fried sauce noodles

The intensely savoury and potent meat sauce in this dish comes about from the’frying’of three different bean-based sauces. All of the sauces are used in northern Chinese cooking, and most often you will see recipes for ja jeung meen cooked in the Beijing or Shanghaistyle. We have made it here to the Hong Kong style, which is more red in colour and slightly tangy. Be-cause the meat is such an important part of the sauce, use a fattier cut such as belly or shoulder as this will contribute a more luxurious flavour and mouthfeel.

Serves 300g pork shoulder or belly, or pork mince 2 tsp cornflour pinch bicarbonate of soda vegetable oil, for cooking 12 tsp finely diced ginger 1 clove garlic, finely diced 1 tbsp chilli bean sauce 1 tbsp yellow soybean paste 1 tbsp sweet bean paste 2 tbsp tomato ketchup tsp Chinkiang vinegar (optional) 150g fresh wonton noodles, or 125g dried noodles 1 Cut the pork into roughly 2cm cubes then use a cleaver or heavy knife to dhuk or grind the pork into little pieces until it resembles coarse mince. Mix the pork with the cornflour, 2 teaspoons water and the bicarbonate of soda and leave to marinate for 15 minutes.

2 Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a wok or frying pan over medium heat and stir-fry the ginger and garlic until fragrant. Add the pork and brown(you may need an extra teaspoon or two of oil if you are using lean pork mince), then remove and set aside.

3 If your chilli bean sauce has large pieces in it, roughly chop it until it resembles a rough paste. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in the wok or frying pan over a medium heat. Spoon in the yellow soybean and sweet bean pastes along with the chilli bean sauce, swirl together and fry for 2-3 minutes until fragrant and the pastes start to form clumps that blister on the surface.

4 Return the pork to the pan and add the tomato ketchup and 250ml water. Loosen any large clumps of paste. Bring to the boil before reducing the heat and simmering for 10 minutes, uncovered, until the sauce has thickened and the pork is deep red. You may need to add some more water. Stir in the vinegar, if using.

5 Cook the noodles in a pan of boiling water according to the packet instructions, drain and stir in a few drops of cooking oil to prevent the noodles from sticking. Serve the sauce on top of the noodles.

qingquang

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