Ja-Ja Mein Recipe

Copyright 2010 by Cooking With The Single Guy

Ingredients:
6 oz. ground pork
1 can sweet bean sauce (6 oz.)
1 onion, diced
1 cucumber, seeded and thinly sliced
2 stalks of green onion, thinly chopped (mostly white section, about 1/4 cup)
8 oz. dried noodles (preferably wheat, but rice noodles is OK)
1 t white pepper
1 T soy sauce
1 T sesame oil
1 T hot chili sauce (adjust to your taste)
1/2 cup chicken broth
2-3 T Canola oil

Marinate the ground pork with the ground white pepper, soy sauce and sesame oil. Let sit for about 10 minutes.

Heat oil in a wok or large skillet over medium high heat and then add onion and green onion (scallions) for about 2 to 3 minutes to soften the onion. Then add pork and cook until brown, breaking up the meat into little pieces. When pork looks fully cooked, add sweet bean sauce, chicken broth and chili. Lower heat to simmer and cook cover for another 15 minutes to let the sauce thicken. Taste to see if you need to adjust hot sauce level or add more soy sauce. When done, remove from heat and let cool.

Slice cucumber to very thin pieces.

In a pot, boil water and cook noodles per package instructions. When done, place noodles into two separate bowls and then divide sauce and cucumber and place on top. When ready to eat, mix everything together and dig in.

Makes 2 servings. Pair with a glass of sake.

TIP: The sweet bean sauce may be hard to find. Look for it with other bean sauce that is used for Szechuan cooking. If you still can’t find it, I’ve heard some people use miso paste as a replacement. (If using miso paste, you might not need to use 6 ounces but maybe more like 2-3 tablespoons.)

BUCK THE WHEAT: Most recipes I've found for ja-ja mein recommends wheat noodles. In Chinatown stores, it's hard to find wheat noodles used for Northern Chinese dishes. Many of them sell Japanese soba noodles, which works just as fine.