Biang Biang Noodles

In a large bowl combine the flour, room temperature water and salt with a wooden spoon. Once it starts to form a dough, knead for 5 minutes until smooth. This is a very dry dough, don’t be tempted to add any more water, it should all come together with a bit of elbow grease.

Divide the dough into quarters, and then quarters again. Roll each piece into a small sausage and coat generously with vegetable oil. Place the oily sausages into an oily tray, cover with cling film and allow to rest for a minimum of an hour and a half.

Finely chop the spring onions.

After the dough has rested, start boiling a large pot of water—you’ll need to get the noodles in the pan as soon as they are made.

Start heating the 50ml oil in over medium heat.

Take a log, flatten and roll into a rectangle using a rolling pin. Press in a chopstick to make an indent (this is where you will rip your noodles).

Hold either end of the rectangle, and gently pull whilst you slap the centre onto your work surface. Continue gently pulling and slapping (which creates the signature bang noise). Keep going until you have a long thin noodle.

Rip along the centre and take this to your boiling water—boil for 30 seconds to 1 minute until it floats to the top.

Continue until you have a bowl of noodles—toss them in a teaspoon of sesame oil to prevent sticking!

Blanch the pak choy in the same noodle water for 30 seconds.

Take out 4 small bowls and start prepping the toppings.

In each bowl, on top of the noodles, grate in a clove of garlic and 1 cm of ginger. Add in each; 1 tablespoon chopped spring onion, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 teaspoon chilli powder and 1 tablespoon dark Chinese vinegar - add the greens to the side of the bowl.

Pour a few tablespoons of your (now smoking hot) oil onto the noodles—aiming for the garlic and chilli powder.

Quickly mix up the noodles and eat immediately!