from PM Vol II. I love noodles, and these noodles with their salty meaty sauce, perfectly complemented by cool cucumber, are one of my favorites. PM’s recipe is straightforward and pretty tasty, even if it doesn’t use quite as much sauce as I’d like. The peas, though, provide a nice touch of sweetness. The dried shrimp can be surprisingly, uh, fragrant, so if you’re not into funky-smelling shrimpiness, you know what to do. I also like to cut back on the meat and replace it with diced fermented bean curd, and add an extra spoonful of soy bean paste…
炸 zha2 — fried
醬 jiang4 — sauce
麵 mien4 — noodles, or flour
To make ginger juice, soak several slices of fresh ginger in a few tablespoons of cold water for 15 to 30 minutes. It’s a matter of personal preference whether to garnish with cucumber or bean sprouts; I prefer cucumber, but they need to be cut into thin strips while bean sprouts just get a quick quick quick dunk in hot water.
In the course of executing step #2 (stir-frying the meat), it’s important to poke apart all the big chunks of pork that like to ball together. You might find that step 2 passes by very quickly indeed as you’re engaged in declumping the pork. If you’re using fermented bean curd instead, you won’t have this problem!
PM suggests using 1 lb of fresh Chinese noodles; since I cook for one, and fresh noodles don’t keep, I tend to use dried instead. Whichever you have, make sure they’re wheat noodles: fat and white and substantial. This is a northern dish, and northerners are wheat-eaters.
Cooking noodles is pretty simple, no matter what kind you’re using. Be sure to use a large enough pot that will have plenty of room for the noodles to noodle around in (this is where I often get impatient and use a smaller pot, which will boil more quickly, and end up having to tweeze apart noodles that have indignantly bunched together). Bring lots of water to boil; don’t add salt, because the noodles are already salted! After you put the noodles in, wait for the water to boil again and add 1/2 to 1 cup cold water. Repeat when water boils once more. When the water boils for the fourth time, remove noodles, run under cold water, and put into bowls. They are ready to eat.
Time spent: 45 mins
Difficulty level: novice+. This recipe is pretty forgiving.
mmm…i’m hungry too. hope i’ll have time to make this soon, otherwise you should make it for me when i visit :p
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