Noodles East · Chinese home cooking
Glass Noodles with Minced Pork Ants Climbing A Tree
Soaked cellophane noodles are tossed with browned minced pork and a chilli-soy sauce until every strand is coated and the meat clings to them, which is how the dish gets its name.
About this dish
The name is a joke about appearance: flecks of pork stick to the slippery noodles like ants on a branch. The noodles go in soaked but uncooked, so they finish by drinking up the sauce rather than sitting in it. Minced pork is browned until crisp at the edges, then chilli, garlic and soy build a ruddy glaze. Listen for a sticky catch as the liquid reduces and the strands grab the pan. Serve hot, while the noodles stay translucent and springy and the pork is scattered, not clumped.
Before you start
Equipment: Wok. Tap the ingredient checkboxes as you go.
Method
7 steps · tick each one off as you finish it.
Soak the noodles
Off the heat, soak 150 g glass noodles in 500 ml just-boiled water for 8 minutes, until pliable, translucent and limp with no white, brittle core. Drain well, snip them roughly with scissors and toss with 1 tsp sesame oil so the strands stay separate.
Mix the sauce
Whisk 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp dark soy sauce, 1 tsp sugar and 200 ml stock in a bowl, off the heat, for 20 seconds. Ready when the sugar dissolves and the mixture looks a uniform deep brown with no pale streaks.
Crisp the pork
Heat a wok over high heat with 2 tbsp oil and fry 250 g minced pork for 3 minutes, pressing and breaking it up. It is done when no pink remains, the edges are crisp and brown, and the fat runs clear and smells savoury.
Bloom the chilli
Lower to medium heat, add 20 g garlic, 15 g ginger and 2 tbsp chilli bean paste, and stir for 90 seconds. Stop when the paste darkens to a brick red, the oil turns ruddy and a sharp, fragrant chilli smell rises from the wok.
Glaze the noodles
Pour in the sauce and bring to a lively simmer over medium-high heat for 2 minutes, until it bubbles at the edges and looks glossy. Add the noodles and toss for 3 minutes, until translucent and ruddy, with the sauce clinging rather than pooling.
Reduce until sticky
Keep tossing over medium heat for about 90 seconds, until the liquid is almost gone and you hear a faint sticky catch against the wok. The pork should be evenly speckled over the strands, with no dry white noodle patches left anywhere.
Finish with scallions
Slide the wok off the heat, scatter 40 g scallions and fold for 20 seconds. Wait until the noodles stay springy and translucent, the pork clings in little flecks and the scallions remain bright green; serve at once.
Tips that matter
- Soak, never boil, the glass noodles; boiling turns them to a gluey mass before they ever reach the wok.
- Snip the soaked strands a few times. Very long noodles wrap into a ball and refuse to pick up the pork evenly.
Easy variations
- Use 250 g minced turkey or crumbled firm tofu in place of pork, adding 1 tbsp extra oil to keep it moist.
- For a milder bowl, cut the chilli paste to 1 tbsp and add 1 tbsp finely chopped red pepper with the garlic.
Questions that come up
Why did the noodles dissolve into a sticky clump?
They were over-soaked or boiled. Soak only until pliable, drain thoroughly, oil them, and add them to a sauce that is still simmering, not one that has already reduced to a paste.
The pork is clumping instead of speckling. What helps?
Break it up constantly over high heat and let it brown fully before adding liquid. Wet, grey mince clumps; crisp, browned mince stays in separate flecks.
Nutrition, roughly
| Energy | 430 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | 21 g |
| Carbohydrate | 48 g |
| Fat | 17 g |
Estimated per serving from standard ingredients, rounded. Treat it as a guide, not clinical data.
Boiling Noodles and Pasta Well
Salt, water volume, the two-minute window and the starchy cooking liquid that most home cooks pour down the sink.
