Ants climbing a tree (fried vermicelli noodles with ground meat) | 蚂蚁上树

Ants climbing a tree is a traditional Sichuan dish. It is a vivid way of describing how the minced meat is scattered over the vermicelli noodles which looks like tree branches, with green scallions serving as leaves. A savory dish I loved since childhood, and glad that I can bring back the taste with this recipe.

STEPS

1.

Submerge the vermicelli noodle in hot water for 15 min. Then drain the noodle dry.

2.

Meanwhile, season the ground meat with soy sauce. Mince the ginger and garlic into fine pieces. Cut scallion into rings, separate white and green parts.

3.

Heat a wok on high, then add in a drizzle of oil. Add dried chili if you love spice. Add in the ground meat, scallion white, minced garlic and ginger, stir fry and separate the meat pieces apart. Add in Pixian County Bean Paste, fully mix with meat. Cook till there's no raw meat, around 5 min.

4.

Add in the drained vermicelli noodle, stir fry until completely mixed with ground meat. Cook until vermicelli noodle softens, about 6 min. Add water 1/4 cups at a time if the vermicelli noodle does not reach the desired softness.

5.

Add Sichuan peppercorn flavored oil. Transfer to plate and sprinkle with scallion green.

TIPS

Sweet potato vermicelli noodle is recommended for this dish. Submerge it in hot or boiled water so that it is mostly cooked before stir fried. In this way we do not have to add too much water to the wok to soften the vermicelli noodle, which in turn allows higher wok temperature to bring out the flavors.

Seasoning the meat beforehand can add more flavor, but is optional.

Sichuan peppercorn flavored oil can balance the flavor of meat and add another layer of flavor. Alternatively, you can add Sichuan peppercorn together with oil in step 3, keep on medium low heat until the flavor is brought out, then discard the peppercorn. (You would not want to accidentally chew on the numbing Sichuan peppercorn).