Sichuan Meat Sauce Noodles (Zajiang Mian)

[00:00] There's Beijing style Zha Jiang, Korean style  Zha Jiang [Jajang], Cantonese style Zha Jiang   [Zaa Zoeng], and today I'm going to show you the  Sichuan style Za Jiang. Notice though that it's   ‘za’ instead of ‘zha’… but I'll get to that in  a sec. Unlike Beijing Zha Jiang or Korean jajang  

[00:18] though, Sichuan Za Jiang is less of a specific  noodle dish, but more of a general noodle topping   called Saozi. If you ever had a Sichuan style red  braised beef noodle soup, the beef there, it's a  

[00:31] Saozi. The minced pork on top of a Dandan? Also  a Saozi. And that's basically the same idea with   our meat sauce here today. It is a star for one  specific noodle dish, the Chongqing Wanzamian, but  

[00:46] it can also top various noodle shapes, it can  be a mixed noodle, it can be a soup noodle...   Sichuan Zajiang is just very versatile. Now  the basic way you make a Zajiang is a lot like  

[00:59] Beijing or Cantonese style. You render out some  lard from fatty pork and then you fry the sauces   in it. But notice the difference in character  here. For Beijing it's zha jiang – ‘zha’ means  

[01:12] ‘fry’ and basically you are frying the sauce in  the render out our lard and that's the essence   there. However, in Sichuan and Southwest Mandarin  in general, it's “Za Jiang”, or “miscellaneous  

[01:26] sauce”. Why that is, we'll have to leave it to  the historical linguists. We cannot find anything   conclusive here. However, “Za” does kind of tell  the essence of the Sichuan style style zajiang  

[01:39] because it is a heavy combination of two local  fermented sauces, chili bean paste and Sichuan   style sweet bean paste. Now, chili bean paste –  Pixian Doubanjiang – needs no introduction. It's a  

[01:53] classic in a lot of Sichuan dishes. So, just make  sure that you mince your chili bean paste well so   that you don't have big chunks of broad beans  floating around in your sauce. The second one,   Sichuan style sweet bean paste, Tianmianjiang,  has a couple considerations though. Annoyingly,  

[02:10] the northern style sweet bean paste, which  is the one that's usually available abroad,   tastes quite different from the Sichuan one,  and it's not a direct substitute here. Much   closer to what the Sichuan one tastes like in our  experience, it's the Cantonese Minsi, ground bean  

[02:28] sauce. You can use it here in this application  or you can try our convoluted substitute here for   those truly obsessives or you can just directly  buy a pack from Weee or Mala market. It's a nice  

[02:43] ingredient. So with the sauces in place, we can  fry up our Za Jiang. To do so, first drizzle in   a tablespoon of oil and then go in with 500g of  ground fatty pork. It will be best if you can  

[02:56] use a coarser grind because coarser and slightly  bigger chunks can help you get a smoother and more   tender final sauce texture. But in a pinch, you  can also use the fattiest ground pork that you can  

[03:11] find. Then over a medium flame, slowly render out  our lard, which does take a little bit of time,   and we can think of it as three stages. First,  fry it until it starts to get loose and flow off  

[03:23] your spatula, which takes a couple minutes.  After that time, it will start to reach its   annoyingly-sticking-to-the-wok stage. When that  happens, just patiently scrape off anything  

[03:35] that's sticking, and you can add a little extra  oil if you need. After about 5 minutes or so,   the pork will begin to release as lard and fry.  And in this stage, what you will be looking for is  

[03:48] something like this: lightly brown but not crisp,  [you don’t want it to] get hard… and as they call   it in Sichuan, “Gan Xiang You Ren”. Now a good  technique for adding sauces into the Za Jiang,  

[04:01] especially for the Sichuan version, will be  adding some lard into the sauce and mix well   first. This way, it can help the sauce mix  more evenly as well as prevent scorching.  

[04:13] So now fry it for about a minute to tint our oil  red first… then add in our tianmianjiang. Fry all   together for another 2 minutes or so… Then we can  add in half cup of stock. Let it simmer together  

[04:28] for about 3 minutes. Then add in the seasoning  of 1/4 teaspoon salt plus half teaspoon each MSG,   white pepper, and sugar. Mix well. Then  add in 1 tbsp liaojiu aka Shaoxing wine.  

[04:42] Let it simmer for a minute and then we can  thicken. Just slowly drizzle in a slurry of one   tablespoon potato starch and two tablespoons water  bit by bit. Let it come together to a consistency  

[04:56] a bit like this. Then reserve it in a bowl. Now  let's make the noodles. And again in Sichuan   there are usually two ways that you will see Za  Jiang Mian – ‘ganban’ [mixed] or a soup noodle.   Either way you want, it will be most delicious if  you have some stock handy. But for the dry mixed  

[05:14] ganban version, the stock is optional. So to make  the mixed version, we'll put the base seasoning   into the noodle serving bowl first, which is one  teaspoon garlic water, half teaspoon Chinese dark  

[05:26] vinegar, half tablespoon Sichuan chili oil,  1/4 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorn powder, 1/4   teaspoon toasted sesame oil, half tablespoon soy  sauce, 1/8 teaspoon each salt and MSG, and 1/4 cup  

[05:40] stock or water. Then boil 60 gram dry noodles per  serving together with a couple pieces of baby bok   choy. When they're done to your liking, place it  neatly into the noodle serving bowl. And finally,  

[05:52] top it with two to three tablespoons of your Za  Jiang, a bit of scallion, and cilantro. And that's   that. For the soup noodle, the base seasoning  is the same, but the stock is mandatory. Now,  

[06:06] at noodle shops, they will usually have a simple  pork bone stock handy, and we show you how to make   one way back in our red braised beef noodle soup  video. And we'll also leave you a simple recipe in  

[06:18] the description. But for me today, I'm going to  use our personal concentrated frozen stock from   our cool little ice cube bags and add some hot  water to it and make a very nice quick stock.  

[06:30] Then, same as the mixed noodle, put all the  seasoning into the serving bowl first and   then add in the stock. And next, cook the same  60g dry noodle per portion, plus some baby bok  

[06:43] choy. Carefully place the noodles and veg into the  soup. And top it off with a couple tablespoons of   our delicious Sichuan Za Jiang. And there you  have it, Sichuan Za Jiang Mian, mixed or soup,  

[06:57] however you like it. Right. This is how you  make Sichuan style Za Jiang… and this jiang,   it's probably my personal favorite because it  has a very nice and complex flavor and it's  

[07:09] really versatile. It's just so good even just  on some leftover white rice. And as promised,   in a couple days, Chris will show you how  to make a weirder version of Zha Jiang. So  

[07:23] stay tuned. And in the meantime, recipe’s  in description box. A big thank you for   everyone that's supporting us on Patreon and  subscribe for more upcoming weird sauce videos.