Jajangmyeon or Black Bean Noodles

The color of this sauce is on the less appealing side for Europeans. But the taste with the rich bacon or pork belly aroma is awesome. I am happy that I bought a large jar of Korean black bean paste. And it has to be the Korean kind, because the Chinese one tastes totally different.

I saw that recipe on Aaron & Claire. I used the restaurant version with the fried off black bean paste. This could be my new favourite pasta sauce.

Recipe:

50 g Korean black bean paste, 25 ml veg oil

125 g pork belly or bacon bits, 1 tsp grated ginger

4 spring onions, 1 large red onion

1 tbsp oyster sauce, 3 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tbsp sugar

3 tbsp fried bean paste, 150 ml water

2 tsp potato starch, 2 tbsp water

Wheat or Ramen noodles, cucumber

In a pan fry the bean paste in oil. Stir constantly. When it is bubbling, pour it in a bowl an set aside.

In a bit of the frying fat start the pork and let it brown. Grate in some ginger. Add most of the spring onion, but keep some green for later. After 2 min, add the roughly sliced onion. Cook for a bit.

Add oyster and soy sauce, sugar and bean paste and stir well. Now add the water and let the sauce cook for 10 min. Add the greens.

Make the starch slurry and bind the sauce. Cook the noodles and julienne the cucumber.

Serve with some kimchi.

The rest of the sauce will taste even better the next day on some more noodles.