Shanghai Noodle with Pork Mince ~ 炸酱面

When you keep buying the same types of meat every week you always have to think what to cook so that we are nore eating the same dishes week after week. For many of us who just started cooking not long ago, our ideas becomes quite limited. Now I know how difficult it was when my mum cooked every single day and each day was various different dishes. It is  when they are not beside you, you start to appreciate them more than ever. I really truley admire "mothers" to a whole new level these days.  I guess that's part of growing up!

So for tonight's dinner, I thought I'll try something I haven't cooked before again,  Shanghai Noodle with Pork Mince  - (炸酱面) in chinese.  This is a northern china dish and the recipe I used is adapted from Blisstree. 

Ingredients:

White Buckwheat noodle for 4 people
500g pork mince
3 tbs oil
11/2 tbs garlic minced
1tbs garlic
1tbs chilli sauce (other recipes recommended chilli flakes or paste, but chilli sauce tasted just fine)
1/3 cup of chicken stock
11/2 tbs shao xing wine
2 tbs black bean sauce
1 1/2 tbs hoisin sauce
2 tsp light soy sauce

1 tsp sugar

pinch of pepper (to taste)
2 tbs sesame oil (I actually forgot to add this but I think it will taste better with this)


Method:

Mince

1. Heat the oil in a wok or saucepan. Add in the garlic - fry for 30 secs then add in the ginger and fry for another 30 secs

2. Add in the pork mince, make sure you break all the clumps and blend in well with the garlic and ginger

3. Add the shao xing wine, keep stirring the mince

4. Add in the soybean sauce, hoisin sauce, chilli sauce, sugar & chicken stock. Keep stirring mince until cooked through.

5. Dish up with noodle and you can top it with cucumber and spring onion. 

Noodle

Boil water and cook noodle according to package instructions. Usually it will ask you to rinse under cold water to give the noodle a better texture.

* I strongly recommend the cucumber as topping, it goes really well with the mince and balance out the saltiness from the sauce as well as adding a crunch to the whole dish.