Tah Dah, Jjajang Sauce! / 짜잔 짜장!

If you've looked around on this blog, you've seen that I have talked about Korean Chinese food.  You can't talk about this type of cuisine without giving nod to jajangmyeon/짜장면 .  Jajang/짜장is the sauce and myeon/면 is the word for noodle.  I can honestly say I've already eaten thousands and thousands of bowls over my life so far, and will probably consume a few thousand more before my time is over. Millions of Korean kids have grown up eating this sauce over noodles.  

As an adult, I love dragging my non-Asian friends to eat these mysterious black noodles.  I like to scare those inexperienced in this dish by warning them that we are going to eat "Black Spaghetti", almost alluding that they are  about to consume something akin to the plague.  As a matter of fact, the experience of eating this dish is quite the opposite of punishment.  Savory and slightly sweet and immensely satisfying this dish is best enjoyed while you slurp the noodles and get the sauce all over your face.

I did a little digging around and it turns out this Korean Chinese dish has been around for over a hundred years!  Originally a Chinese dish that originated in China's Shandong region, this dish was modified to fit Korean tastes back in the Joseon Era when Joseon opened it's Incheon port!  Chinese immigrants set up restaurants in the port town and modified many Chinese dishes to use local produce, ingredients and to fit Korean tastebuds.  Then during the Korean War, the Korean version of black bean sauce was created.  It had caramel added in to make it sweeter and this was the moment that this dish began it's life as it's own separate, distinct dish from the Chinese version.  The current version of Jajangmyun was born and the rest is history.

This dish is readily available in Korea and can even be delivered right to you in special boxes designed to house the bowls of noodles and sauce!  Super cheap and filling, it's definitely a fan favorite.  It's also easily found around LA's Ktown in restaurants and even in the hot food section of Korean markets. Korean markets  stock this sauce in easy reheat-able pouches, but if you're not nearby any Korean Chinese restaurants, I'm going to show you how to make this sauce.  It's super easy and quick to make and immensely satisfying to eat.  The beauty of this sauce is that you can eat it over noodles and even rice.  

Here it is over rice:

(photo credit: maangchi.com)

Grab these items:

pork belly or beef for stewing

olive oil

garlic (optional)

chili pepper flakes (optional)

Korean squash or zucchini

medium onion

medium potato

black bean paste (the Korean kind NOT the Chinese kind)

beef or chicken stock (or water)

corn starch 

sugar

cooked rice or noodles (depending on what you'd like to serve the sauce over)

In a heavy sauce pan, like a dutch oven, heat about a tablespoon of olive oil on medium heat.

Add about 1/2 a pound of pork belly that's been cut into bite sized pieces.  You can keep this vegetarian and no meat.....but I'm not opposed to eating meat so in it goes.

Peel and cut your medium potato into bite-sized cubes.  Remember, keep the cuts uniform for even cooking.  The larger you cut them, the longer the cooking time. 

Throw in your potatoes and onions into the pot with your pork and saute.

I really LOVE Korean squash.  It's got a nice, meaty texture and is perfect for soaking up flavors.  If you don't have access to it, you can use zucchini. .

 Chop up into nice bite sized cubes and throw into your pot and saute

At this point, I like to add about 2 tablespoons of fresh, crushed garlic and a handful of red pepper flakes....but this isn't typical for this sauce.  This is optional.

Clear a open space in the bottom of your pot and add about a tablespoon of olive oil like this:

Now grab your Korean black bean sauce.  This is NOT the Chinese version (that's a lot saltier) and it's not Korean soy paste like the one we use in chigae.

Add a heaping spoonful (about 2 tablespoons).  Plop it right in the middle. 

Give it a quick saute in the oil until it starts to stick a little. 

Then have go and go wild and saute everything in the sauce.

Other recipes tell you to dump in some water at this point....But I think using water leaves your sauce kinda of flat.  So I use whatever stock I have on hand.  In this case, I had a little beef stock so I used that, but chicken works great too.  I used about 3 cups.  Sometimes, I save the water that I boil pasta or potatoes in and use that too.  Hey, we're in drought and every little bit counts.

A good measure is to make sure all your veggies and meat are covered in broth.  If you add too much, then your sauce will be watery and the point of this sauce is that it's like a nice gravy.

Let your sauce simmer for about 15 minutes on medium low until your potatoes are soft enough to bite into.

While your sauce is simmering, mix about a tablespoon and a half into 1/4 cup of cold water.

Into your corn starch water, add a teaspoon of sugar.

When your sauce is done and your veggies are nice and fork tender, slowly stir in the corn starch-sugar mix to thicken.  Boom.  Done.  

I always forget to buy the right kind of noodles for this sauce, but that's ok because I love this over rice.  If you want to eat it over noodles, you have to find thick noodles that are made from wheat flour--totally different from pasta type noodles.  

You can thinly julienne some cucumber for garnish and add on top of your dish.  Eat this with pickles, kimchi or pickled, yellow radishes.

Cheddar Tator Tot Waffles

Recently, the Indian and I celebrated 19 years of unwedded bliss!  What a crazy ride! After 20 years of being with someone, what do you actually have left to buy them?

A WAFFLE IRON!

I think I pretty my much plan in making everything BUT waffles in it.  While researching waffle irons, I learned one thing:  holy wow some of these suckers are hella expensive. I only had two things I really wanted:

1) It had to flip/rotate.
2) I had to be able to store it upright.

I landed on a Presto version that was $30 bucks on Amazon.  There are others that are super fancy with different heat settings and removable plates and bells and whistles.  I'm not a fancy girl so Presto was fine with me.

Here's one of the first things I used it for:

Behold!  The tator tot waffle.

Bask in it's glory.

To make yourself one of these, you just need frozen tator tots and a waffle iron.

I used Ore-Ida brand tator tots (Did you know that Ore-Ida stands for Oregon Idaho?! The things you learn as you're standing there waiting for your tator tot waffle to crisp...)

You could also have the following things on hand in case you want to top your waffle:

cheddar cheese

bacon

poached or fried eggs

bacon

bacon

bacon...

You can prepare the eggs and bacon while your tator tot waffle is crisping in your waffle maker...kind of like a tanning bed for tator tots.

My waffle maker literally has one heat setting, so I just simply plug it in.  Boom.  Prep work, done!  Mine has a light indicator that tells me when the waffle maker is hot enough.

I load up the tator tots in a single layer to start.

Then, carefully press your waffle iron together to squish the pieces down.

Squish until your waffle maker closes and the two sides are flush.

Then, give it a peek.  You'll notice that there are gaps that need tator tot filling.  I add more to fill in the holes.  This ensures a more structually stable tator tot waffle.  Try to make sure there are no floating tator tots on the edges.  These floaters won't stick to the rest of the waffle.  They will get crunchy, but will be separated and you'll HAVE to eat them for the sake of the waffle.....

It took 8 -10 minutes to get my tator tot crisped the way I like it.  Depending on how fancy your waffle maker is, it might take less time. Or it could take more.  Just check it every few minutes.  

Then, because the tator tot waffle itself just isn't obscene enough, I like to top my with cheddar cheese.  You could just let it melt on top of yours if you wanted cheese, but I like to get my cheese crispy too.  

Simply add as much or as little cheese as you want.  I always have shredded cheese in my freezer in bulk...because well, I am a cheese head.   

I add enough to cover the waffle.   If you lose some off the side, don't worry, that cheese will crisp up for easy clean up (straight into my mouth).  At some point, I think I'll try to see if i can make a giant, crispy cheese waffle.  I promise to keep you posted.  These are important scientific inquires, you know.

Close it back up and wait another 2 minutes.  Viola!  Oh, wait...This pic has the cheese on the bottom side down....well, because it was stuck.

No  worries.  I used a handy, wooden chopstick to pop it up.  There!  Now you can see the crispy cheese!

I added some bacon.

Added a sunny side up egg, 

and my creation was complete! 

I actually drizzled it with my All Purpose Green Hulk Sauce, but I couldn't be bothered to take a picture and dug right in.  You can top with whatever you want or dip it in whatever you want.  They are divine and worth a try.  Better yet, make some and call me over!