork. Spread it flat, press it down and leave it for a full 1 min without stirring so it crusts on the bottom before you break it up. Keep breaking the pork into small crumbs and fry until no pink remains and the edges are dry and browned, about 4 min.

⚠ Tip: Do not start stirring straight away. Dry-fried pork is chewy-crisp nuggets, not grey mince.

Splash in Shaoxing wine and scrape the crust off the wok. Let it hiss off for 20 sec, then stir in Dark soy sauce until every crumb turns dark and glazed. Fold in the chopped Ya cai and fry for another 1 min, until the whole wok smells sharply savoury and fermented.

Boil Sichuan wheat noodles in plenty of rolling water until just springy, one or two minutes less than the packet says. Pull one out and bite it: it must still have a squeak. Drain hard and shake dry, then divide the noodles between the four bowls, straight on top of the untouched sauce.

⚠ Tip: Undercook by a minute. They keep cooking from the heat of the sauce and a mushy noodle cannot be saved by any amount of chilli oil.

Spoon the pork topping over the noodles, then finish with Roasted peanuts and Spring onions. Serve immediately and toss hard at the table for a good 20 sec, lifting the noodles from the bottom so the sesame paste, chilli oil and peppercorn hit every strand. Eat while still hot and squeaky.

⚠ Tip: The first bite should numb and sting; if it does not, you held back on the peppercorn or the chilli oil. Finish the bowl with the sauce at the bottom, not a forkful of plain noodle.