There are some crave-able things in the world that are stupidly unattainable. For instance, when I was living in Germany, I got absolutely, totally and completely addicted to Döner- the Turkish kabab pita sandwich- specifically the one made in an amazing little hole in the wall in the small northern town I lived in called Plön. I swear I’ve looked at plane ticket prices to Hamburg with that dish on my mind.

On the other hand, some crave-able things are 100% attainable. You can make them yourself and stuff them in your face be satisfied in the way only fulfilling a food craving can satisfy you.

Happily, these Sesame Noodles that I first had in China with my mum back in 2001, fall into the latter category. ALL the ingredients are readily accessible as long as you have an Asian market near you or access to the interwebs, and putting them together takes as long as it takes to boil and rinse the noods. 10 minutes tops, swear to god.

Sesame Noodle Recipe Formula

This recipe is for 4servings. But at AbsoluteNom, we know a thing or two about scaling, so here’s the formula by VOLUME (use a kitchen scale and weigh the shit people. It’ll work better, trust me.)

You need about 4 oz of sauce for every 1 lb of cooked, drained noodles. (note, I said COOKED noodles, not like, raw fresh noodles.)

• Sugar 2.00%
• Vinegar 6.00%
• Soy Sauce 12.00%
• Sesame Paste 22.00%
• Hot Water (or braising liquid) 50.00%
• Sesame or peanut Oil 12.00%

Easy Restaurant-Style Sesame Noodle Recipe

Recipe by Zesty PavlovaCourse: Sides, MainCuisine: ChineseDifficulty: Easy

Servings

4

servings

Prep time

5

minutes

Cooking time

5

minutes

This recipe yields about 1 cup (200g) of delightful, magical sesame sauce which is the perfect amount to cover about 16 oz. of delicious noods. That’ll be 4 servings if you’re treating it like a main dish and 8 if you’re treating it like an appetizer or, even better, bringing it to a paaaaarty! It completely fills that craving for takeout sesame noodles.

Toss the chilled noodles in the sauce and serve immediately with all the toppings your heart desires.

Ingredients

• Sauce

• 16 oz. fresh or frozen noodles*, cooked, well-rinsed and well-drained

• 1 (4g)tsp sugar

• 4 tsp (12g) black vinegar

• 2 tbsp (24g) soy sauce

• 3 tbsp (44g) toasted sesame paste

• 1/2 cup(100g) hot water (or if you’re feeling extra fancy, the liquid left over from braising pork** like chashu – this stuff makes the world a better place.)

• 2 tbs (24g) toasted sesame oil or peanut oil, whichever you prefer flavor-wise.

• Toppings

• 2 green onions, thinly sliced

• 4 cloves of garlic, minced

• Toasted Sesame Seeds

• Peanuts

• Sichuan Pickled Mustard Greens

• What the hell ever else you like.

• chili oil or lao gan ma

Directions

• For the Sauce
• Combine sugar, vinegar, and soy sauce together and whisk until sugar is dissolved
• Add sesame paste and oil whisk until smooth and emulsified. Sauce should have a velvety texture
• Add water (or chashu braising liquid) and whisk till smooth.
• Stir in Lao Gan Ma
• Assembly
• Divide Sauce into bowls
• Divide Noodles into bowls
• Cover noodles with toppings of choice
• Stir *** and stuff in face

Notes

• Look, I’m not too fussy about the type of noodles I use in this. Half the time they’re homemade egg pasta noodles that I have left over. More traditionally, and what your tastebuds probably expect from the dish based on your restaurant experiences, is the low-hydration alkaline noodles used in most dishes such as this one. Those are dead easy to make and I’ll have a recipe on here sometime.
• **If you’re using the pork braising liquid, and it soy sauce in it, skip the soy sauce and add substitute the braising liquid. Otherwise, you’ll throw off the soy part of the delicate balance.
• ***Half the fun of this dish is getting it and mixing it together yourself. I always serve it in a bowl that’s a little bigger than it needs to be (picture notwithstanding) so it’s easier to stir all the stuff together without making an unholy mess.

There you have it. 10 minutes and you’re in noodle heaven. Occasionally, I like to eat these suckers hot too. The only thing I’ve noticed is that if I make them ahead in order to bring to a party and thereby be the hero of said party, the noods soak up that sauce really really fast even if they’re cold. So bring the noods and sauce separately and then mix at the party. Pro tip. You’re welcome.

Enjoy!!

Products I Used in this Post

• The awesome bowl in the pic. This is from Hand And Hearth by Magnolia. The matte black finish is amazing for shitty photographers like myself as it diffuses the hard light I can’t quite figure out out to control. 😀 It’s also good to eat noods out of. Just tall enough to contain a good portion.