Black bean chilli relish peps up chicken noodles with soft-centred eggs recipe

This recipe looks daunting, but actually it is very easy: basically, it is shredded chicken (shop bought) with rice noodles, soft-centred eggs and a few other ingredients. Only the black bean chilli relish takes a little time and, once you have a batch of that, you will not need to make it again for a while because it is far more than you will need for this dish. If you are pressed for time, skip the step where the soft-centred eggs are marinated in the soy sauce mixture.

Rice noodles with shredded chicken, soy sauce eggs, spring onion sauce and black bean chilli relish

The black bean chilli relish keeps for a long time in the fridge and is good as a condiment with noodles and soup dumplings. It’s strong, and a little goes a long way.

When you buy a cooked chicken from a siu mei shop, they always give you a container of spring onion and ginger sauce to eat with the bird. They never give you enough, though, so I also make my own and keep it in a jar in the fridge (it keeps for at least two weeks). I make it without the ginger, preferring the version my mother and grand­mother taught me, but, if you like, mix in some of the finely minced, peeled root.

You can add other vegetables to this noodle bowl, such as julienned carrot, bean sprouts (blanched for about 30 seconds) and shredded cabbage.

For the black bean chilli relish:
100 grams fermented black beans
6 dried Thai chillies
4-6 garlic cloves
2-3 red bird’s-eye chillies
1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns
5ml soy sauce, or to taste
5 grams granulated sugar, or to taste
100ml cooking oil, or more if needed

For the eggs:
6 large eggs, chilled
60ml soy sauce
60ml sake
5 grams granulated sugar

For the spring onion sauce:
160 grams spring onions
5-10 grams fine sea salt
30ml cooking oil, or more if needed

To serve:
400 grams rice noodles, about 5mm thick
10ml sesame oil
1 whole (uncut) soy sauce chicken
1 Chinese or Japanese cucumber
Fresh coriander sprigs
Sesame seeds (optional)