Zha jiang mian (Chinese noodles with pork sauce)
Chewy noodles under a savory-sweet pork sauce with cool, crunchy cucumber on top, the Beijing comfort bowl made with pantry sauces.
- 30 min total
- 25 min hands-on
- Anyone can make this
- Serves 4
- About $2.24 a serving
- 610 calories
- Good the next day
- Dairy-free
Dolly says: I’d make this on a weeknight. It’s on the table in 30 minutes.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 1 cucumber
- 2 stalks green onions, sliced
- 1 lb ground pork
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
- ¼ cup hoisin sauce
- 8 oz lo mein noodles
From your pantry
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- ½ cup water
- 1 tsp sugar
Each serving has about 610 calories, 29 g protein, 54 g carbs and 31 g fat, and costs about $2.24 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No cucumbers? English cucumbers or mini cucumbers work.
- No green onions? Chives work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Bring a large pot of water for the noodles.
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
High heat
Cut the cucumber into thin matchsticks and the green onions.
Slice. Slicing means cutting food into flat pieces of about the same thickness. Even slices cook evenly, so none are raw while others burn.
How you’ll know: Lay a few side by side: they’re close to the same thickness from one end to the other.
Dolly’s tip: Cut the cucumber into thin planks first, then stack a few and cut them into sticks.Heat the oil in a large over medium-high. Cook the pork 5 to 6 minutes, breaking it up, until with no pink left.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Brown. Browning means cooking until the outside turns brown, which is where a lot of savory flavor comes from. Give food room and time without stirring, or it steams and stays gray.
How you’ll know: The food looks brown rather than gray, and the kitchen smells toasty and savory.
Medium-high heatTimer: 5 min 30 sec
Food safety: Ground beef, pork and lamb are done at 160°F. When it’s cooked through there’s no pink left anywhere in the pan.
Stir in the garlic and ginger for 30 seconds, .
Fragrant. Fragrant means cooking until you can clearly smell it, usually garlic or spices, often in about 30 seconds. That’s the moment the flavor is ready, just before it can burn.
How you’ll know: You can smell it from a step back, and garlic is pale gold, not brown.
Medium-high heat
Stir in the hoisin, soy sauce, water and sugar, turn the heat to medium-low, and 5 to 8 minutes, until thick and glossy.
Simmer. Simmering means keeping a liquid just below a boil, with small bubbles rising gently. It cooks food evenly and lets a sauce thicken without scorching on the bottom.
How you’ll know: Small, lazy bubbles break the surface every second or so, and nothing is churning.
Low heatTimer: 6 min
Meanwhile, cook the noodles in the boiling water as the package says, then .
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
High heatTimer: 4 min
Divide the noodles among bowls, spoon the pork sauce over, and pile the cucumber and green onions on top. Mix it all together as you eat.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
