Happy Korean Pork Belly Day With Jjajangmyeon...

Cookin' Korean Jjajangmyeon 🇰🇷🍜 to celebrate 03.03 National Pork Belly Day in Korea and after being inspired and drooling watching new Netflix food series Jjajangmyeon Rhapsody. It traces the flavourful evolution from its Chinese origins to being South Korea's most beloved comfort foods with chef, restauranteur and food researcher Paik (Baek Jong-Won).

Fun Food Fact: Koreans celebrate this day with pork belly dishes because the first part of its Korean word for pork belly is "sam" in Samgyeopsal, which means three (sam; 삼), and the rest of its word, layered (gyeop; 겹) and flesh (sal;살). Paying homage to this special cut of pork on the third day of the third month is brilliant! Popular in Chinese and Korean butcher shops resembling bacon, samgyeopsal has three visible layers: the outer skin, then a two-inch layer of thick fat and attached to that two to three inches of lean meat. You can get them with or without skin-on.

As you might have seen on Korean dramas 🇰🇷📽, it’s also the most popular dish for home delivery especially on a move day 💨. A more recent phenomena, jajangmyeon has become a symbolic dish that single people eat with their friends on Black Day (April 14) to commiserate with each other over black noodles for lacking a romantic relationship. The sauce is made with chunjang (춘장), which is a Korean-style black bean paste made with fermented wheat flour, soybeans and caramel sauce. Chunjang must first be fried in oil to become a jjajang sauce to remove the bitter and sour taste of the bean paste.

A humble and affordable dish, tonight, I added cabbage, potatoes and zucchinis on hand cooked with chopped pork belly and shoulder. But the allure of the dish is the aromatic onions- lots of it cooked in water thickened with cornstarch slurry! Served with chewy fresh wheat noodles, a side of prepared fried chicken (a perfect pair) and my home pickled radishes, it was an acceptable slurpeable messy mouth mess 😋 . Or make it another popular version- black bean sauce over rice called jjajangbap 🖤🍚🥄 Next time I will try it with bacon for that smokey flavour to enhance the earthy rich jjajang further 👍!

Leftovers for lunch the next day

Check out the step-by-step recipe:

Korean Jjajangmyeon (Black Bean Sauce Noodles)

Serves 6 (adapted from Koreanbapsang.com)

6 servings of fresh Korean wheat noodles (refrigerated)

For the Sauce:

7 tablespoons Chunjang (춘장), Korean black bean paste some may be labelled as jjajang (짜장)

3 tablespoons cooking oil
1.5 tablespoons sugar
1.5 tablespoons oyster sauce - optional
1.5 cups chicken stock or water. You can add 1/2 cup more for thinner, more liquidy/watery sauce 
1.5 tablespoons cornstarch dissolved in 1/4 cup of chicken stock or water

Meat:

1/2 lb. pork belly and 1/2 lb. pork shoulder (preferably with some visible fat, pork butt, etc.)
1 teaspoon grated ginger
1 tablespoon rice wine (or mirin)
⅛ teaspoon each salt and pepper
2 tablespoons cooking oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce

Vegetables:

2 large onions, diced

2 medium potatoes, small diced
3 cups chopped green cabbage
1 medium zucchini, diced
1 small cucumber, shredded (topping)

Green onion, slivered (topping)
 

Have a pot of water ready to cook the noodles. Turn the heat on when you start cooking the meat. This way you will have the boiling water ready, for cooking the noodles, by the time the sauce is done.

Cut the pork into 1/2 - 3/4 inch cubes. Marinate the pork with rice wine (or mirin), ginger, salt and pepper while preparing the vegetables in same dice size.

In order to get chunjang into a jjajang which means fried sauce, you must first fry it. Add the black bean paste to a small saucepan with the oil, sugar, and the optional oyster sauce. Fry it over medium heat for 2 - 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Set aside in a bowl.

Heat a large pan with 2 tablespoons of cooking oil over medium high heat. Add the pork and stir fry until no longer pink, adding a tablespoon of soy sauce half way through. Add the onion and potatoes; cook until soft, stirring occasionally. Add the cabbage and zucchini and continue to stir fry until vegetables are softened.

Stir in the black bean paste and mix everything together until all the meat and vegetables are coated well with the paste.
 

Pour in the stock (or water) and bring it to a boil. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in the cornstarch slurry and cook briefly until the sauce is thickened. Add more sugar if desired to taste.

Add the noodles in the boiling water. Cook according to the package instructions and drain. Do not overcook. The noodles should have a firm bite to them (al dente). If the noodles are very starchy you may want to rinse slightly and drain well.

Place a serving size of noodles in each bowl. If you want the noodles hot, microwave it first. I find that in restaurants, the noodles is often served warm with the black bean sauce warm to hot. Spoon the sauce over the noodles and garnish with the optional cucumber matchsticks, green onion slivers and a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds. Alternatively, you can serve sauce over cooked rice- jjajangbap 🍚🥄.

Stir well to coat, pull up and slurp. Keep napkins nearby :)

Chef Paik's affordable and casual specialty restaurant has opened in North York @paiksnoodle_canada serving flavoursome jjamppong (spicy seafood noodle soup) and jajangmyeon alongside delicious crunchy tangsuyuk- deep fried pork with assorted vegetables in a tangy sweet sauce. Check it out 🤤💥!