Ants Climbing Trees 🌶🌶

Strange name for a dish that’s essentially spicy noodles without a critter in sight. I can only imagine the name refers to the crumbled pork that sticks to the noodles resembling “ants climbing trees”. But in my opinion, you would need a vivid imagination or many glasses of wine to be convinced. Never the less, this dish is tasty, easy to prepare and packs a bit of punch.

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Ants Climbing Trees

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Course

Main Dish

Cuisine

Asian, noodles

Prep Time

35 minutes

Cook Time

15 minutes

Servings

people

Ingredients

• 5 dried shitake mushrooms
• 300g minced pork
• 2 tbs light soy sauce
• 1 tbs dark soy sauce
• 3 tsp white sugar
• 1/2 tsp corn flour
• 200g vermicelli noodles
• 4 spring onions
• 1 tbs fresh ginger finely diced or grated
• 2 garlic cloves finely diced
• 1 1/2 tbs Chilli Bean Sauce available at Asian grocers
• 2 tbs canola or vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups chicken stock

Course Main Dish Cuisine Asian, noodles Prep Time 35 minutes Cook Time 15 minutes Servings people Ingredients 5 dried shitake mushrooms 300g minced pork 2 tbs light soy sauce 1 tbs dark soy sauce 3 tsp white sugar 1/2 tsp corn flour 200g vermicelli noodles 4 spring onions 1 tbs fresh ginger finely diced or grated 2 garlic cloves finely diced 1 1/2 tbs Chilli Bean Sauce available at Asian grocers 2 tbs canola or vegetable oil 1 1/2 cups chicken stock

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Instructions

1. Soak the mushrooms in boiling water for around half an hour. Drain and squeeze out the liquid. With a sharp knife, slice the mushrooms discarding the woody stalk then finely dice.

   
2. Combine the pork, mushrooms, soy sauces, sugar, garlic and cornflour in a mixing bowl and set aside for half an hour.
3. Soak the noodles in boiling water for 5 minutes (or rehydrate as per packet instructions) and drain. Slice your bowl of noodles in half to make them more manageable when stir frying and set the bowl aside.
4. Thinly slice the spring onions and separate into two small bowls, one of the white and the other of the green section. The green section is used as garnish.
5. Heat 1 tbs of oil in a wok to medium high and fry the pork while breaking the lumps with a fork until it resembles large crumbs. Transfer the meat to a bowl and wipe the wok clean.
6. Add the remaining oil and gently fry the white spring onion, ginger and the chilli bean paste for a minute.
7. Turn the heat up to medium high and add the noodles, stock and the meat.  Stir fry the mixture while bringing to the boil then turn the heat down to a simmer. Continue to stir fry for 2 or 3 minutes until the stock has been absorbed.
8. Divide into individual bowls and sprinkle with the green spring onion.

   

Recipe Notes

From left to right- Vermicelli noodles, Chilli Bean Sauce, pork mince, re hydrated & minced shitake mushroom,spring onion,ginger & garlic

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