Jajangmyeon (Korean Black Bean Noodles) Recipe

Jajangmyeon, a Korean dish with Chinese roots, dates back to the early 20th century but gained popularity during the post-war period when it was seen as being a treat meant for special occasions. Even today, the dish is associated with one particular holiday: Black Day, which is basically a Valentine's Day meant to allow the uncoupled to celebrate their solo status. Appropriately enough, recipe developer Rika Hoffman calls these noodles "Something I would want to devour alone." She describes them as "messy and indulgent and joyful," much like the single life can be.

Hoffman notes that jajangmyeon can be made with any combination of vegetables you have on hand, suggesting cabbage, corn, peas, and potatoes as possible alternates to any of the ones she's using here. In her opinion, though, "Onion is a non-negotiable ingredient [because it is] essential for sweetness." She also admits that her jajangmyeon recipe "isn't spicy at all," but says that if you want a bit more kick to it, you can sprinkle it with gochugaru before digging in.

For this recipe, Hoffman recommends using Korean wheat noodles, which she says may be labeled as jajangmyeon or udon noodles. She does say, though, that Japanese udon noodles can be used if you can't find the Korean kind. "Although Japanese udon is thicker," she says, "it has a similar chewy texture so it works well in this recipe."

In addition to the noodles, you'll need carrots, zucchini, daikon or Korean radish, onions, garlic, pork loin or belly, mirin, cooking oil, chunjang (Korean black bean paste), sugar, soy sauce, oyster sauce, vegetable broth or bouillon, and potato starch or cornstarch for the sauce. You're also going to need a cucumber to garnish the finished dish.

Before you can start making the sauce for the noodles, there's a fair bit of prep work to be done. The carrots, daikon, onions, and zucchini all need to be chopped into cubes measuring about ¼ inch on each side. Be sure the peel the onions first, of course, and also peel the garlic before mincing it. Slice the cucumber into julienne strips, then chop up the pork into cubes that are also ¼ inch on each side. Sprinkle the pork with salt and stir in the mirin. The mirin marinade, Hoffman says, "help[s] tenderize the meat and reduce any off-flavors."

The chunjang, too, needs a bit of prepping before you can use it. Mix it with the oil, then stir-fry it over medium heat for 3 minutes. Hoffman explains, "Cooking the chunjang will help reduce the bitterness of the black bean paste."

Pour a bit more oil into a frying pan (not the same one you used for the chunjang), then fry the onions and garlic just until they become aromatic. Add the carrots and daikon and cook these new vegetables for 2 to 3 minutes, then stir in the zucchini and cook it for just a minute more. Remove the vegetables from the pan, then use that same pan to fry the pork. Once it is no longer showing any pink inside, put the vegetables back in the pan and stir-fry everything for a few minutes until the vegetables are cooked. They should still be fairly firm, though.

Remember that chungyang/oil mixture? Stir that into the pork and vegetables along with the sugar, soy sauce, oyster sauce, and vegetable broth. Mix the starch (potato or corn) with a little water to make a slurry, then stir this into the sauce and cook it for a few minutes until it thickens up a bit. Once the sauce is thick enough, taste it and add as much salt as you'd like.

Boil a pot of water and cook the noodles according to the instructions on the packaging. Drain and rinse them in cold water to stop the cooking process, then add them to a bowl and top them with the sauce. Scatter the cucumber strips over the top as a garnish. Go ahead and add some gochugaru, too, if you happen to have some on hand and you'd like a little heat.

Hoffman says uneaten jajangmyeon will only last in the refrigerator for a few days, but notes that if you have leftover sauce, it can go into the freezer for longer storage. If you do have some noodles that have been left unsauced, though, you may be interested to know that leftover pasta can actually be frozen as well.