Guangxi old friend noodles

What to get ready

• Thin dried rice noodles 1.4 lb
• Pork 1.6 lb
• Sour bamboo shoots (menma) 12.7 oz
• Fermented black beans 4.2 oz
• Chilli sauce 4.2 oz
• Pork bones 3.5 lb
• Garlic 20 cloves
• Ginger 3.5 oz
• Spring onion 4.2 oz
• Rice vinegar ⅓ cup

Method

1. 1 Rinse the pickled bamboo shoots several times, then squeeze out the excess water and cut them into strips.
2. 2 Chop the fermented soybeans with garlic and ginger, then sauté them in oil for 2 minutes until fragrant.
3. 3 Sauté the pickled bamboo shoots with the fermented bean mixture for 5 minutes until the bamboo shoots are fragrant and have absorbed the flavors.
4. 4 Sour bamboo shoots and fermented soybeans are the foundation of the dish; the absence of one would render it a different dish.
5. 5 Simmer pork bones to make broth, then stir-fry thinly sliced pork and season with chili sauce and vinegar.
6. 6 Blanch the rice noodles, then pour in hot broth with bamboo shoots and meat, and sprinkle with chopped scallions.

With an appliance

• Pressure cooker 1 hr 10 min

  Instead of simmering the bones in step 5, cook under high pressure for 35 minutes, then let it cool naturally for 15 minutes. This replaces the approximately 2 hours of simmering on the stove, so the broth is finished an hour earlier without drying out. The bamboo shoots, fermented bean curd, and sliced meat should still be stir-fried separately as in steps 1–5 before adding them to the broth; cooking them together under pressure will make the bamboo shoots mushy.