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ANTS ON A TREE
40 minutes
little fingers: Kids can measure and stir together the marinade ingredients.

Szechuan peppercorns are a strange beast. They’re not really spicy
at all. Instead, when you bite down on one, it causes a Novocain-like
numbness with a faint citrus haze. There’s no way to make this
sound appealing if you haven’t tried them, but the same is true of
hot peppers. Szechuan peppercorns are, in fact, the dried buds of a
citrus tree, and they were banned in the United States for decades
because of the threat of citrus canker, a parasite that can ruin citrus
crops. (Contraband of varying quality was readily available,
of course.) They’re now legal again as long as they’ve been heat
treated (that is, baked). I have a bottle of the heat-treated ones from
Penzeys.com, and they’re great. If this were not a family book, I
would recommend that you also get baked before enjoying a dish
with Szechuan peppercorns.
Serves about 3

8 ounces ground pork
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon hot bean paste
1 teaspoon cornstarch
6–8 ounces cellophane noodles
2 tablespoons peanut oil
2 scallions, white and light green parts only, thinly sliced
1 red jalapeño or Fresno chile, seeded and minced
½ cup chicken stock
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
¼ teaspoon ground Szechuan peppercorns (optional)

1. In a medium bowl, combine pork with regular soy sauce,
sugar, hot bean paste, and cornstarch. Refrigerate 20 minutes.
2. Place noodles in a large bowl and pour boiling water over to
cover. Soak 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, and drain in a colander.
3. Heat oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet or a wok over medium-high
heat. Add the scallions and jalapeño and cook 30 seconds,
stirring frequently. Add the pork and stir-fry until no longer pink,
breaking up any chunks, about 3 minutes.
4. Add the noodles, chicken stock, dark soy sauce, and Szechuan
pepper. Cook, tossing the noodles with two wooden spoons,
until the sauce is absorbed and pork is well distributed throughout
the noodles. Transfer to a large platter and serve immediately.
nonspicy variation Not really practical, but the hot bean
paste is not really that hot, and the jalapeño is optional. Even at
the height of Iris’s sensitivity to hot stuff , she never complained
about Ants on a Tree.

Notes on ingredients:
Ground pork. To really get the ants to climb the tree, you need
finely ground pork. You can take regular ground pork and pulse
it a few times in the food processor, but I’m too lazy to bother;
the flavor is great either way, and Iris likes big pork bites.
Hot bean paste. This is the stuff Iron Chef Chen was always reaching
for. Available at Asian groceries and some supermarkets,
it’s sometimes called hot bean sauce, or spicy bean paste, or
similar.
Cellophane noodles. Also called bean threads or saifun. Look for
mung bean starch in the ingredients. Around here, they’re sold
in a 6-ounce package.
Dark soy sauce. Also called soy superior sauce or mushroom soy
sauce. I buy Pearl River Bridge Mushroom Soy Sauce at my local
Safeway.
courtesy: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt