Ok, so I realize that everything in my DIY section requires access to $60k things and isn't cheap. So here's a guide to making zhajiangmian because I have a rule when I go out to eat. The short version is that I don't order anything that I could have made.
(This is a problem when you start cooking and realizing that a lot of things are pretty easy to make. Soln: don't cook or be a bad one.)
Anyways, ZhaJiangMian (literally fried sauce noodles) is one of those things I can't spend money on. I can't spend $8 for a bowl because it takes like 5 minutes to prep, 5 minutes to cook, $5 to make enough for a week, and is basically impossible to screw up...which means buying a bowl is least 4x its actual value. It's great for if you're lazy, hungry, poor and hungry (all noodles–that cucumber is about the price of a bag of noodles!), hungry and dieting (no noodles, lots of cucumber), or not hungry (I'll eat it for you).
For my non-Asian friends, I've got pictures so you can make it yourself. Just take show somebody at the Asian grocery store the ingredients on your phone...haha I've def ordered food this way before. This tasted great the first time I made it, which means that you can def do it too...assuming I haven't screwed up the instructions.
Ingredients
- Half a pound of ground pork, roughly
- Pack of TianMianJiang (甜面酱－red bag, blue text), 150g should be good
- Pack of HuangJiang (黄酱－blue bag, red text), 150g should be good
- Drumpf sized handful of dried shrimp. You can chop these up if you want.
- Drumpf sized handful of thinly sliced green onions
- Seedless cucumber (Optional)
- Cup of Water
- Noodles
We always use this brand of noodles. They're mad cheap.
The Sauce Process #TrustTheProcess
The best thing about zhajiangmian is that the measurements don't have to be precise. You know it's authentic when you don't have measurements).
- Mix the packets of sauce together with the cup of water. If you have diff packets, equal amounts of both is the key part. If you're using more/less sauce, the water isn't that important. If you add too much water, you'll just have to cook the sauce for longer til the water evaporates and the sauce reaches your preferred viscosity. 0.49 minutes.
- Add Oil! Go! Jiayou! 加油! Sorry, Chinese pun joke.
Throw in ground pork, dried shrimp, and green onions. Cook til the meat's done. Make sure you break up the meat into tiny little pieces if it's clumped together. High heat. If you want cucumbers, julienne some now. 3 minutes. - Dump in sauce. Stir occassionally. High heat til the water evaporates and the sauce as viscous as you want. 3.3 minutes.
Before all this is happening, boil water for noodles. Cook Noodles. Don't be blasphemous and overcook your noodles.
Boom. 5 minutes. Food for a week.
This sauce will stay good for days, easily over a week. Don't ask me how I know this. Don't ask how much sodium is in it. Just heat it up or plop hot noodles over it and enjoy the sodium.
Thanks Mom.