[00:00] There's Beijing style Zha Jiang, Korean style&nbsp; Zha Jiang [Jajang], Cantonese style Zha Jiang&nbsp;&nbsp; [Zaa Zoeng], and today I'm going to show you the&nbsp; Sichuan style Za Jiang. Notice though that it's&nbsp;&nbsp; ‘za’ instead of ‘zha’… but I'll get to that in&nbsp; a sec. Unlike Beijing Zha Jiang or Korean jajang&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:18] though, Sichuan Za Jiang is less of a specific&nbsp; noodle dish, but more of a general noodle topping&nbsp;&nbsp; called Saozi. If you ever had a Sichuan style red&nbsp; braised beef noodle soup, the beef there, it's a&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:31] Saozi. The minced pork on top of a Dandan? Also&nbsp; a Saozi. And that's basically the same idea with&nbsp;&nbsp; our meat sauce here today. It is a star for one&nbsp; specific noodle dish, the Chongqing Wanzamian, but&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:46] it can also top various noodle shapes, it can&nbsp; be a mixed noodle, it can be a soup noodle...&nbsp;&nbsp; Sichuan Zajiang is just very versatile. Now&nbsp; the basic way you make a Zajiang is a lot like&nbsp;&nbsp;
[00:59] Beijing or Cantonese style. You render out some&nbsp; lard from fatty pork and then you fry the sauces&nbsp;&nbsp; in it. But notice the difference in character&nbsp; here. For Beijing it's zha jiang – ‘zha’ means&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:12] ‘fry’ and basically you are frying the sauce in&nbsp; the render out our lard and that's the essence&nbsp;&nbsp; there. However, in Sichuan and Southwest Mandarin&nbsp; in general, it's “Za Jiang”, or “miscellaneous&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:26] sauce”. Why that is, we'll have to leave it to&nbsp; the historical linguists. We cannot find anything&nbsp;&nbsp; conclusive here. However, “Za” does kind of tell&nbsp; the essence of the Sichuan style style zajiang&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:39] because it is a heavy combination of two local&nbsp; fermented sauces, chili bean paste and Sichuan&nbsp;&nbsp; style sweet bean paste. Now, chili bean paste –&nbsp; Pixian Doubanjiang – needs no introduction. It's a&nbsp;&nbsp;
[01:53] classic in a lot of Sichuan dishes. So, just make&nbsp; sure that you mince your chili bean paste well so&nbsp;&nbsp; that you don't have big chunks of broad beans&nbsp; floating around in your sauce. The second one,&nbsp;&nbsp; Sichuan style sweet bean paste, Tianmianjiang,&nbsp; has a couple considerations though. Annoyingly,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:10] the northern style sweet bean paste, which&nbsp; is the one that's usually available abroad,&nbsp;&nbsp; tastes quite different from the Sichuan one,&nbsp; and it's not a direct substitute here. Much&nbsp;&nbsp; closer to what the Sichuan one tastes like in our&nbsp; experience, it's the Cantonese Minsi, ground bean&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:28] sauce. You can use it here in this application&nbsp; or you can try our convoluted substitute here for&nbsp;&nbsp; those truly obsessives or you can just directly&nbsp; buy a pack from Weee or Mala market. It's a nice&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:43] ingredient. So with the sauces in place, we can&nbsp; fry up our Za Jiang. To do so, first drizzle in&nbsp;&nbsp; a tablespoon of oil and then go in with 500g of&nbsp; ground fatty pork. It will be best if you can&nbsp;&nbsp;
[02:56] use a coarser grind because coarser and slightly&nbsp; bigger chunks can help you get a smoother and more&nbsp;&nbsp; tender final sauce texture. But in a pinch, you&nbsp; can also use the fattiest ground pork that you can&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:11] find. Then over a medium flame, slowly render out&nbsp; our lard, which does take a little bit of time,&nbsp;&nbsp; and we can think of it as three stages. First,&nbsp; fry it until it starts to get loose and flow off&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:23] your spatula, which takes a couple minutes.&nbsp; After that time, it will start to reach its&nbsp;&nbsp; annoyingly-sticking-to-the-wok stage. When that&nbsp; happens, just patiently scrape off anything&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:35] that's sticking, and you can add a little extra&nbsp; oil if you need. After about 5 minutes or so,&nbsp;&nbsp; the pork will begin to release as lard and fry.&nbsp; And in this stage, what you will be looking for is&nbsp;&nbsp;
[03:48] something like this: lightly brown but not crisp,&nbsp; [you don’t want it to] get hard… and as they call&nbsp;&nbsp; it in Sichuan, “Gan Xiang You Ren”. Now a good&nbsp; technique for adding sauces into the Za Jiang,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:01] especially for the Sichuan version, will be&nbsp; adding some lard into the sauce and mix well&nbsp;&nbsp; first. This way, it can help the sauce mix&nbsp; more evenly as well as prevent scorching.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:13] So now fry it for about a minute to tint our oil&nbsp; red first… then add in our tianmianjiang. Fry all&nbsp;&nbsp; together for another 2 minutes or so… Then we can&nbsp; add in half cup of stock. Let it simmer together&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:28] for about 3 minutes. Then add in the seasoning&nbsp; of 1/4 teaspoon salt plus half teaspoon each MSG,&nbsp;&nbsp; white pepper, and sugar. Mix well. Then&nbsp; add in 1 tbsp liaojiu aka Shaoxing wine.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:42] Let it simmer for a minute and then we can&nbsp; thicken. Just slowly drizzle in a slurry of one&nbsp;&nbsp; tablespoon potato starch and two tablespoons water&nbsp; bit by bit. Let it come together to a consistency&nbsp;&nbsp;
[04:56] a bit like this. Then reserve it in a bowl. Now&nbsp; let's make the noodles. And again in Sichuan&nbsp;&nbsp; there are usually two ways that you will see Za&nbsp; Jiang Mian – ‘ganban’ [mixed] or a soup noodle.&nbsp;&nbsp; Either way you want, it will be most delicious if&nbsp; you have some stock handy. But for the dry mixed&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:14] ganban version, the stock is optional. So to make&nbsp; the mixed version, we'll put the base seasoning&nbsp;&nbsp; into the noodle serving bowl first, which is one&nbsp; teaspoon garlic water, half teaspoon Chinese dark&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:26] vinegar, half tablespoon Sichuan chili oil,&nbsp; 1/4 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorn powder, 1/4&nbsp;&nbsp; teaspoon toasted sesame oil, half tablespoon soy&nbsp; sauce, 1/8 teaspoon each salt and MSG, and 1/4 cup&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:40] stock or water. Then boil 60 gram dry noodles per&nbsp; serving together with a couple pieces of baby bok&nbsp;&nbsp; choy. When they're done to your liking, place it&nbsp; neatly into the noodle serving bowl. And finally,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[05:52] top it with two to three tablespoons of your Za&nbsp; Jiang, a bit of scallion, and cilantro. And that's&nbsp;&nbsp; that. For the soup noodle, the base seasoning&nbsp; is the same, but the stock is mandatory. Now,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:06] at noodle shops, they will usually have a simple&nbsp; pork bone stock handy, and we show you how to make&nbsp;&nbsp; one way back in our red braised beef noodle soup&nbsp; video. And we'll also leave you a simple recipe in&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:18] the description. But for me today, I'm going to&nbsp; use our personal concentrated frozen stock from&nbsp;&nbsp; our cool little ice cube bags and add some hot&nbsp; water to it and make a very nice quick stock.&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:30] Then, same as the mixed noodle, put all the&nbsp; seasoning into the serving bowl first and&nbsp;&nbsp; then add in the stock. And next, cook the same&nbsp; 60g dry noodle per portion, plus some baby bok&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:43] choy. Carefully place the noodles and veg into the&nbsp; soup. And top it off with a couple tablespoons of&nbsp;&nbsp; our delicious Sichuan Za Jiang. And there you&nbsp; have it, Sichuan Za Jiang Mian, mixed or soup,&nbsp;&nbsp;
[06:57] however you like it. Right. This is how you&nbsp; make Sichuan style Za Jiang… and this jiang,&nbsp;&nbsp; it's probably my personal favorite because it&nbsp; has a very nice and complex flavor and it's&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:09] really versatile. It's just so good even just&nbsp; on some leftover white rice. And as promised,&nbsp;&nbsp; in a couple days, Chris will show you how&nbsp; to make a weirder version of Zha Jiang. So&nbsp;&nbsp;
[07:23] stay tuned. And in the meantime, recipe’s&nbsp; in description box. A big thank you for&nbsp;&nbsp; everyone that's supporting us on Patreon and&nbsp; subscribe for more upcoming weird sauce videos.