America's Test Kitchen

-Today on "America's Test Kitchen," Lan makes Bridget dan dan mian, Adam reviews mortars and pestles, and Dan makes Julia lion's head meatballs.

It's all coming up right here on "America's Test Kitchen."

-Today, we're making dan dan mian, that iconic dish from the Sichuan province of China -- noodles, pork, spice.

Does it get any better, you ask?

It sure does, because Lan's here and she's going to show us how to make it at home.

-Bridget, this is one of my favorite noodle dishes.

Every bite is a little different.

You never get bored.

Let's get started with the sauce.

I've got 1/4 cup of vegetable oil and I'm adding it to a 12-inch nonstick skillet.

If you've got a 14-inch flat-bottom wok, that'd be great for this, too.

-Mm.

-To this oil, I'm adding a tablespoon of Sichuan chili powder.

-[ Whistles ] -Don't worry, it's a chili powder with a moderate heat.

It's a little funky, little fruity.

Next up, I have 2 teaspoons of finely ground Sichuan peppercorn.

-Okay.

-These two ingredients combine to create one of the iconic flavors of Sichuan cooking.

It's called ml, and that translates to numbing heat.

The Sichuan peppercorns have an oil that cause your tongue to tingle, and the chili peppers are just nice and spicy.

Last up to just kind of round out all the flavors, 1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon.

-Mmm.

-To infuse all these flavors into that oil, I'm going to set this burner to low... -Okay.

-...and give this a quick stir.

And this is just going to hang out at low doing its thing for 10 minutes.

-Okay.

-You could make this go faster, but to do so, you'd have to increase the heat, and that drives away a lot of the volatile compounds that bring complexity to this dish.

-That smells incredible.

-Right?

So much has happened in just 10 minutes.

It's aromatic, that oil is vibrantly red.

-Mm-hmm.

-I will transfer this to a bowl.

I'm going to reuse this skillet, so I want to get all of the spices out, but I'm not gonna stress, like, a little bit of oil in here.

To wrap up our sauce, I've got four little ingredients.

First up, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce.

This is pretty much the salt for the dish.

Next, 2 teaspoons of Chinese black vinegar.

It's got a soft acidity.

It's a little bit fruity.

Really fantastic.

-It is worth seeking out.

-Yeah.

Next, this ingredient is pretty cool.

It's a sweet wheat paste.

-Mmm!

-And it's not actually sweet.

It's more of an umami bomb.

It's made by fermenting wheat flour and salt, and it packs a punch in the best way.

So that's 2 teaspoons of the sweet wheat paste.

-Okay.

-And last up, Chinese sesame paste.

-Mmm.

-It's kind of like tahini, except it's made from toasted sesame seeds, so it's darker in color, little bit nuttier tasting.

-It has a really deep, rich taste.

-Yeah.

-Oh, so good.

-And that was 1 1/2 teaspoons.

I'll just give this a quick whisk and set this aside while we move to the next step.

-Sounds good.

-Alright, Bridget, we are moving on to the pork topping.

-Love this part.

-It's so good.

During testing, one of my colleagues referred to it as pork panko.

-That's really good, 'cause it gets super crisp.

-Yes.

I have 8 ounces of ground pork here, and I'm going to flavor this with 2 teaspoons of Shaoxing wine and 1 teaspoon of soy sauce.

-Okay.

-I'm just gonna get in here with my hands and give it a good toss.

All I'm looking for is to make sure the pork is as evenly seasoned as possible.

-Okay.

-That's, uh... it's looking pretty great.

I'm going to go wash my hands.

-Okay.

-I've got 2 teaspoons of oil here.

Do you mind bringing it to a shimmer over medium-high heat?

-I will do that.

-Thank you.

Bridget, you nailed it.

It's a gorgeous shimmer.

-[ Laughs ] You know, I do what I can.

-Now I'm adding our pork.

What I'm going to do is a little bit different.

I'm going to smear it into the bottom of the pan and create one nice, flat, even layer.

Our goal here is to make tiny, tiny bits of pork that can cling to the noodles when we go to eat this, and now that it's flattened I'm going to use the side of my spat to break the meat up into little clumps.

I'm looking for 1/4 of an inch pieces.

It's just a lot of mashing and cutting with the spatula.

It takes about five minutes to get this pork broken up and nicely browned.

-Okay.

[ Pan sizzling ] -This is looking pretty good.

It's starting to pick up some color.

The pieces are broken up.

All that sizzling and popping means it's kind of drying out a little bit, which is actually what we want.

This pork is here to add texture.

-Mmm.

-I'm just going to push this off to the side.

Make some space, and we're going to get our aromatics in.

I've got a teaspoon of vegetable oil, three minced garlic cloves, and 2 teaspoons of grated ginger.

-Mmm!

-And I'm just going to mash this around in the pan and cook it till it starts to brown.

-Alright.

-This is looking pretty great.

I'm going to stir this into the pork.

-Mmm!

Oh, my gosh.

-And we'll set this aside and finish this just before we assemble the bowls.

Alright, bok choy is next.

I've got two small-ish heads of baby bok choy.

These are about 3 ounces each.

I am just going to trim the bottom from this and let the outer leaves kind of fall away.

-Oh, they are so tender already.

-Yeah.

-I love bok choy.

The little baby bok choy, oh, my gosh.

-So tasty.

And this core, I'm just going to split in half lengthwise and repeat with the second one.

Now, people sleep on the bok choy because it's not kind of as intense as the sauce or the pork, but the bok choy makes a great palate cleanser in between bites.

I love it.

How many dishes take care of you like that?

-That's true.

-So I'm going to give this a quick rinse... -Okay.

-...just to make sure any grit in here goes away.

I've got 4 quarts of water here, and I'm not going to season this water at all.

We've got enough salt going on with the dish.

I'm just going to pop this bok choy right in, and I'm just looking for it to kind of develop that jade green color.

Usually a minute will do it.

-Okay.

-What do you think?

Nice and vibrant.

-That looks beautiful.

-So, while we have our water going, I'm going to use this to cook our noodles, as well.

I've got Chinese wheat noodles.

They're really simple, nice and chewy in texture, and they're going right in.

I'm going to give them a quick stir so that they don't cook themselves into one giant mass.

This is a pound of Chinese wheat noodles.

Now, if you can't find Chinese wheat noodles, you can sub other fresh noodles like ramen or lo mein or even dried lo mein.

It's probably going to take about 4 minutes.

-Okay.

-These are looking perfect.

Just cooked through.

So we're going to drain these noodles.

And before we walk away, I want to make sure that I give them a good rinse.

There's a lot of starch on the exterior, and if we left that in place, the starches would glue the noodles together, which would make eating really tricky.

So just want to give this a nice toss, maybe a couple stirs.

-It's hard for me to tell because of the steam, but that's hot water, right, you're using?

-It is.

It is warm water, yes.

And this takes about a minute, really.

-Okay.

-Bridget, we're just minutes away from eating.

I am so excited.

-Assembly time.

-Yes.

So, we're going to reheat our topping over medium heat, and I'm going to add one last ingredient.

It's kind of the secret ingredient, so worth seeking out.

This is called ya cai, and it is a Sichuan pickle.

It's made by salting and fermenting a Chinese mustard plant.

-Mm-hmm.

-And it is funky, salty, savory, a little bit of heat to it.

It's fantastic.

This is 1/3 of a cup of that ya cai.

We're just going to warm this through.

It takes about 2 minutes.

Do you mind keeping an eye on this while I start building our bowls?

-You have so much trust in me.

-[ Laughs ] -That sauce we made earlier that's packed full of flavor, we only need a little bit of it.

I'm just going to give it a quick stir.

It's pretty normal for some of the oil to break out.

And a quick spoonful, or maybe two, in the bottom of our bowl.

Next up, the noodles.

They're not clumping together like mad, which is fantastic.

Now I'm adding our pork.

Quick spoonful right on top.

-Mmm.

-Maybe a little bit more.

-Yes, please.

-And then don't forget the bok choy.

I like to kind of arrange a couple of the leaves on the side.

The color just pops.

-Beautiful.

-And last up, just a little sprinkling of scallions.

-The fragrance, the aroma.

So, a lot going on in this bowl.

-Yeah.

-And it's a work of art.

It's beautiful, and you get to destroy it, which I find fun.

I like to get the noodles nicely coated in that sauce before I dig in.

-Alright.

This is so dangerous.

Usually I have a bib at this point.

-[ Laughs ] -Mmm.

We're going to need a moment.

-There's a lot going on.

Little bit of heat, it's savory, it's salty, it's funky.

Your tongue's vibrating a little bit.

-I'm loving that bit of warmth in there, too.

-Mm-hmm.

-Oh.

It's like "Lady and the Tramp," but way better.

-[ Chuckles ] -It's a gift that keeps on giving with every single bite.

-Yeah.

And if it ever does get overwhelming, a little bit of bok choy to reset.

-Mm-hmm.

I do see a problem with this recipe, though.

-What's that?

-This bowl is not big enough.

-[ Laughs ] You know, I agree.

I'm sorry.

I'll do better.

-Alright.

I'm going to hold you to that.

But for now, this is excellent.

-Thank you.

-Thanks, Lan.

So if you want to make this beautiful dish at home, build a sauce with Sichuan chili powder and peppercorns, cook marinated pork until brown and crisp, briefly cook bok choy and then wheat noodles, and finish with ya cai.

So, from America's Test Kitchen, a tongue-warming and soul-warming dan dan mian.

-The humble mortar and pestle has been around since the Stone Age, and is still used today to make pureed sauces like pesto or spice mixtures, and I have to say, the basic design hasn't changed much over the years.

-There's only two parts to use, only two parts to clean.

That kind of appeals to the caveman in me.

-[ Laughs ] -And you know, you hear from cooks all over the globe how much they love a mortar and pestle.

And it's for this reason -- when you're pounding ingredients as opposed to chopping them in an electric appliance, you get more of the aromatic oils out of them.

Pesto is a really good example of that.

You can see this one was made a little earlier in the mortar and pestle.

-Mmm.

-Look at how luscious and soft that texture seems.

-Silky.

-And it smells really good.

The flavor is going to be, you know, super complex 'cause you have more of the aromatics.

It's going to be a little more cohesive.

This one is delicious also.

This one was made in the food processor, but you can see pieces of pine nuts, pieces of garlic in there, and pieces of basil.

-Yeah.

-It's going to taste great, but a little bit less complex than the one made in a mortar and pestle.

We tested seven different models.

We got them for about $13 up to $100.

And there's a variety of materials -- your stainless steel, there's ceramic next to that.

These are all stone or granite, and these two are marble.

The test included taking a 1/2 cup of peppercorns and pounding them coarsely... -Mm-hmm.

-...2 teaspoons of peppercorns and pounding them fine... -Ah.

-...pounding whole spices down into a garam masala powder, and, of course, making pesto.

Testers identified three things that made a difference in terms of their design.

First was the shape and the capacity.

You can see that this one, for instance, that's a big boy.

-That is big.

-And it's got pretty straight sides.

-Yeah.

-Taller, straighter sides helped keep all of what you were pounding in the mortar while you were working.

That also meant that you have a wider bottom surface, and that lets the ingredients spread out a little more and it makes the pounding a little more efficient.

-That makes sense.

It's more surface area.

-It's more surface area, exactly.

Something like this has flared sides -- the bottom surface, because the sides flare in, it's smaller, the ingredients bunch up more, and the pounding is a little less efficient.

-Mm.

-Second thing was the weight.

That made a big difference.

Heavier was better.

If it was too light, a lot of times, the testers would have to stabilize it with one hand while they're pounding with the other hand.

-Oh, mm-hmm.

-Also, the weight of the pestle, which is the stick you use for pounding, testers didn't see this coming, but it made a real difference.

-Huh.

-I want you to try the red one down there.

-Ooh, this is very light.

-Yeah, give it a shot.

Oh, I'm losing some peppercorns 'cause of the small size.

-Because of the small size.

-This actually would take a while.

-That one left testers sort of exhausted and frustrated.

-Yeah.

-It only weighs 3 ounces.

It's not doing much of the work for you.

Now I want you to try this guy.

-Oof!

-[ Laughs ] -This is quite a bit heavier.

-You get to skip your upper body workout later.

-Oh, wow.

I mean, with just five, six pounds, I'm already crushing a lot of these.

-Another thing that testers identified is the material and the interior surface of the mortar.

You can see that the stone ones and the marble ones, they have a slightly abrasive interior texture, so that will grab on to the spices or whatever it is you're pounding.

That makes the pounding more efficient.

-That makes sense.

-So in the end, this was the winner, and this one has the best name ever.

You're going to love this.

It's the Frieling Goliath.

[ Both laugh ] -It is big.

-Natural stone mortar and pestle.

It's about $58.

Heaviest one of the group at almost 12 pounds.

Did a terrific job.

It's got that nice, nubbly interior finish.

If $58 feels like a little too much to spend to get into the mortar and pestle game, there was also a best buy.

That's this one.

This one is the ImportFood.com solid granite Thai mortar and pestle.

It was about $26.

It's a little smaller.

it's a little lighter, but it's still a terrific mortar and pestle.

-Alright, so there you have it.

If you're in the market for a new mortar and pestle, check out the Frieling Goliath natural stone mortar and pestle for about $58.

Today, we're going to make shizitu, or lion's head meatballs, which are popular in the eastern part of China.

Now, they're usually served in a simple but rich-tasting broth, and they have a remarkably tender texture, and Dan's going to tell us more.

-Cookbook author Hsiao-Ching Chou has a recipe in her amazing cookbook "Chinese Soul Food" for these lion's head meatballs.

And the way she describes them is so perfect.

It's a dish that gives more than it takes.

-Oh, that's nice.

-There's not much to put this together, but it fills your house with these amazing smells.

It's super comforting.

So we've got our stand mixer bowl here.

I'm gonna add 3/4 teaspoon of baking soda to the bowl and 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and together, it's going to give it this nice, cohesive texture and hold on to tons of juice, which is really important.

-Okay.

-And then I've got 2 tablespoons of water here, as well, and I'm just going to whisk this until both are dissolved in there.

-Mm-hmm.

-Okay, beautiful.

Now it is time for the pork.

Now, you'll see a lot of times hand chopped pork for this.

-Yeah.

-I'm gonna use ground pork here, which just makes it really, really easy.

If you have the option of a fattier ground pork at the supermarket, absolutely go for it.

It really fits with this dish.

It's supposed to be super rich.

This is 2 pounds of ground pork, and we want it to come directly in contact with that baking soda mixture.

That way, it'll work its best and keep it super moist and super juicy.

Okay, great.

So now we're gonna add the rest of our ingredients, and these meatballs are all about the pork.

You want to taste that meatiness, and everything else is just an accent to it.

So we have an egg here that's lightly beaten.

That's going to really provide some richness, but also nice texture.

We have the whites of two scallions that I minced up, so just that white and light green part.

And then I have 2 tablespoons of soy sauce.

Also have 2 tablespoons of Shaoxing wine.

4 teaspoons of sugar.

-Mmm!

A little bit of sweetness.

-Little bit of sweetness.

You know, get that beautiful balance of sweet and savory from all that soy.

I've got 2 teaspoons of grated fresh ginger.

-Mmm.

-And finally, 1/2 teaspoon of white pepper.

That's going to add some beautiful floral flavors.

Just going to give us a quick mix with my spatula.

Now we're going to go into our stand mixer.

So a lot of times, you see this dish and they're hand formed, but you slap the meat back and forth.

-Hmm.

-And so what you're doing there is agitating it and getting that myosin network going.

We're going let the machine do the work for us here.

I'm using the paddle attachment.

Gonna go on medium speed for about 45 to 60 seconds.

We want the meat to get really sticky and come away from the sides of the bowl a little bit.

Beautiful.

Okay, so that's about 60 seconds, and you can see the meat has gotten really nice and sticky.

It's almost sticking to the paddle itself.

-Yeah, and it's changed in color, it's quite a bit lighter.

So, now it's time to make our meatballs.

And so one of the key things here is we've made this sticky on purpose, right?

-Mm-hmm.

-So using a little bit of water when you're forming your meatballs is really, really helpful.

I'm going to use a 1/2 cup measure here.

We're looking for about 4 1/2 ounces per meatball.

They're going to be 3 inches.

So these are big meatballs.

-Yeah.

-And again, have a little bit of -- little bit of water on the hands is good.

Now I just pop this out.

And I like to just do a motion like that and get a beautiful meatball there.

-Yeah, you're not having to pack it very much.

It's really just cohesive all on its own.

-Absolutely.

-Now, that is a big meatball.

-Right?

-It's like a tennis ball.

-Yeah, like a tennis ball.

-Yeah.

-So that's our eight meatballs, and it's time to cook them.

So what we have is 4 cups of chicken broth in this Dutch oven.

We had it at a boil, so we're going to shut that off and move it off heat.

Awesome.

So I'm going to put these in, and I like to do them kind of one at a time.

I'm gonna get seven around the outside and one in the middle.

So, we're going to be braising.

These are not going to be completely covered with the broth, and that's totally fine.

They're going to season the broth.

The broth is going to help season them.

It's going to make a beautiful soup at the end.

And special one in the middle.

Great.

So, if you can cover that, I'm going to go wash my hands.

-Great.

So that step of vigorously mixing the pork is key when making this style of meatball.

Here's why.

Mixing ground meat encourages a protein called myosin to come out of the muscle and mesh together into a sticky gel.

And the more you mix the meat, the more myosin you get, which is exactly what we want.

As the meatballs cook, the gel sets, which helps the meat trap moisture and adds extra structure, which helps the meatballs stay intact, moist, and tender during cooking.

-So the next part of this is we've formed all that myosin and we're going to get into cooking them.

We're going to cook them pretty low and slow in a braise.

So we're gonna go into a 325-degree oven for about an hour, and it's going to take all of that nice collagen in the meat and then turn it into really supple gelatin.

So, our meatballs have braised for an hour and they're hanging out over there.

The next part of this is the lion's mane, and that actually comes from Napa cabbage, and it's going to be underneath the meatballs and it's going to give the whole effect of the lion's head meatball.

So we're going to prep this.

It's really, really easy.

Basically cut lengthwise into quarters.

We're just going to simply take the core out, which is really easy with Napa cabbage.

It's just that last little bit there.

And then we simply cut it into 2-inch lengths.

-Oh, nice, big pieces.

-Exactly.

Nice, frilly, big mane.

-[ Chuckles ] -So we tried having the cabbage in there from the very beginning, and we found that it ended up being kind of too soft and started to fall apart.

So that's why we're saving it here.

We'll give it another 30 minutes in the oven.

-Okay.

-So, what we're going to do is take this off.

You can see our meatballs.

They've gotten some really nice browning on top.

-Mm-hmm.

-Some recipes have a deep-frying step ahead of time.

Some use soy sauce to get more color.

But we found that you actually get really nice browning just in the pot where they're uncovered on the top there.

Gonna take these out.

-Whoa, that smells incredible.

-Doesn't that smell good?

-Yes.

-So I'm going to get the cabbage in here, and we just basically want it all on the bottom, kind of in a single layer.

-It's a decent amount of cabbage.

-It is.

You know, it's going to cook down a ton in there.

Beautiful.

So the next key is just when I put them back, I'm going to put the brown side down so we get a little more browning on the top, as well.

-Makes sense.

-I'm going to cover this again.

We're going to go back into our 325-degree oven for 30 minutes.

Everything's going to be tender and perfect.

-Alright.

-So some versions of this dish feature rice noodles in it.

-Mmm.

-And it's just beautiful.

It makes it a little bit more of a complete meal.

I have 4 ounces of rice vermicelli here, and I've got 4 quarts of boiling water, so I'm just going to shut off the heat, slide this off the heat.

It's a really great way to cook these.

It's super gentle.

-Yeah, they're so easy to overcook and turn to mush.

-I'm just going to slide these in, and I'm going to let these sit for about 10 to 15 minutes, just stirring occasionally, especially as they start to come apart so they don't stick together.

So I've pulled our meatballs out of the oven after that 30 minutes.

Our rice noodles are going to be perfectly cooked at this point.

So I'm just going to drain these and then I'm going to give them a quick rinse.

It gets rid of a little excess starch so they don't clump up.

I just really like to make sure I get all that water off.

We've got really intensely flavored broth.

We want that to be in the bowl, not water.

Great.

Alright.

So now I've got two bowls here.

I'm just going to put a little bit of the noodles.

This is enough for four.

So I'm just going to put a little bit in the bottom of each.

Beautiful.

So come over here.

Alright, the big reveal.

Oh, look at those.

-Mmm.

The aroma is incredible!

-So nice, right?

-Oh, my goodness.

I see what you mean by comforting, and it is such a rich smell.

-And your whole house smells like that.

It's just the best.

So I'm going to start with a little bit of cabbage, and I'm going to have a little fun with it and just arrange it so we get a little of that lion's mane look to it.

I love cabbage cooked like this.

-Mm-hmm.

-So tender, ends up being really sweet, too.

-Yep.

It's picked up, obviously, all of that flavor from that porky, chicken-y broth.

-Mm-hmm.

-And then do a couple of meatballs, and I'll come back with the broth.

-Mmm, yeah.

Mm-hmm.

-Don't you wish it was, like, snowing outside right now?

-Nice fire, an old movie on the TV.

-Right?

It'd be perfect.

And then finally, we've got some scallion greens there.

Those are from our scallions earlier, if you'd like to add a little bit to the top.

-Always.

-Beautiful and flavorful.

Mm-hmm.

-Alright.

Let's dig in.

-Okay, I've got to dive into this broth.

-Yeah.

I'm going to go right for a meatball.

-Oh!

You know, that would soothe whatever ails you.

-Right?

-It is so flavorful, so rich, and it's just the broth and the meatballs and the cabbage that simmered together.

It's incredible it transforms into this.

-And this is just perfect.

Oh, my God, so excited.

-Oh, I like your technique there.

-Mmm.

It's just so good.

All of the juices and all of the fat are trapped in there along with those beautiful seasonings, but it's really tender because of that long braising time.

It's just out of this world.

-Mmm!

And the cabbage has taken on the flavor of the broth, but it still has some texture.

It's nice and tender, not mushy.

-Mm-hmm.

-Dan, this is wonderful.

Thank you.

-You're welcome.

-If you want to make these incredibly aromatic meatballs, mix ground pork, baking soda, and a few aromatics together using a mixer, give the meatballs a good head start in the oven before adding the cabbage, and serve with rice noodles.

From "America's Test Kitchen," an ultra-comforting recipe for lion's head meatballs.

You can find this recipe and all the recipes and product reviews from this season, along with select episodes at our website, americastestkitchen.com/tv.