Chinese Zha Jiang Mian: Wheat Noodles with Savory Pork and Garden Cucumber

Stir the sweet bean sauce and ground bean paste together with the Shaoxing wine, dark soy and sugar until smooth and pourable. Mixing the pastes with liquid before they hit the pan keeps them from catching and turning bitter.

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 pound (450g) fresh thick wheat noodles
• 12 ounces (340g) ground pork, ideally with some fat
• 5 tablespoons sweet bean sauce (tian mian jiang)
• 1 tablespoon ground bean paste (huang dou jiang)
• 3 tablespoons Shaoxing wine
• 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 4 scallions, whites minced and greens sliced thin
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
• 3 tablespoons neutral oil
• 2 crisp garden cucumbers, cut into fine matchsticks
• 1 cup shredded peak-harvest carrot
• 1 cup blanched soybeans or edamame
• 1 cup mung bean sprouts, briefly blanched

Instructions

1. Stir the sweet bean sauce and ground bean paste together with the Shaoxing wine, dark soy and sugar until smooth and pourable. Mixing the pastes with liquid before they hit the pan keeps them from catching and turning bitter.
2. Heat the oil in a wok over medium-high heat and add the ground pork. Break it apart and let it fry undisturbed for a minute at a time so it browns rather than steams, about 6 minutes total.
3. Push the pork to one side and add the ginger and scallion whites to the clear oil. Fry until fragrant, about 40 seconds, then stir them through the meat.
4. Lower the heat to medium and pour in the sauce mixture. It will hiss and thicken immediately; stir constantly for the first minute so nothing scorches on the bottom of the wok.
5. Let the sauce simmer gently for 12 to 15 minutes, stirring often, until the oil separates and rises to the surface in glossy red-brown pools. That separation is the signal the sauce is done.
6. While the sauce simmers, prepare the vegetable toppings and arrange them in separate piles on a platter: cucumber matchsticks, shredded carrot, soybeans and bean sprouts.
7. Bring a large pot of unsalted water to a hard boil and cook the noodles until springy and just cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes for fresh. Drain and rinse briefly under cool water if you want them slippery rather than sticky.
8. Divide the noodles among four deep bowls. Spoon a generous ladle of the pork sauce into the centre of each and surround it with the vegetables.
9. Bring the bowls to the table unmixed and let everyone toss their own, dragging the sauce through the noodles until every strand is coated. Scatter the scallion greens over the top.
10. Zha jiang mian is Beijing's defining noodle bowl, a dish of fermented bean pastes cooked down until the oil breaks free and the sauce turns almost jammy. The genius of it is the contrast: a dark, deeply salty sauce cut by piles of raw, cold, crunchy vegetables. Late summer is its best season, when cucumbers snap and carrots are sweet enough to eat unadorned, and Beijing families traditionally judge the cook by how many colours of vegetable ring the bowl.

Nutrition (estimated, per serving)

• Calories: 680 kcal
• Protein: 31g
• Fat: 26g
• Carbohydrates: 78g
• Fiber: 7g
• Sugar: 11g
• Sodium: 1140mg