"For slightly sweet dishes like mushu pork, I would recommend full-bodied whites or reds. Juicy red varietals include Zinfandel, Merlot and Syrah. Rich whites would be like Viognier. ( Try L’Ecole Merlot and Mark Ryan Viognier!)"— Lee Spires, AQUA by El Gaucho (Seattle)

Water-velveting isn't just for chicken—you can use it to give the same silky texture to pork loin. That's how we start our take on sweet-and-sour pork, adding onion, bell pepper, and canned pineapple to complete the stir-fry. We use pineapple juice in the sauce, but balance it out with acidic rice vinegar and aromatic sesame oil.

Place mushrooms in the bowl of a food processor and process until pieces no larger than 1/2-inch remain, about 6 short pulses. Transfer to a small saucepan. Add vegetable oil and stir to combine. Place over medium-high heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until mushroom pieces shrink and are deep golden brown, about 8 minutes. Pour through a fine-mesh strainer set over a small bowl. Reserve mushroom pieces and discard all but 1 tablespoon oil.

One of the problems with ordering dan dan noodles at a Chinese restaurant is that you never know exactly what you'll get. Are they gonna deliver the hardcore Sichuan version swimming in red-hot chile oil and laced with pickled zha cai (mustard root) and mouth-numbing Sichuan peppercorns? Or can you expect the equally delicious but totally different Chinese-American version with more pork, a vinegary soy-based sauce, perhaps some greens, and a sprinkling of peanuts?

You have to do ribs on the grill at least once in the summer, and if you're looking for something beyond your basic bottled barbecue sauce, Noodle game Beginner Guide|https://noodleinsight.com/ you've come to the right place. Here, apricot preserves give the sauce a sweet, fruity flavor, and chipotle chiles add a contrasting earthy, spicy flavor to the sauce that tastes just as good when licked off your fingers as it does on the ribs.

While mushrooms are cooking, combine soy sauce, vinegar, tahini, sugar, chili oil (with its sediment), and broad bean chili paste in a medium bowl. Set aside. Bring 1 quart of salted water to a simmer in a medium pot and keep hot.

Preserved mustard root like this (often labeled "Sichuan Preserved Vegetable") can be found in cans or jars in your Chinese market. Once opened, they'll last for months in a sealed container in the fridge. You don't need much to add big flavor to dishes.

When the mercury rises, do you need to forgo spicy foods? Fortunately, the answer is "no.' Spicy foods can make you sweat , and your body cools as sweat evaporates from your skin. So if you're craving food with some heat when the thermometer reads 100°, go ahead and set your mouth on fire with one of these 15 dishes. They may bring the heat to your mouth, but they won't bring the heat to your kitchen—none of them require turning on the oven.

J. Kenji López-Alt

Recipes abound for General Tso's chicken, one of the most iconic dishes in the takeout canon. All of them, however, seem to consist of chicken fried in a crispy shell, then tossed in a sweet, glossy sauce flavored with garlic, ginger, dried chilies, soy sauce, and sesame oil, among other ingredients. Our biggest complaint about the formula is that overly sugary sauce, which we balance in this recipe with a good amount of vinegar. A couple of tablespoons of vodka and a little marinade added to the batter result in a supremely crunchy, well-textured coating.

Making the sauce for dan dan noodles is exceedingly simple once you've got the basic ingredients in your pantry. It's just a matter of mixing them in the right proportions. Soy sauce forms the base, while Chinkiang black vinegar lends its characteristic acidity—it has a sweet, almost balsamic vinegar-esque aroma to it, though not quite as syrupy as that. Fermented broad bean chili paste comes in many forms throughout China or can be purchased online. Chili oil is a given, and while it's best (and remarkably easy!) to make at home, there are a number of good options available at any decent Chinese market. Look for the kind which has actual chile, garlic, and ginger debris in the bottom of the jar, not the completely clear kind you see in easy-pour bottles. That debris is where the magic is at.

Colorful bell peppers—red, yellow, or orange—cooling cucumbers, and bean sprouts are the base of this vegetable salad with noodles. It gets heat from ground chili sauce in the dressing, plus optional Thai bird chiles that you add to the fresh vegetables.

Grind a combination of beef and smoky, spicy Cajun andouille sausage for burger patties. Grill, then top with blue cheese and a sauce of mayo, ketchup, hot sauce, mustard, parsley, lemon juice, cayenne, horseradish, and garlic for the most spicy and flavorful burgers.

The prototypical street food, dan dan noodles are an ultra-simple dish of cold or warm noodles placed in a bowl with a ladleful of highly seasoned sauce poured on top. Flavored with minced pork, preserved pickled mustard, black vinegar, fermented broad beans, garlic, and plenty of chili oil, the dish is eaten by swirling the slick noodles through the oily sauce, picking up bits of meat and pickles as they go.