Noodles with pork and bean sauce 2 炸醬麵

from Wei Chuan’s Chinese Cuisine, Beijing style.

Our very first recipe-off: Battle Noodles with Pork and Bean Sauce! In one corner, PM’s version. She’s got a mixture of pork and napa cabbage tossed in sweet bean paste with a few green peas for pizzazz. In the other corner, presented below, WC’s version. No wussy, health-conscious vegetables in this meat sauce: it’s just pork and three bean pastes: sweet bean, soy bean, and hot bean. Earthy and packing an oomph, WC’s recipe is not for the faint of tongue.

炸 zha2 — fried

醬 jiang4 — sauce

麵 mien4 — noodles.

Check out my super-huge bottle of sweet bean paste.

To lighten up my meat sauce, and because I had some sitting in the freezer for a few months, I diced a couple blocks of dried tofu (fermented bean curd, 五香干) and tossed it in with the bean pastes to stir fry. I was out of eggs and, still clad in pajamas, didn’t feel like running out to grab a dozen so I omitted those. The amounts in this recipe serve 4.

WC also instructs us to add 1/2 ts salt to the meat sauce, but I find that the bean pastes have enough salt already: perhaps even too much for some people (if that’s you, use less soy bean paste). Four Tbs of hot bean paste made the sauce almost too spicy for me: I was sweating while eating my lunch, and not from the warm March weather. Next time I’ll cut it down to 2 or 3. Conversely, if you like spicy food, by all means add more hot bean paste.

Time spent: 20 mins

Difficulty level: simple

Battle score: PM gets points for (relative) healthiness. WC’s recipe is tastier. WC wins! Score: PM 0, WC 1.

Tasty and steamy.

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