Zha Jiang Mian(Beijing-style Noodles 炸酱面)

Noodles with fried sauce. A simple name yet carrying the fireworks memories of several generations. Fragrant sauce and chewy noodles. Every bite is the most down-to-earth taste of life.

What is noodles with fried sauce

Noodles with fried sauce is a traditional northern Chinese pasta dish, featuring noodles paired with specially made fried sauce as its main characteristic. The noodles should be chewy and smooth. The fried sauce should be rich. Paired with crisp shredded cucumbers, it is a classic traditional delicacy.

For noodles, freshly rolled and freshly cooked ones are preferred. When making dough, add baking powder and knead repeatedly to achieve a chewy and smooth texture and absorb the essence of the sauce. The fried sauce is the soul. Diced pork combined with star anise and garlic slices, carefully stir-fried and slowly cooked with fried sauce and sweet flour paste, is rich, salty and fresh with a unique aroma but not greasy.

In the side dishes, crisp and tender shredded cucumbers are essential, perfectly neutralizing the heaviness of the fried sauce. When eating, vigorously mix the noodles with the fried sauce so that every noodle is covered with sauce. Eat the noodles in large mouthfuls. The sauce aroma explodes on the tip of the tongue, always making people crave it.

Ingredients Needed and Substitutions

Main ingredients:

Pork: Provides a rich meaty aroma. After stir-frying, it is a key ingredient in the meat sauce part of noodles with fried sauce, enriching the taste.

Cucumber: Shredded and placed on the noodles, it brings a refreshing taste and neutralizes the richness of the meat sauce.

Flour: Used to make noodles. It constitutes the main body of noodles with fried sauce and provides a filling staple food part.

Accessories:

Star anise: Releases a unique fragrance when fried, creating a rich flavor foundation for the meat sauce.

Fried sauce and sweet flour paste: Confer a unique soy sauce aroma and are the core source of the rich flavor of the meat sauce.

Scallions, ginger, and garlic: Mainly play a role in removing fishy smell and enhancing fragrance, adding aroma to the meat sauce.

Seasonings:

Salt: Controls the saltiness to make the overall taste of the meat sauce and noodles harmonious and highlight the flavors of various ingredients.

Cooking oil: Used for frying ingredients, stir-frying the meat sauce, and making noodles and other steps to ensure smooth cooking and add fragrance.

White sugar: Increases sweetness, neutralizes the saltiness and soy sauce aroma, making the taste more balanced and rich.

Baking powder: Makes the dough more fluffy and gives the noodles a softer and chewy texture.

Substitutions:

Pork: Beef can be substituted. Beef is also delicious after stir-frying and can create a meat sauce with a different flavor.

Scallions: Green onions can be substituted. They can also remove fishy smell and enhance fragrance, but the flavor is slightly different.

Baking powder: Yeast powder can replace part. After fermentation, it can also make the dough more fluffy, but the dosage and time need to be adjusted.

Which kind of pork is suitable

It is recommended to choose streaky pork or hind leg meat. Streaky pork has a balanced proportion of fat and lean meat. The stir-fried taste is rich and it will not be too dry. Hind leg meat has more lean meat and is suitable for people who don't like fatty meat. It is best to choose fresh meat that looks shiny and feels elastic when touched.

There is also a small trick for cutting meat. First, put it in the refrigerator and freeze for 15 minutes. Cut it into uniform small cubes of about half a centimeter. In this way, the stir-frying is evenly heated and the taste is better. After cutting, add some cooking wine and light soy sauce to marinate it to remove fishy smell and enhance fragrance. The stir-fried diced meat is fragrant.

Avoid pure lean meat and tenderloin. Pure lean meat has a dry texture after stir-frying and has no taste when chewed. Tenderloin is expensive and delicate. When making fried sauce, it lacks a mellow flavor. Try to buy meat in the morning as you can pick fresher ones.

Types of noodles for noodles with fried sauce.

Traditional handmade noodles: It can be called a classic choice. During production, with skilled techniques, the dough should be rolled evenly and the thickness of the noodles should be just right. When cooked in a pot, the chewy texture immediately appears and it also has a super strong juice absorption ability.

Sliced noodles: They are also an excellent match. As the master raises the knife and cuts, the sliced noodles are slightly thick and have a chewy texture. The unique shape of being thick at one end and thin at the other gives a rich texture to the taste. Eating noodles in large mouthfuls and wrapped in thick fried sauce is extremely enjoyable.

Vermicelli: As thin as hair, the taste is smooth and delicate. Eating it in hot summer is especially appetizing. However, when cooking, it is necessary to carefully control the heat. If cooked for too long, it will become soft and lose its shape.

Wide noodles and dried noodles: Wide noodles have grooves on the surface and the fried sauce is easily attached. Although dried noodles in supermarkets are not as chewy as freshly made noodles, they are convenient and fast and can satisfy cravings at any time.

Where can this kind of sauce be bought

In the condiment section of large shopping malls and supermarkets, you can find fried sauce from well-known brands such as Liubiju and Wangzhihe. At the time-honored stalls in farmers' markets, there is also loose fried sauce. The taste is authentic, but pay attention to checking the expiration date. On online shopping platforms, you can buy various flavors. Choosing stores with high sales is relatively reliable.

Asian supermarkets are a good place for many overseas friends to buy fried sauce. You can find it in the condiment sections of Chinatowns or Japanese and Korean supermarkets. If there is no Asian supermarket nearby, you can buy it through Amazon or other e-commerce platforms, but the shipping cost may be more expensive.

Purchase tips: For the first purchase, it is recommended to choose a small package to try the taste. Fried sauce and sweet flour paste should be bought together. Only when used in combination can it have enough flavor. Overseas students and Chinese friends can bring more when they go home or ask family and friends to send it. This is more cost-effective and more authentic.