Szechuan, Sichuan, Szechwan…. No idea which one to pick… I guess the Szechuan look the best… All meaning the cuisine of the Chinese region of Sichuan, South West from the country. A place well known for it’s spicy meals, it’s famous Szechuan pepper, and it’s fermented beans paste (Doubanjiang). All good stuff to discover!

Living in Spain, it’s not always easy to find a good chinese restaurant, but we finally found a gem, a Szechuan gem; DaZhong. This place is filled with asians, which is a good sign although not many spaniards go there… yet… Each time I go with my husband, we order many plates, our favorite; the spicy Szechuan eggplant with pork. A pleasure for the taste buds.

This dish isn’t exactly a traditional Szechuan dish…It’s a kind of Chinese spaghetti bolognese!  It’s all the Szechuan region flavours and ingredients…but not a traditional dish from there, but a surely a delicious one. Walking around the asian market the other day, I saw those beautiful long asian eggplants, I add to do something with them. I’ve ended up creating this dish, which at first, was supposed to be that eggplant dish… usually with pork, well… it turned into beef. I’ve originally planned on making that eggplant dish but it turned out into that asian bolognese. A lucky mistake and most importantly a tasty one too!

So let’s do this Szechuan flavoured dish!

Szechuan Bolognese Noodles

Makes 4 portions

Ingredients

• 500g ground beef
• 300g egg noodles (or asian noodles you prefer)
• 2 long asian eggplants cut into thick pieces
• 1 small onion finely sliced
• 2 hot thai red pepper finely chopped
• 3 tbsp (2tbsp for the eggplants + 1 tbsp for the sauce)
• 2 tbsp of peanut oil
• 1 tbsp black bean paste (Doubanjiang)
• 2 garlic gloves finely chopped
• 3 cm piece of ginger peeled and finely chopped
• 2 tbsp of dark chinese vinegar (or balsamic vinegar)
• 2 tbsp of honey (or sugar)
• 1 tbsp of chinese cooking wine (or sherry)
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp of chilli flakes paste
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• salt, pepper

Directions

The sauce

1. Mix together the soy sauce, vinegar, honey, chili paste and 1 tbsp of cornstarch

The main meal

1. Add 2 tbsp of cornstarch and 1 tbsp of peanut oil on the eggplants and mix until well coated
2. In a wok, medium-high heat, cook you eggplants for about 5 minutes until light brown on each sides
3. reserve the eggplants
4. Add a bit more peanut oil to the wok, the onion, minced garlic and ginger cook for a minute and bring the heat to high heat
5. Add salt, pepper to the beef meat and add to the wok, mix
6. When the meat is barely cooked, add the black bean paste (Doubanjiang) and mix until well incorporated
7. Add, finally, the predone sauce from step 1 to the wok, cook for a minute
8. Add the eggplants and hot thai peppers back to the wok
9. Cook your noodles in hot water, then drain and add the sesame oil, mix
10. Serve the meat on top of the noodles (or rice) or fry them inside the sauce for a few seconds

Serve with a few chopped thai pepper and scallions on top! Enjoy!