Zha jiang mian lives or dies on the proportion of the two pastes: three spoons of soybean paste to two of sweet bean paste, with soy and oyster sauce for depth and a single lump of rock sugar to round the salt. The oil is deliberately excessive. It carries the sauce, and the noodles need it.
Beijing · Main
Beijing Fried Sauce Noodles With Pork and Sweet Bean Paste
Diced pork is fried in a generous pool of oil, then simmered with soybean paste, sweet bean paste and a lump of rock sugar until the sauce turns dark and glossy.
- Prep15 min
- Cook25 min
- Serves3
- LevelEasy
Ingredients
| 400 g | pork , diced small, a mix of lean and fat |
| 3 tbsp | soybean paste , Huangdou jiang |
| 2 tbsp | sweet bean paste , Tianmian jiang |
| 2 tbsp | light soy sauce |
| 1 tbsp | dark soy sauce |
| 1 tbsp | oyster sauce |
| 2 lumps | rock sugar |
| 1/2 | cucumber , julienned |
| 1/2 | carrot , julienned |
| 300 g | wheat noodles , fresh or dried |
| 2 | spring onions , chopped |
| 3 cloves | garlic , minced |
| 5 tbsp | cooking oil |
| 120 ml | water |
Method
- Stir the soybean paste, sweet bean paste, light soy, dark soy and oyster sauce together in a bowl until smooth. Do not thin it yet.
- Dice the pork into pieces about the size of a pea, keeping the fat separate from the lean.
- Heat the oil in a wok over medium heat, add the fat first and fry for 2 minutes until it renders, then the lean pork. Cook until the edges are browned, about 4 minutes.
- Add the spring onion and garlic and stir for 30 seconds, just until fragrant.
- Pour in the paste mixture and stir constantly for a minute. It will spit; keep the heat moderate and keep the spatula moving.
- Add the water, bring to a simmer and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring often, until the sauce darkens and pulls away from the sides of the wok.
- Add the rock sugar and cook another 2 minutes, until it melts and the surface turns glossy.
- Boil the noodles in plenty of water until just tender, then drain and rinse briefly under cold water to stop the cooking.
- Pile the noodles in bowls, spoon the warm sauce over, and top with raw cucumber and carrot strips. Toss at the table.
Notes
- Use more oil than feels reasonable. The sauce is meant to be a little loose and oily; it coats the noodles rather than clumping.
- Rinse the noodles only briefly. Left in cold water they go slack and the sauce slides off.
- The cucumber and carrot go on raw. Their crunch is the counterweight to the salt and fat in the sauce.
Ratios and technique checked against 静静de小食界 on Douguo (老北京炸酱面). The method here is written by Stellaok; the photograph is the source kitchen's, credited on the image above and linked back to the page it came from. No recipe text is reproduced.