Kao Lengmian (Grilled Cold Noodles) is a traditional Chinese recipe, for a classic street food dish of a noodle sheet barbecued or fried with egg that's rolled around a sliced sausage filling, fried to finish then sliced into rounds and served. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Chinese version of: Grilled Cold Noodles (Kao Lengmian).
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Kao lengmian (烤冷面, literally 'grilled cold noodles') is a classic street food from Beijing that’s considered one of the national dishes of China. In essence it’s a noodle sheet that’s grilled, coated with egg and sauce and then topped with sausage or meatballs. The whole thing is then rolled up to enclose the filling, sliced and served.
There is no evidence supporting the historicity of Kao Lengmian and it may be a rare example of a Chinese delicacy invented entirely in the modern day. According to one urban legend, kao lengmian emerged in Mishan city of northeastern China’s Heilongjiang province in the 1990s, when a street vendor barbecued cold noodles with savory sauce and made a hit with the hungry students filing out of class, who spread it across the town. It’s unclear when the noodle sheets were invented. Another theory says that it was born in Tieling city of the neighbouring Liaoning province, as an employee of a barbecue shop accidentally dropped some cold noodles on the griddle and the thrifty boss, disliking waste, grilled them with squid and sold them.
The easiest, and really just about the only way of preparing kao lengmian at home is to buy a pack of ready made kao lengmian noodles. The pack comes with a large sachet of sauce (a blend of chillies, garlic and tomatoes) and two smaller sachets both of which contain spice blends. One pack of kao lengmian noodles is enough for four people.
Gun Chiang in Chinese can refer to any sausage, but here I’m referring to Lap Chong sausage, which is one of the commonest and is made from pork and fat and then smoked. The sausage also contains sugar, which lends it a slightly sweet taste
Ingredients:
1 pack of 'Kao Leng Mian'
3 small Chinese sausage/Lap Cheong Sausage, sliced into 2cm lengths
2–3 spring onions, sliced into rings
8 eggs
coriander leaves, to garnish
4 tbsp vegetable oil
Method:
Place a heavy-based non-stick pan over medium heat. Once hot use to fry the sausages until they release their excess fat and are nicely browned all over. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
Add a little vegetable oil to the pan then sit in the first piece of noodle. Once the oil starts bubbling around the edges of the noodle sheet crack two eggs on top. Stir the egg to break the yolk then add some of the spice powder and spread the eggs over the noodles. Cook until the egg is just set then flip the noodle over, cooking on the egg side for a couple of minutes.
Flip the noodle sheet back over so the egg side is uppermost then spread over some of the sauce from the noodle packet. Top with some of the sliced spring onions and a few of the fried sausage pieces all garnished with chopped coriander leaves.
Now for the hard part… you need to roll the noodles up to enclose the filling inside. This is tricky and I managed it with a pair of chopsticks and a meat skewer.
Set the roll down with the seam on the bottom, frying briefly to keep the roll closed. Now turn the roll, frying until nicely coloured on all sides.
Remove from the pan and set aside as your prepare the remaining ingredients. In the end you will get four fried Kao Leng Mian rolls.
To finish slice the kao leung mian rolls into rounds, arrange on plates and serve.
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