How to Make Beijing Cold Sesame Noodles — The Exact Recipe by Ratio

Transcript

Speaker: Picture this. It is forty degrees Celsius outside in Beijing in late July, the cicadas are screaming, the air smells like baked stone, and someone has just set a chilled celadon bowl in front of you piled high with cold golden wheat noodles glistening with mahogany sesame paste, ribbons of cucumber matchsticks, blanched mung bean sprouts, a small drizzle of fiery red Sichuan chili oil, and a scatter of toasted sesame seeds. You pick up the chopsticks, you stir three times, and the first bite is nutty, tangy, garlicky, ice cold, slick, and exactly what your body has been begging for. This is 涼麵, liangmian, cold sesame noodles. Tonight we walk through the actual recipe — ratio by ratio, gram by gram. I am joined by mainland Chinese chef Liu Jianhua, twenty-two years cooking street food in Beijing's Wudaokou district, and Taipei-born food writer Mei-Ling Chen.

Speaker: Ah, liangmian. 我们说 wo men shuo, we say liangmian. In Beijing, in Sichuan, in Henan, every region has different version. The dish you know in America, the cold sesame noodle from Chinese restaurant, it is most close to Beijing summer street food version. We make in summer because too hot to eat hot food. The Chinese sesame paste, 芝麻醬, zhi ma jiang, this is most important ingredient. Two tablespoon, sixty gram, per person. Not Japanese tahini! Chinese sesame paste is roasted darker, much more nutty, much more thick. You buy in glass jar at Asian market. Brand I use is 北京六必居, Beijing Liubiju, very old company, four hundred fifty years old, founded sixteen hundred. We stir top oil into paste before measure. Then everything else is balance — soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, sesame oil — but the paste is the soul.

Speaker: And Chef Liu is absolutely right about the paste — that is the soul of the dish. In Taiwan we have our own version of liangmian, and it is a little bit different from the Beijing version. We use a yellow alkaline wheat noodle called 油麵, you mian, which has a soft yellow color and a slight springiness from the sodium carbonate in the dough. In the Beijing version, the noodle is a white wheat noodle. Both work, but the texture is quite different. The Taiwanese version usually has more vinegar — Chinkiang black vinegar, one tablespoon — and we add more garlic, sometimes two cloves. We also love a small amount of peanut butter in the sauce, maybe one teaspoon, to make the sauce a little bit more rich and round. The Taiwanese version tastes more sweet-tangy, the Beijing version more savory-nutty. Tonight Chef Liu will teach the Beijing recipe, but the principles are the same.

Speaker: OK, let me teach noodle. For two person, you take two hundred gram dried thin Chinese wheat noodle. Like Italian capellini thickness but white. Brand I recommend is 壽桃牌, Longevity Peach brand, dried thin wheat noodle. Bring big pot of water to rolling boil, one hundred Celsius, two hundred twelve Fahrenheit. Add one tablespoon salt. Drop noodle in, stir immediately so no stick together. Cook three minute exactly — three minute! — for thin noodle. If thick noodle, four minute, no more. Then immediately drain into colander, transfer to large bowl of ice water with many ice cube. Ice water is critical! Stop the cooking instantly, set the texture, make noodle very chewy springy. Thirty second in ice water, then drain again very well, no water remain on noodle. Toss with one teaspoon neutral oil — peanut oil or grapeseed — so noodle do not stick together. Refrigerate fifteen minute before serve. Must be cold.

Speaker: Now the sauce. The Beijing classic ratio that Chef Liu just demonstrated, and that I also use at home, is this. For two servings: two tablespoons of Chinese sesame paste — that is approximately sixty grams; one tablespoon of light soy sauce, fifteen milliliters; one teaspoon of dark soy sauce for color depth, five milliliters; one tablespoon of Chinkiang black vinegar, fifteen milliliters; one teaspoon of granulated sugar, four grams; one small clove of garlic, very finely minced or grated on a Microplane; one teaspoon of toasted Asian sesame oil, five milliliters; and a half teaspoon of Sichuan chili oil if you want some heat. And here is the critical step that most home cooks miss — you must thin the sesame paste with two to three tablespoons of warm noodle cooking water, whisking gradually, until the sauce is the texture of melted chocolate. Too thick and it will not coat. Too thin and it will pool at the bottom of the bowl.

Speaker: Now we assemble. Take cold noodle out of refrigerator. Put in chilled celadon bowl. Pour sauce over noodle, about three tablespoon per serving, forty-five milliliter. Toss with chopstick or with hand wearing food-safe glove. You must toss minimum twenty time! Every single noodle must be coated. This is difference between good liangmian and bad liangmian. If sauce only on top, it is bad. Every strand must be deeply coated nutty mahogany color. Then top with one fourth cup julienned English cucumber, very thin matchstick three millimeter wide, sixty gram. One fourth cup blanched mung bean sprout, blanched ten second only in boiling water then ice bath, drain very well, sixty gram. One quarter cup shredded poached chicken breast, optional but classic, about seventy gram. Final touch — one teaspoon toasted white sesame seed, one teaspoon thin sliced green scallion, drizzle of chili oil. Eat immediately while cold!

Speaker: And the toppings deserve their own conversation. The cucumber — and this is important — must be julienned into matchsticks the same thickness as the noodle, about three millimeters wide. If you use a vegetable peeler or a box grater, the texture is wrong. The match between noodle and cucumber thickness is part of the eating experience. Mung bean sprouts must be blanched — never raw — only ten seconds in boiling water, then immediately into ice water for thirty seconds. Raw sprouts can carry salmonella, so blanching is also critical for food safety, not just texture. The shredded chicken — Chef Liu and I both poach a single chicken breast in lightly salted water at a gentle simmer, ninety degrees Celsius not a rolling boil, for twelve minutes, then rest off heat in the broth for ten more minutes. Shred against the grain into thin threads. Cold sesame noodle is about texture contrast — slick noodle, crisp cucumber, snappy sprout, tender chicken, gritty sesame seed, all in one bite.

Speaker: Last thing — temperature, eating, when. Noodle must be very cold, ten degree Celsius, fifty Fahrenheit, when serve. Bowl also cold — put bowl in freezer for fifteen minute before assemble. Sauce at room temperature, around twenty degree Celsius. The contrast between cold noodle and room-temperature sauce make the dish feel refreshing on hot day. In China, liangmian is summer comfort food, eat in afternoon, sometime for lunch. We never eat in winter. Pair with a small cold dish, maybe smashed cucumber with garlic vinegar 拍黄瓜, pai huang gua, or cold tofu with century egg. Drink — Tsingtao beer very cold, or jasmine iced tea. Eat very loud, slurp the noodle, this is correct way. Slurping cool the noodle in your mouth, also bring out aroma. American friend, do not be polite, slurp!

Speaker: Three takeaways. First, the soul of cold sesame noodles is Chinese sesame paste, 芝麻醬, two tablespoons or sixty grams per serving, thinned to a melted-chocolate texture with two to three tablespoons of warm noodle cooking water. Not Japanese tahini, not peanut butter — Beijing Liubiju brand if you can find it. Second, the Beijing classic sauce ratio is two tablespoons sesame paste, one tablespoon light soy, one teaspoon dark soy, one tablespoon Chinkiang black vinegar, one teaspoon sugar, one clove minced garlic, one teaspoon toasted sesame oil, and a half teaspoon of chili oil if you like heat — all balanced and whisked smooth. Third, every component is about temperature contrast — noodles boiled three minutes at one hundred Celsius in salted water then plunged into ice water for thirty seconds, mung bean sprouts blanched ten seconds and shocked, chicken poached at ninety Celsius for twelve minutes and rested, cucumber matchsticked to three millimeters to match noodle thickness, all served in a chilled bowl at ten degrees Celsius. Thank you, Chef Liu Jianhua. Thank you, Mei-Ling Chen. Until next time.