Ants Climbing Up A Tree

Yesterday, after almost a year of living in Malmö, for the very first time I cooked meat. I am not a big meat fan, but occasionally, I have a few bites of lamb or beef to satisfy my doctor´s worries about my intake of iron.
Couple of weeks ago, I signed up for Taste & Create, a real fun event run by Myamii via For The Love Of Food. You get randomly paired to another blogger and you cook from each other. It is a great way to get to know new bloggers, or to re-discover the old ones.

For me, it meant to meet a completely new blogger KC - a wonderful Chinese lady behind Kitschow curtain. Her recipes are very traditional, homey and...... full of ......meat.
I browsed through all her recipes ever since she tarted posting in January 2008. KC focuses on tradition, her recipes feature simple everyday ingredients, her instructions are very detailed and easy to follow, turning you into a Chinese Cooking 师傅 Shi Fu (master).

Most of the recipes I remember eating on a daily basis, when living in China, dishes I used to adore. I almost forgot about them, so running through KC´s blog was like going back in time. And once I saw her 蚂蚁上树 Ma Yi Shang Shu, I was determined - went to the store and for the very first time in my Swedish life, I bought 200g ground beef.

蚂蚁上树 Ma Yi Shang Shu used to be on top of my Top 10 Every day Dishes to eat during my student life in Beijing. I never knew why the dish was called like that and I never investigated. It was KC and her lovely story that made me laugh and re-fall in love with the dish again:

...This is a dish of mung bean vermicelli stir fried with ground pork. The bits of meat stuck to the vermicelli represent ants climbing up a tree. The ground meat should be thoroughly broken up when cooked but I like to taste the meat so mine are clumps rather than bits. My version resembles ant colonies on the tree...

Cute! So here is the recipe, I only adjusted a few things - I used beef, since pork is not really my thing and I quadrupled the quantity of the chili bean sauce (after all, this is still "burnt mouth" you´re reading :-)

ANTS CLIMBING UP A TREE
(蚂蚁上树 - Ma Yi Shang Shu)

• 200 g dried vermicelli mung bean noodles
• 200 g ground beef *
  
• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 2 tbsp cooking rice wine
• 1 1/2 tbsp 豆瓣酱 dou ban jiang - spicy fermented soy bean paste
• 1 teaspoon tapioca starch or corn starch (optional) *
• 2 stalks spring onions, chopped
• small piece ginger, finely chopped
  
• 1 cup veggie broth
• oil
• cilantro for garnish (optional)
  

*Note: I have skipped the starch, for I was looking for "single bodied ants" climbing up a tree. If you use the starch, you´ll re-create KC´s favorite - ant colonies climbing up the tree.

*Note: Some of you keep asking for the vegetarian version. Of course you can use ground TVP (textured vegetable protein, a.k.a soy mince). When marinating though, do use the starch, so they stick nicely to the mung beans.

Add soy sauce, rice wine, tapioca starch (if using) to a bowl. Mix in pork and marinate for 10 minutes. Soak the noodles in a bowl of cold water for about 10 minutes, then drain. Cut them into shorter pieces so that they will be easier to stir fry.

Heat the wok first. When smoking hot, pour some oil into the hot pan and swirl it around. Add the ginger and scallions and fry a bit, then add the pork and stir fry together. Add the hot bean sauce and mix everything well together.
Add the vermicelli to the pork sauce and stir fry. The noodles will become limp. Add some soup stock and let the noodles absorb the liquid. The noodles should be translucent but they shouldn't be mushy. Add more liquid if necessary. Keep tossing everything in the wok. Sprinkle some sesame oil over the noodles. Note: the whole cooking process should take less than 10 minutes.

Result? Me and Tompa were fighting for the last bite. KC thank you so much for your recipes, you have a true two fans over here :-)