Zhajiang mian
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| Zhajiang mian | |||||||||
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| Traditional Chinese: | 炸醬麵 | ||||||||
| Simplified Chinese: | 炸酱面 | ||||||||
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Zhajiang mian (lit. "fried sauce noodles") is a northern Chinese dish consisting of thick wheat noodles topped with a mixture of ground pork stir-fried with fermented soybean paste.
In Beijing cuisine, yellow soybean paste (黄酱; pinyin: huángjiàng) is used, while in Tianjin and other parts of China sweet noodle sauce (甜面酱; pinyin: tiánmiànjiàng), hoisin sauce (海鲜酱; pinyin: hǎixiānjiàng), or doubanjiang (豆瓣酱; pinyin: dòubànjiàng) may be used in place of the yellow soybean paste. In the cuisines of Beijing, Tianjin, and northeastern China, the soybean paste is stir fried rather than fried, and oil is not used.
Some Chinese restaurants may refer to zhajiang mian as "brown meat sauce noodles," "noodles with fried bean and meat sauce," or the pinyin transliteration zhájiàngmiàn (sometimes zhàjiàngmiàn, with second tone on the first syllable, in southern China and Taiwan). It is sometimes referred to by the nickname "Chinese spaghetti" in the West, which is symmetrical to Chinese calling spaghetti bolognese "Western zhajiang mian."
[edit] Recipe outline
The following is a rough sketch for making zhajiang mian. Consult recipe books for more detailed directions.
- Dice scallions and garlic.
- Stir-fry the ground pork until it is slightly brown. Remove the meat from the wok.
- Stir-fry the green onions and garlic until they are slightly brown. (One could also add shredded tofu or soybeans to this step).
- Place the meat back into the wok/frying pan.
- Add the yellow soybean paste, sweet noodle sauce, broad bean paste, or hoisin sauce to the mixture with some water and simmer.
- Serve this meat sauce over noodles. If desired, add condiments like shredded carrots, shredded cucumbers, bean sprouts, scrambled eggs, fresh soybeans/edamame and hot sauce.
Unlike Korean jajangmyeon, cornstarch is not used to thicken the sauce.
[edit] Korean variation
Jajangmyeon is the Korean version of this dish. In addition, the brown colour of the sauce is from the use of chunjang (a salty, black-colored paste made from roasted soybeans), rather than hoisin sauce. Jajangmyeon may also feature a variety of diced seafood rather than pork.
This dish is featured prominently in the Korean drama Couple or Trouble. It is also featured in another recent Korean drama Goong S with the main character as a jajangmyeon delivery boy.
