Hello! Hi everyone, Wesley here. Today we're diving back into our series dedicated to foods from TV and film with the scallion noodles from the film Everything, Everywhere, All at Once. For those living under a rock that somehow have still not yet seen this movie, the premise of this scene is that Evelyn is frantically throwing together a quick and easy meal for the family, which is pretty clearly some form of scallion noodles. Scallion noodles are a noodle dish of Chinese origin that features scallions or green onions that have been slow simmered in a low temperature oil to draw out their aromatic qualities, then tossed together with a round lo mein noodle. This makes for a flavorful, aromatic two ingredient noodle dish that almost every Chinese kid has had at some point in their childhood because of how easy it is to make. 

This of course means that there is a LOT of room for us to play around too so, for our version today we're going to do a sesame "dan dan" inspired noodle in which the aromatic scallion oils are combined with a little bit of sesame paste to yield a thick and creamy sauce to coat our lo mein noodles. Then to pair with this (because...why not), since we are already making an aromatic oil today, I thought we might also explore a wider range of aromatic spices that can be used with some star anise, Sichuan pepper, coriander, cinnamon and Tian Jin pepper or in other words, my personal favorite five spices to use in a Chinese five spice blend. Hope you try it. 

 

Serves 2-3

INGREDIENTS

  • 4 cloves garlic

  • 1 inch (about 1 tbsp) ginger

  • 2 dozen green onions

  • 8 oz lo mein noodles

  • 1 1/2 cups neutral oil (grapeseed, canola, or vegetable)

  • sesame seed

  • 1 cinnamon stick

  • 1 star anise pod

  • 12 Tian Jin peppers

  • 1 tbsp Sichuan peppercorn

  • 1 tbsp coriander

INGREDIENTS (sauce)

  • 4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 2 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)

  • 1 tbsp shaoxing wine

  • 1 tbsp rice vinegar

  • 1 tbsp brown sugar

  • 1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce

  • 2 tbsp sesame paste

PREP

  • SEPARATE the whites and greens of the green onions, then slice them vertically into strips and set aside

  • COMBINE all sauce ingredients and whisk until a smooth sauce forms, set aside

  • CRUSH and peel the garlic, set aside

  • PEEL and rough chop the ginger, set aside

ON THE STOVE

  • HEAT a wok over low heat, then add the neutral oil, garlic, ginger, and whole spices

  • SIMMER the spices for 20 minutes until fragrant and the garlic begins to turn golden brown, then pass through a fine mesh sieve to remove the solids

  • ADD the aromatic oil back to the wok over low heat, then add the whites of the green onions and simmer for 5 minutes

  • ADD the greens of the green onions and simmer for an additional 20 minutes until golden brown, then remove from heat

  • BOIL a pot of water, then add the lo mein and cook with constant agitation for 2 minutes

  • STRAIN the noodles and add to a large mixing bowl, then combine with the sauce mixture

  • ADD the aromatic oil 1/4 cup at a time, then add the crispy scallions in, reserving 1/4 cup scallions for garnish

  • FINISH with reserved scallions and sesame seed

 

tagged with everything everywhere all at once, eeaao, scallion noodle, green onion noodle, chinese noodle, lo mein, chinese noodle recipe, chinese food, chinese cooking, chinese recipe, woo can cook