炸酱面 Zha jiang mian

Cooking keeps me sane, I replied to wifey, who asked whether I found it mundane to be stuck at home with (terrifying) baby.

True enough, I found myself to be more experimental with recipes AB (After Baby). Perhaps because dining outside is no longer viable, having wider variety of food for dinner matters.

So I was regretfully stuffing myself with the most distasteful “tom yum soup” during lunch today when a sudden craving for zha jiang mian developed. I googled for ‘zha jiang mian recipe’ and found there are various menus… some with edamame, some with white cabbage - I guess the difference is the place of origin of China? Like there are different styles of hotpot in China as well. Also perhaps zha jiang mian is like fried rice you know, you just dump anything left in the fridge. Thus my mind browsed through my sparsely equipped fridge at home…

Noodles yes, onions/ginger yes, minced pork yes, spicy bean paste yes, mushrooms YES!!

All that was needed were some carrots and Japanese cucumbers/zucchini – readily available from the NTUC at the basement of my work place! And so, zha jiang mian it was for dinner!

炸酱面 - Colourful and yummy one-dish meal

Pretty simple dish, only 1 wok and one cooking style required. The most tedious step, however, was the julienning of carrots and zucchini. I learnt a new word too – julienne. It is the method of cutting into thin slices. To save time, I did this whilst cooking the noodles in boiling water.

Ingredients (serves 2 hungry adults with a newborn):

- ¼ big onion and 2 pcs garlic (finely chopped)

- Sliced ginger

- 200g minced pork

- 1 cube tofu (diced)

- 3 pcs dried mushrooms (soaked 20 mins in hot water)

- Noodles (I used Barilla spaghetti, but feel free to use any noodles of your liking)

- 1 med carrot

- 1 med zucchini

- 6 teaspoon minced bean paste (any brand la)

- ½ bowl water

- 2 teaspoon corn starch

- Sesame oil
- Garnishing (spring onion and coriander), pepper, red chilli

Method:

1) Cook noodles in boiling water. In the meantime, julienne carrots and zucchini.

2) Remove noodles when done. Put carrots into the boiling water for 1 min (ignore this step if you like your carrots crunchy).

3) Fry onion and garlic in hot oil until fragrant. Add ginger, minced pork and mushrooms and stir fry.

4) When minced pork turns slightly grey, add spicy minced bean paste, tofu, sesame oil and water

5) Continue stirring until mixture boils. Add corn starch, coriander and pepper. If you like spicy, add chilli padi. Stir well.

6) Ready to serve! Garnish with spring onion or red chilli. 

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I took about 60 mins for the entire preparation. Wifey was awed by the dish layout. We enjoyed the dish cos of the party of different flavours and textures. Plus baby didn't bother us during that 30-40 mins. Mmmm!!!