I was craving some chili oil-noodle business, and I was watching the Chef Show on Netflix, where they were making salsa macha, and that was literally how this recipe came about. For those unfamiliar with it, salsa macha(not to be confused with matcha green tea), is a salsa made with dried chilies, sesame seeds and/or peanuts, oil, vinegar, garlic, and oregano. It is punchy, smoky, and really addictive, especially on a blank canvas like noodles. For mine, I did use a few Asian ingredients, like soy sauce and rice wine vinegar, just to give the salsa a big punch of umami, salt, and the rice wine vinegar is being used in this case in place of the white vinegar that is normally used in salsa macha anyways. I cook off the salsa macha and then saute off meat in it, before tossing the noodles through that, but you could really just eat the salsa macha with the noodles on their own for a fun experience! This recipe took only about 30 minutes to make from start to finish, so it was a relatively quick and easy meal to put together!

Makes 2 servings:
For the salsa:
1 dried ancho chili
1 dried guajillo chili
1/4 cup canola oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
2 tbsp black sesame seeds
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp soy sauce
a pinch of salt
3 tbsp rice wine vinegar

Remove the stems from the chilies, and reserve the seeds. Toast the husks of the chilies off in a nonstick pan for 20 seconds, then either finely chop them or grind them down into finer flakes. Toast off the chili seeds in the canola oil, then add in the garlic and sesame seeds. Once the garlic is browned, lower the heat of the oil, and add in the chili flakes, oregano, soy sauce, salt, and rice wine vinegar. Mix until combined, off heat.

For the noodles:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup water
a pinch of salt

Knead the ingredients together to form a dough. Roll out the dough on a floured surface to about 1/8-inch thickness. Roll up the dough and cut into noodles, dusting with a little more flour or cornstarch to keep the noodles from sticking together. Boil the noodles in heavily salted water for 1 minute then shock them in iced water to keep the noodles from overcooking or going mushy.

To plate:
Ground beef or pork
a generous pinch of salt

Cook off the ground beef and salt in a pan with the salsa macha on low heat until cooked through and dark brown in color. I actually used cubed pieces of steak for mine, but I found that the texture of ground meat plays off the salsa better! Toss the noodles through the still warm salsa to finish.