Spicy and Sour Instant Noodle Soup

I borrowed Iron Chef Chen Kenichi's Knockout Chinese cookbook from the library and couldn't keep my hands off it.  I love the simple recipes with step-by-step pictures and mouth-watering end result to drool on.  This book also introduced me to two new pastes, one is Doubanjiang (Sichuan soy bean paste) and the other is Tianmianjiang (sweet noodle sauce).  He used these two pastes often in the cookbook especially Doubanjiang.  I just bought a bottle of Doubanjiang and couldn't wait to try his recipes.  I am eager to find out how Doubanjiang tastes like, with the new paste, I guess I will have new recipes to share in the future.

For this spicy and sour instant noodle soup, I used his premix sauce (A) but omitted egg and added mini sausages and bean sprouts.  I just wanted to taste the instant noodle the way he had when he was a kid.  It is an easy way to kick the instant noodle up a notch.

Mixed ingredients (A) in a bowl before pouring in the cooked noodle with soup.

Adapted from Iron Chef Chen Kenichi's Knockout Chinese Cookbook with slight modification:

Ingredients:

• 1 package of your favorite instant ramen (I used chicken flavored)
• 2 scallions, minced
• 1 cup of washed bean sprouts
• 3 mini sausages

(A)

• 2 tsp. rice vinegar
• 1 tsp. soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. chili oil
• 1/2 tsp. sesame oil
• Dash of pepper

Method:

1.  Mince scallions and place in a bowl.  Add (A) and instant ramen flavoring.

2.  Boil ramen noodles in approximately 2 cups of water and add mini sausages to heat it up.  When noodle is almost done, add in the bean sprout to quickly blanch it.

3.  Pour into the prepared bowl and stir-well before eating.