American Meat Sauce Noodles (老扬基炸酱面)

[00:00] Here in China, one of the most popular 

[00:05] noodles” - basically, noodles in with a delicious 

[00:12] inventing an American version of the dish... 

[00:18] Chinese term “Zhajiang”, it's a dish, but it's 

[00:25] that's been relentlessly adapted all throughout 

[00:30] out a bit of minced pork belly, then use that lard 

[00:38] giving it the name deep fried sauce. The most 

[00:45] the Old Beijing Zha Jiang Mian, which uses a 

[00:50] most famous is the Korean Jajangmyeon, which uses 

[00:56] idea again almost everywhere. Like, where we live 

[01:03] its own local fermented sauce. A few days back, 

[01:09] Cantonese Minsi paste. And after that, we taught 

[01:14] up Pixian Doubanjiang. Which all for me? It does 

[01:22] I'm an America. And if this technique is used 

[01:28] Myanmar border, what's stopping us from making our 

[01:36] frying things in lard. Even the most maladjusted 

[01:41] Jiang Mian. For a dish with so many variations 

[01:47] why not an American one? So that's the challenge 

[01:54] Mian with American flavors, which for the pork 

[02:03] obviously, we're going to be using some American 

[02:10] it would definitely be a little bit too bacony? I 

[02:15] think something like a ragu. So, this here is 

[02:22] or about five strips of bacon. Now, just like the 

[02:28] going to be a coarser grind. So, you might want to 

[02:34] you. But if that is impossible or really expensive 

[02:41] that you can find. So then I'm just going to slice 

[02:48] consistency… and then this here is going to be a 

[02:54] us to the difficult part of the exercise, which 

[03:01] don't think we really have in America. I mean, 

[03:06] we do liquor pretty well. We've got some nice 

[03:12] cheese, and sauerkraut, but nothing that really 

[03:18] me, I kind of put fermented things into a couple 

[03:25] there's sour ferments, there's what I think 

[03:29] heavily fermented protein ferments, and then 

[03:35] and fish sauce. Now, our cuisines, we've got these 

[03:43] but we don't traditionally have anything 

[03:49] which I'd imagine is why the cheffy types have 

[03:55] they first got their hands on it. So, like maybe 

[04:04] flavors here. So, maybe we can take a step 

[04:09] this category in the form of mushroom ketchup, 

[04:15] that around when we collectively fell in love 

[04:22] the tomato has functionally filled this void for 

[04:29] this is where my head's at. The American Jiang, it 

[04:36] something recognizably an American flavor. 

[04:42] and four, ideally have some kind of fermented 

[04:49] problem for way too long, the American Jiang… it's 

[04:56] really a Jiang, but it is undeniably us. Now, I'm 

[05:05] but I'm getting an inkling that it might kind 

[05:11] little bit more… homemade barbecue sauce inspired. 

[05:19] Kansas City, but I also don't really want to use 

[05:27] going with canned tomatoes, tomato paste, and a 

[05:34] Which then brings us to the last thing before we 

[05:41] they both include some kind of spicy sauce in 

[05:46] felt like a good idea. So, I was thinking maybe 

[05:55] as mayonnaise is? So, I don't know. I was thinking 

[06:02] but I just decided to keep things simple. And last 

[06:08] boiled water... and today, we'll turn that into 

[06:14] give them a little chop, and you could totally use 

[06:19] trick that I taught you a couple of weeks ago, 

[06:25] I'll sprinkle on a 1/4 teaspoon of salt, 

[06:30] together with the chilies. Because garlic's 

[06:35] chopping, that's all going to come together into 

[06:42] we've got our chili paste. So now let's go outside 

[06:48] here is to start with about a tablespoon of 

[06:53] over a medium/medium high flame, begin to slowly 

[06:59] a hot second… so I'm going to quickly run inside 

[07:04] soften up some onions - try to make everything 

[07:10] mix in a 1/4 teaspoon of salt in with a half a 

[07:16] oil and then enough water to just barely cover 

[07:22] for about as long as our pork needs: we're just 

[07:28] try to remember to give this a stir every couple 

[07:33] So, now we'll run back to the pork. And after 

[07:38] be nice and loosened up a bit like this… just 

[07:44] it'll start to reach the “I'm being annoying 

[07:50] being patient with it. Scrape off anything 

[07:53] you can also add in a little bit more 

[07:58] it's going to start to render out its lard... 

[08:02] nurse things quite as hard. After 10 more 

[08:07] looking for the pork to be nice and golden brown, 

[08:13] or too crispy because remember, we do want 

[08:19] now I just remembered I'm going to swap this to a 

[08:24] to be ruining my wok seasoning… so once that's in, 

[08:32] So, this is what I'm looking at now. It's 

[08:37] for another minute or two and then toss that 

[08:45] now over a medium flame... the classic Zha Jiang 

[08:50] oil in with your sauce and then mix that really 

[08:57] sauce a bit gentler, because sometimes 

[09:00] things can sometimes scorch on you. So then just 

[09:05] same move then with about a tablespoon of tomato 

[09:10] that's fragrant, we'll toss in a tablespoon of 

[09:16] fry it a bit to make sure that the oil stained 

[09:21] crushed tomatoes. Then we'll toss in 200 ml 

[09:28] and then start to bring this up to a light boil, 

[09:33] powder, 2 tbsp dark brown sugar, 1 tbsp of soy 

[09:39] and a good crack of black pepper. Then we'll 

[09:45] about 20 minutes to evaporate off all that 

[09:50] to break down the onions. After that time, 

[09:55] to have kind of reached its lava bubbling 

[10:04] Then we'll drizzle in a slurry of a half 

[10:08] water bit by bit. And once that's stirred in, 

[10:14] more MSG and brown sugar. Another generous crack 

[10:20] which today I'm going to be starting with about a 

[10:25] bit more sour, you could maybe add in a little 

[10:30] little bit more barbecue saucy, maybe a bit of 

[10:36] tastes pretty good to me… so, we can just run 

[10:42] here was going to be to do a ganban mixed noodle 

[10:48] bowl some base seasoning at first. So, let's do 

[10:54] Worcestershire sauce, and then a good crack of 

[11:00] take it a touch past al dente, then out, jiggle it 

[11:06] do the move of a tablespoon of the pasta water. 

[11:13] give this a quick mix first and then we'll smother 

[11:20] famously comes with like a mountain of optional 

[11:26] fun to do the same thing here. Now, I admittedly 

[11:32] we can have a bit of pickled jalapenos on the 

[11:37] spicy, some chopped green chilies, a little less 

[11:43] a bit of chopped onion. Then for the sides, 

[11:49] of anything more American than Doritos. So, we'll 

[11:56] being American, I think we have to add in a bit of 

[12:01] and this is looking pretty good I think. So, 

[12:09] See how I did. Steph, do you wanna? Here you go. 

[12:21] Pretty good. Feel like tortilla 

[12:27] I definitely consider this one a success. Um, 

[12:33] but I do also think that this can also be adapted. 

[12:40] served with wanton noodles in wanton shops. Or if 

[12:47] alkaline noodles and it's often in soup, which 

[12:53] So, I think we can also take this base and adapt 

[13:01] you could also take this, serve it with cornbread, 

[13:07] Why not? So, yeah, originally we were all going to 

[13:13] but um after thinking on it, we did really want 

[13:20] We were originally just going to cut this, but 

[13:25] with it. So, huge, huge thank you to everybody 

[13:31] a written recipe for all three of the Zha 

[13:37] of course, subscribe for more Chinese