Zha Jiang Mian [炸醬麵]

I often feel that zhà jiàng miàn (炸醬麵) is more often known as a Korean noodle dish than the Chinese noodle dish from which its name comes from. The name literally means “Fried sauce noodles.” This is a really simple dish that you can easily make a big batch of and eat for a few days. Here we go.

Ingredients:

-1 jar bean paste (note: the jar i usually buy from 99ranch was recalled, so I tried a new one that worked just as well. see picture below)
-1/2 lb ground pork, defrosted
-1 yellow onion, diced (1/2 if you’re not a big onion fan like me)
-1 pkg baked bean curd (i used 2 piece), diced
-1 pkg noodles
-1 zucchini (this isn’t traditional, but I like to add some veggies to the dish)
-optional: 1/4 cucumber (thinly chopped, longwise), for decoration on top.

1. First things first, I like to do all my prep work. Defrost the meat, if you haven’t already, dice the onion, zucchini, bean curd and cucumber.

2. Then add some oil to the pan and cook the meat until brown (you can add some salt and pepper to season the meat first). If you’re health conscious like me, drain the meat, and then return back to the pan.

3. Toss in onions and zucchini and cook until zucchini starts getting soft. Then add the bean curd and cook a few minutes. At the same time, cook the noodles according to package.

4. Then, add in the bean sauce, about 4-5 hearty scoops first and mix in. Then keep adding sauce until all the meat, onions, bean curd and zucchini is covered. Taste the mixture as the sauce can be a little salty. If it is too salty, add some water or hoisin sauce.

5. Then just scoop out some noodles, add the mixture, and add some of the sliced cucumber (optional). Enjoy!