JiaJiang Noodles 2.0

JiaJiang noodles is one of my favorite foods. This noodle is a popular Chinese street food served in big bowls meant for sharing, in plastic take out cups, and over dinners at home. I grew up eating this noodle frequently, and my mom makes a ground pork and potato version as in my first recipe for JiaJiang noodles/Fried Sauce noodles. The beauty of JiaJiang noodles is that you can add almost any ingredient you like to it and it will taste amazing with the sauce. Popular ingredients are potatoes, zucchini, pork belly, and ground pork. I’ve even seen squid and shrimp in these noodles at the Sam Tung restaurant in San Francisco (their JiaJiang noodles are *highly* recommended by the way).
To make the sauce, I use a vegetable stock which can be made at home or bought at a store depending on how much time you have. Stock making is simple, and involves boiling a mix of vegetables for 30 min – you can even boil an entire half onion or cloves of garlic without cutting first since the flavor will be well boiled by the end of 30 minutes. Stock can be used for a variety of recipes, so I like to periodically make a large pot of stock and then freeze it in 1-2 cup portions to thaw for each use. If you want to eat some of the vegetables that went into the stock, the yummiest ones are the: dried mushrooms (moist and plump after boiling), boiled carrot, and boiled kelp (wash and then eat with balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing).

The protein in JiaJiang noodles is most typically ground meat or pork belly. Pork belly tastes better because the skin crisps as you cook, leaving a crunchy top to the pork pieces that create more texture in the dish. However the downside of pork belly is it contains more fat – it’s basically like eating thick bacon. Everything in moderation..

Before you eat, top with fresh cucumbers and mix everything up 🙂

JiaJiang Noodles

Savoring Spoon

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Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Total Time 45 minutes mins

Servings 4

Ingredients

  

Sauce

• 1/2 pound pork belly sliced 1/2 inch cubes with skin on
• 1 tablespoon diced ginger
• 1 green onion diced
• 3 cloves garlic diced
• 1/2 onion diced
• 3 large king oyster mushrooms diced
• 1/4 cabbage diced
• 4 tablespoons black bean sauce soy bean sauce
• 1.5 cups stock
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 2 rolls noodles ~ 14 oz
• optional: 6 frozen shrimp
• optional: 2 eggs

slurry

• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoon corn starch
• 4 tablespoons of noodle water

Extras

• cucumber for garnish
• fried egg

Vegetable Stock (alternatively use purchased stock)

• 1/2 carrot
• 3 green onion
• 1/2 onion
• 6 cloves garlic pealed
• 6 dried shittake mushrooms
• 1 piece dried kelp

Instructions

 

Stock

• Add all vegetable stock ingredients to a pot
• Add 9 cups water
• Boil for 30 minutes on high
• Pour stock over filter to remove all solids. Reserve the liquid as stock.

Sauce and Noodles

• Dice pork belly to 1/2 inch cubes with skin on. Dice all vegetables.
• Mince ginger, green onion, and garlic
• Add 1 tablespoon oil, cook pork belly in it, until pork belly is crispy (about 5 minutes)
• Drain the oil from the pork belly into the sink.
• Add minced ginger, green onion, garlic and stir fry with pork belly till aromatic.
• Add diced cabbage, onion, mushroom and stir fry 2 minutes.
• Make an empty spot at center of pot and ddd black bean sauce to center of pot, stir fry for 30 seconds till aromatic.
• Mix black bean sauce in with rest. Add 1.5 cup stock stock. Cover and cook for 10 minutes.
• Meanwhile cook the noodles in a separate pot, by bringing to boil 2 portions of noodles (x oz) with enough water to cover the noodles.
• Remove about 5 tablespoons of starchy noodle water, mix in 1 teaspoon cornstarch till dissolved. Add 1 tablespoon sugar. Mix well. Add this slurry to the sauce to thicken it.
• Add 1 tablespoon sesame oil to sauce to make it shiny (key step!). Turn off stove, sauce is done!
• Cut 1/4 of a cucumber into matchsticks by slicing in diagonal discs and then slicing discs vertically along long end.
• Rinse noodles under cold water to make chewier. Add 1 portion noodles to serving plate, add sauce, and garnish with cucumber.
• (optional: fry two eggs sunny side up and garnish on top of each bowl of noodle)

Notes

The stock recipe makes about 8 cups of stock, which you can save and use for many recipes. You only need 1 cup of stock for this particular recipe.

The cucumber garnish, and fried egg are options that can be added to the noodle if you like.

In addition to pork belly, pork shoulder is another popular meat to use in this dish.
You may also like adding cubed potatoes to the sauce in addition to the diced cabbage and onions.