DIZZZAAAMN. Thats right, its 짜장면 (炸醬麵)!!! A much beloved Koreanized version of an originally Northern Chinese dish, called jajang myun. So beloved, there is a national day dedicated to it. Theres a jajang myun shop on every street, as ubiquitous as pizza is in the States. One of the top street foods in Korea. So, cooking is not only a process, its an art form. Let me walk you through my journey: Midnight, and Im hungry. I have a craving for Jajang myun, but unfortunately Im not in Korea, so I cant just order some delivery at midnight. So I tell myself, f*k it. Let me try to make it then. I took some old pork ribs that were leftover, carved the meat off, and used the bones to make a quick stock. Rendered the fat off the meat and chopped/added the following vegetables: - potato - onion - garlic - ginger - cabbage - turnip - carrot - peas Added stock when necessary. Dissolved black bean paste in there. The sauce was too thin, so I thought adding a little gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste) would be a good idea. The gochujang would add some heat and I figured (correctly) that it would help thicken the sauce, since gochujangs base is sweet rice flour. It thickened up very nicely. Tasted, and something was missing. I remember it was a little sweeter in my memory, so I added sugar. BINGO. The sugar balanced everything out. It married all the flavors together and the savory and spicy notes shined even further. Ate with some noodles, which werent that great since jajang myun is usually with hand pulled fresh chewy noodles. But the sauce was sooo delicious. So delicious, that I had to have seconds. So I scooped it on top of rice, making 짜장밥. First time making this dish, and it was a complete success. Cooking is an art. Taste, taste some more, readjust seasoning, then taste again. Remember, you can always add. But you can never take out. And another one in the books.....
Posted on: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 06:40:25 +0000
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