Szechuan Vegetable Noodles

Szechuan Cuisine is one among several regional Chineese Cuisines.Hearing about Szechuan ,people immediately think of hot ,spicy dish with a bright attractive red color.But the fact is that Szechuan dishes are not that hot compared to Indian food.Many among them are not at all spicy.
Szechuan cuisine is a style of cooking originated from Sichuan , a province in central-western China with its capital at Chengdu.Sichuan is also known as the “Land of Abundance”,which is one of the major production bases in China.The climate is often heavily wet,cold &foggy .It is the Szechuan red peppercorns ( “huajiao” means flower pepper in Chinese) that gives Szechuan dishes its distinctive taste.This is inexpensive and are available in different Chineese groceries.
My recipe is an Indianized version of Szechuan Noodles.As i don’t have Szechuan peppercorns with me,i normally use red chilly paste in all Szechuan dishes i prepare.But experts says this cannot be used as an alternative for Szechuan peppercorns.Anyway I didn’t get a chance to try it.
Here goes my recipe …

Ingredients:-
Cooked Noodles – 4 cups.
Add noodles to boiling water adding 1/2 tsp of oil into it(this will prevent noodles from sticking together).Cook it for 5 minutes.Immediately washed the noodles in cold running water for 4-5 times.Drain well using a strainer and keep aside.
Vegetables(Carrots,Green Beans) cut into thin slices – 2 cups
Diced Onions – 1
Diced Capsicum- 1/2(If you want you can add red peppers,yellow peppers etc according to your choice & taste)

Veggies Needed

Sun dried Tomatoes(Optional) -3
Vinegar – 2 tbsp
Soya Sauce -1 tbsp
Red Chilly sauce – 1 tbsp
Whole dried red chillies – 3 -4
Red Chilly paste -1 tbsp(You can buy it ready made from Grocery stores or you can prepare it by mixing kashmiri red chilly powder,salt & Vinegar)
Oil as needed
Salt to taste

Method:-

Heat oil in a pan and stir fry onions and capsicum for sometime.When it starts to change its color add vegetables and tomatoes into it.Stir it well .Add Whole red chillies,and red chilly paste into it.Then add all the sauces and salt.Be careful while adding salt,as soyasauce may be salty.Then slowly add cooked noodles into it and mix it thoroughly.Add vinegar and keep it in high heat for 3-4 minutes stirring continuously.Serve hot when its done.

Szechuan Veggie Noodles

Usually for Chineese dishes they do all the cooking in a large pan and applying high heat tossing continuosly.Thats why we don’t usually get the same restaurant taste for Chineese dishes when we do at home.