There is no doubt that in this dish a good flavoured chicken stock will make a difference.  I achieve this by cooking the carcass of a chicken in a little oil until a deep golden colour, then I add some frozen soffritto and cook for a few minutes until the vegetables are fragrant. I then add 750ml water and 2 chicken stock pots and I cook for half an hour on a medium/low heat.  I then strain, discarding the bones and veg.  You can however just use 2 chicken stock pots and 500ml water if your time is limited.

Ingredients
1 tbsp ground nut oil
2 dried whole chillies
½ tsp sichuan peppercorns
400g raw tiger prawns, minced (or pork)
¼ tsp ground white pepper
500ml chicken stock
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ tsp finely grated ginger
2 pak choi, stalks and leaves separated and the stalks cut into pieces
1 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
2 x 300g packets of wok ready wheat noodles
2 spring onions, green part only, finely sliced
4 tbsps peanuts, roasted and roughly chopped

Ingredients for the sauce
1 tbsp tahini
2 tbsp chiu chow chilli oil
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tsp chinese black vinegar
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp hoisin sauce

Method
Start by throwing open your windows.

In a wok, heat the oil in a medium frying pan and add the chillies and sichuan peppers and cook until the chillies are just changing colour and then discard them and just keep the oil. The air will now be heavy with chilli.

Add the prawns and white pepper to the hot oil and cook until golden and crispy - this will take around 15-20 minutes as you first need the liquid to come out of the prawns and then cook away.

Put your chicken stock into a large saucepan and warm over a medium heat.

Stir the garlic, ginger and pak choi stalks into your prawn mix and cook for a few extra minutes until the garlic and stalks are cooked through and aromatic. Stir in the Shaoxing, both soy sauces and sesame oil.

Meanwhile, turn to the sauce. Mix together the all of the ingredients and pour into your stock. Taste and check the seasoning, adding salt, white pepper and sugar to balance.  Add your noodles and pak choy to heat through for a few minutes.

Into four serving bowls put some added chiu chow - this is to taste but should be somewhere between ¼ and whole tsp depending on how spicy you like it.

Divide the hot noodles between the bowls and top with the prawn mix.  Put your spring onions and peanuts on the top.