How to Make My Mother's Awesome Pork Sauce Noodles

My new year's resolution is to learn how to cook better Chinese food, especially the dishes that I remember fondly as a child. My recent visit to Baozi Inn in London inspired my first lesson: Zha Jiang Mian, or fried pork sauce noodles. These noodles are a staple of Northern Chinese cuisine which is more noodle focused than the South. If my memory serves me, I had these almost everyday as my first snack at home after a long day at school. My grandmother use to tell me Marco Polo brought this dish back to Italy and it became the inspiration for spaghett bolognese. Here's my mother's creation and her recipe below.

Chinese style dried noodles (thin spaghetti type)
Minced garlic
Minced scallions
Ground pork
Tian Mian Jiang (sweet bean sauce)
Dou Ban Jiang (soya bean sauce)

Cucumbers, bean sprouts, carrots or other crunchy vegetables as garnish

Stir fry the ground pork in vegetable oil (medium heat) until just browned. Empty into a bowl and put aside. Stir fry the minced garlic and scallions together in more vegetable oil, until cooked and soft. Then add the ground pork with the garlic and scallions and mix well, ensuring everything is cooked together. Lower the heat and stir in the sweet bean sauce (2 parts) + soya bean sauce (1 part), adding just enough sauce to coat the whole pan of pork. The consistency should be like spaghetti bolognese so add water if too thick. Add salt to taste. Separately, boil the dry noodles per instructions on the package. Usually it's a quick boil, again similar to spaghetti. Combine sauce and noodles. Devour.

You can serve this with raw cucumbers or carrots julienned or bean sprouts flash boiled. The crunchiness of the vegetables will give the dish a nice texture and a balance with the rich sauce. Some people also like to put some raw minced garlic and scallions on top too and I used to have some chopped up scrambled eggs mixed in. Try anything, to your own liking!