The Art of Making Yibin Burning Noodles: A Step-by-Step Guide

Making Yibin burning noodles, also known as Xiang You, is an art that requires patience and attention to detail. The dish originated in Sichuan Province, China, and is a staple in the local cuisine. To make this beloved dish, one needs to start with making the chili powder from scratch. "Now of course, if you're looking for shortcuts, feel free to just use a good chili powder here instead of making it from scratch…it's just that most chili powders sold in Sichuan are toasted chili powders, and I'm not sure if that's true with something like Western-style cayenne pepper," says the narrator.

To make the chili powder, one needs to toast the chilis into a powder. "Now of course, if you're looking for shortcuts, feel free to just use a good chili powder here instead of making it from scratch…it's just that most chili powders sold in Sichuan are toasted chili powders, and I'm not sure if that's true with something like Western-style cayenne pepper." The chilis are tossed in hot oil until they start to smolder. This process removes the pungency of the raw rapeseed oil and is also an important step when using Indian mustard seed oil instead.

The next step is to make the chili oil. For this dish, the most proper base would be Sichuan caiziyou, a sort of virgin rapeseedoil. However, this oil is aggressively unavailable in the West, so if one can get their hands on it, use Indian mustardseed oil instead. If not, go for peanut oil. The heat should be turned up to 60 grams worth until it begins to smoke, or about 230 centigrade. Keep it there for a minute or two, then shut off the heat. This process removes the pungency of the raw rapeseed oil and is also an important step when using Indian mustard seed oil as well.

Once the chili oil has cooled down a touch, to about 210 degrees Celsius, add in 25 grams of crushed ginger, one whole walnut, a half a cinnamon stick, two star anise and a teaspoon Sichuan peppercorn. This lowers the temperature so that the oil's fried for about five minutes over a low flame, or until the oil's reached about 150 degrees. Then take out the clunkier spices, and strain that into your chili powder. Give it a good stir, then pour in 60 grams of melted lard... and if you're keeping veg, feel free to swap the lard with some cooked peanut oil.

The next step is to make the peanuts and sesame seeds. If one can buy unsalted roasted peanuts feel free to use those, but we're using raw, so we'll be toasting those over a medium flame for about twelve minutes, or until the peanuts are cooked through and charred on the outside. To peel, a cool technique is to rub the toasted peanuts between your fingers, then lightly blow the peanuts to get off the peels. Much faster than going one by one.

Then to crush, let's go with the classic homecooking technique of tossing the peanuts in a bag, then rolling over them with a big Tsingtao beer bottle. After about two minutes, the peanuts should be pretty crushed... in the end you're looking for something that's about this consistency. For the sesame seeds, toast them over a medium-low flame for about five minutes, or until they start to deepen in color and you can hear a couple popping.

To make the noodles, one needs to have everything handy. Fresh noodles cook real fast, so be sure to have everything ready. One traditional tool that's used in Yibin is one of these things... vendors will toss the noodles in after cooking and vigorously strain them... you could do the same thing with a standard strainer, but something conical like a chinois would probably be most effective.

So toss the noodles in, here 150 grams for one portion, and cook until they're just past al dente, or about one minute for this sort of fresh noodle. Then toss the noodles in your strainer of choice, give it a few rigorous shakes, then toss in a bowl. Immediately go in with your liquid ingredients... two tablespoons of your Yibin chili oil, one teaspoon toasted sesame oil, and one teaspoon light soy sauce... and give that all a thorough mix.

Now top with two tablespoons of your peanut/sesame mix, two tablespoons yacai, two tablespoons sliced scallion, and either a quarter teaspoon of MSG or a half teaspoon of chicken bouillon powder, up to you. And with that, your Yibin burning noodles are done... nothing left but to mix it up, and... devour.

Yibin burning noodles also have its own variations - in one style where the xiangyou doesn't have chili in it, and in another style where the dish is served cold. The Sichuanese version of the dish is a staple in the local cuisine, and is often served with vegetables, meat, or tofu. The art of making Yibin burning noodles is not just about cooking, but also about the presentation and the flavor profile. With practice and patience, one can master this ancient Chinese recipe and create a delicious meal that will leave everyone wanting more.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enSo this week, we wanted to show you burningnoodles… a much beloved dish from the townof Yibin in southern Sichuan.It’s got a hit of nuttiness, some complexityin the form of their local fermented mustardgreens, yacai... and of course, a good bitof spice.But the reason it’s called ‘burning noodles’actually doesn’t really have anything todo chilis or scovilles… the character ran,or burning, directly translated means to ignite.It refers to the fact that this is decidedlynot a soup noodle dish.So much not a soup noodle dish, in fact, youcould theoretically take a lighter to thenoodle and actually scorch the thing.As for why?You can actually find this sort of explicitlynot-soup noodle dish up and down the upperreaches of the Yangzi river.Probably the most famous might be Wuhan’shot dry noodle , the dry referringto, well, that’s it’s not a soup noodle.Go a bit further up and you can find Wanzhou’szajiang noodle , and after thatget to Chongqing’s mala xiaomian– which was, in the past, also served dry,not in soup like it is today.And of course, once you arrive at the Yangzi’shighest navigable point, Yibin, you’re greetedwith burning noodles.Now all of these cities are places historicallydefined by the Yangzi river trade, which backin the day was an infamously harrowing journeyin the river’s upper reaches.Even well into the steamboat age, the journeyhad to be completed with the assistance oftow men – men that would literally pullbarges upstream with their bare hands….their work chants, called ‘haozi’, ringingthrough the perilous gorges.So there’s always been this sort of … fluvialtoughness to people there.It’s likely these river towns that werethe first in China to use chili pepper extensively,it’s got one of the strongest winter swimmingcultures in the country, and I think it’sprobably no coincidence that much of China’sunderground punk and heavy metal scenes centersaround Wuhan and Chongqing.As for why these cities all have dry noodles?The sources are… super super murky.It could really be any number of things, butthe explanation we liked best was that thepeople working on the docks wanted to be ableto grab a bowl of noodles and go.A rocky boat isn’t exactly the best placefor a soup noodle after all.But history aside, to get started with Yibinburning noodles, you’ll need… noodles.Fresh alkaline noodles to be exact.Now, living here in China, we can generallyjust waltz to the market and pick up freshalkaline noodles, but I know many of you livingoutside China aren’t so lucky.So while you can totally sub in somethinglike a proper ramen noodle, for the sake ofcompleteness let’s show you how to makesome Sichuan-style alkaline noodles.To make this though, you’ll need an ingredientcalled jianmian , that is, sodiumcarbonate.Note that sodium carbonate is a much, muchstronger base sodium bicarbonate, that is,baking soda.It’s got a pH of about 11.5 compared tobaking soda’s 8.5 – pH being a logarithmicscale and all, you’d need an exponentiallymore baking soda to have the same effect.You should be able to buy some online, butbarring that, you can also spread some bakingsoda out on a tray and bake it for one hourat around 150 centigrade.At temperatures above 80 celcius, baking sodadecomposes, forming water vapor, carbon dioxide,and the sodium carbonate that you’ll need.Either way, mix a half teaspoon of sodiumcarbonate in with 125 grams of water, thendrizzle that into 300 grams of bread or noodleflour.You’ll want the noodles to have a significantbite to them, which’s why we’re usinga high gluten flour and making a pretty drydough – for those of you keeping score,we’re at about 42% hydration, but we’veseen some recipes go even lower than 40.So now while this would obviously be doneby hand traditionally, I – your narrator– am truthfully not the most experiencednoodle maker ever so I’ve going to makemy life easy and use a stand mixer with thehook attachment.So let that go for eight minutes on speedtwo, or alternatively knead by hand for thesame duration.After that time, you’ll see that the dough’sstill looking crumbly.Don’t panic, just knead it all together,and let that rest for a half an hour.Now, second untraditional thing– we’llbe using a pasta maker today.Again, you can totally roll this out thinby hand, and if you’d like to see how, checkout our Zhajiangmian video up here.That said, a pasta maker’ll be a bit easier,and noodle workshops in China these days generallyuse machines anyhow.So toss that through the pasta maker at thewidest setting, then pass it through againat the third smallest setting.Then thoroughly flour both sides of the dough,and fold three or four times.Now grab a knife, and slice that dough intonoodles.You’re looking for something that’s abouttwo millimeters wide, though with hand cutnoodles it’s totally normal to have somethat end up a little thinner or thicker.Separate out the noodles, flour them up, anduse anytime within the next day or so.So besides the noodles, what makes a burningnoodle a burning noodle are its toppings.It’s loaded up with crushed toasted peanutsand sesame seeds, a generous bit of slicedscallions, and of course… yibin yacai .If you’re familiar with Dan Dan noodlesor some other classic Sichuan dishes, you’veprobably heard of yacai – pickled and fermentedmustard green.Yacai famously comes from yibin, and is unfortunatelyone of those ingredients with no real subs.While not all Asian supermarkets abroad seemto carry it, the good ones do, and it’salways available online.You could potentially play around with someother Chinese preserved vegetables, but honestly?Yacai’s so fundamental here that if youcan’t find it I’d probably just… recommendmaking.. something else.But then together with those toppings, thenoodles are also mixed with a heavy dose ofan Yibin-style chili oil called xiangyou…it’s probably equally as fundamental tothe dish as the yacai, so… let’s startthere.So this oil starts with toasted chili powder,traditionally a mix of two parts erjingtiao,so here, 20 grams; and one part heaven facingchili, so for us, 10 grams.I do know that Sichuan erjingtiao are reallytough to buy outside China though, so feelfree to sub those with some arbols or cayennes.So then toast your chilis in a dry wok overa medium-low flame for about five minutes…the chilis’ll be done once they’ve deepenedin color and started to smell real nice.After that, snip the chilis into about onecentimeter long slices, leaving the seedsbut tossing the stems… and pulse the chilisinto a powder.Now of course, if you’re looking for shortcuts,feel free to just use a good chili powderhere instead of making it from scratch…it’s just that most chili powders sold inSichuan are toasted chili powders, and I’mnot sure if that’s true with something likeWestern-style cayenne pepper.Then to make the chili oil… for this dishthe most proper would be a base of Sichuancaiziyou, which’s a sort of virgin rapeseedoil.It is aggressively unavailable in the West,so if you can nab some use Indian mustardseed oil instead, it’s basically a directsub.Barring that?Just go peanut oil… but no matter what heatup 60 grams worth til it begins to smoke,or about 230 centigrade.Keep it there for a minute or two, then shutoff the heat.This process’ll remove the pungency of theraw rapeseed oil, and’s also an importantstep in using Indian mustard seed oil as well.Once it’s cooled down a touch, to about210 celcius, add in 25 grams of crushed ginger,one whole walnut, a half a cinnamon stick,two star anise and a teaspoon Sichuan peppercorn.This’ll lower the temperature, so fry thosefor about five minutes over a low flame, oruntil the oil’s reached about 150 degrees.Then take out the clunkier spices, and strainthat into your chili powder.Give it a good stir, then pour in 60 gramsof melted lard… and if you’re keepingveg, feel free to swap the lard with somecooked peanut oil.And with that, your xiangyou is done… youcan use immediately in a pinch, but this chilioil’s always better the next day.Now for the peanuts and sesame.If you can buy unsalted roasted peanuts feelfree to use those, but we’re using raw,so we’ll be toasting those over a mediumflame for about twelve minutes, or until thepeanuts are cooked through and charred onthe outside.Then to peel, a cool technique is to rub thetoasted peanuts between your fingers, thenlightly blow the peanuts to get off the peels.Much faster than going one by one.Then to crush, let’s go with the classichomecooking technique of tossing the peanutsin a bag, then rolling over them with a bigTsingtao beer bottle.After about two minutes, the peanuts shouldbe pretty crushed… in the end you’re lookingfor something that’s about this consistency.Then for the sesame seeds, toast them overa medium-low flame for about five minutes,or until they start to deepen in color andyou can hear a couple popping.Then give them a super light pound in a mortarto just barely break them open, and, alternativelyfeel free to use the beer bottle method.Then mix them in with the peanuts, and nowwe can make some noodles.So fresh noodles cook real fast, so be sureto have everything handy.One traditional tool that’s used in Yibinis one of these things… vendors’ll tossthe noodles in after cooking and vigorouslystrain them… you could do the same thingwith a standard strainer, but something conicallike a chinois would probably be most effective.So toss the noodles in, here 150 grams forone portion, and cook until they’re justpast al dente, or about one minute for thissort of fresh noodle.Then toss the noodles in your strainer ofchoice, give it a few rigorous shakes, thentoss in a bowl.Now immediately go in with your liquid ingredients…two tablespoons of your Yibin chili oil, oneteaspoon toasted sesame oil, and one teaspoonlight soy sauce… and give that all a thoroughmix.Then top with two tablespoons of your peanut/sesamemix, two tablespoons yacai, two tablespoonsof sliced scallion, and either a quarter teaspoonof MSG or a half teaspoon of chicken boullionpowder, up to you.And with that, your Yibin burning noodlesare done… nothing left but to mix it up,and… devour.So like many beloved dishes, ranmian alsohas its own variations – in one style wherethe xiangyou doesn’t have chili in it, andthen the chili itself is added inlater, separately .And then there’s another version which’scalled tangran (糖燃) – sugar ranmian– which contains sugar, and lard.So right!Check out the Reddit link in the descriptionbox for a detailed recipe, a big thank youfor everyone supporting us on Patreon… andof course, subscribe for more Chinese cookingvideos.\n"