jjajang bap (black bean sauce over rice)
JJajang bap: fusion comfort food. Note: Jjajang bap or jjajang myun is traditionlly topped with julienned cucumber and/or fried eggs. My personal preference is topping it off with scallions.
Jjajang bap. A lot of times, the sauce you see pictured is served with wheat noodles. That’s called jjajang myun. Since I served the sauce over rice it’s called jjajang bap.
Today, I was in a hurry and didn’t have time to make noodles, nor did I have any pre-made ones from the store on hand. So white rice was the winner :)
The sauce is made from fermented black bean paste, pork, and vegetables.
This sauce is a fusion of Chinese and Korean. I’ve tried the original Chinese version, zhajiangmian, (with noodles), which is delicious as well. The Korean version is typically made with pork, like the Chinese zhajiangmian. However, the paste used as the base for the sauce and the resulting consistency differ.
The first time I remember having jjajang bap/myun was when I visited Seoul, Korea for the first time—before I had even started kindergarten-I was born in the U.S.
I’ll never forget it—A man, with a motorbike helmet still on, was carrying what looked like a large metal briefcase/lunchbox. He opened it up, and inside were bowls of jjajang bap/myun! I remember thinking to myself, “what kind of wonderful magic is this?!”
I hope you enjoy this recipe, and can share in some of the magic I felt the first time trying this :)
Ingredients:
For 3 servings
1 cup of chopped pork belly
1 ⅔ cup of chopped onion
1 cup of chopped green cabbage
1 cup of chopped green zucchini
1/4 teaspoon of ginger powder
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of onion powder
1/3 cup of Korean brand fermented black bean paste (e.g. Haioreum, Assi, Wang)
2 tablespoons of cooking oil (I used vegetable oil)
2 tablespoons of corn starch
2 cups of water
Ingredients (clockwise): Plate of onion, cabbage, and zucchini, pork belly, sugar, ginger powder, cornstarch, sugar, vegetable oil, black bean sauce. Not pictured, water.
Directions;
In a bowl, add the water to the corn starch with a whisk Set aside for later.
In a pan on medium high heat, add 1/2 tablespoon of cooking oil. Add the pork belly and ginger.
Stir/fry the pork and ginger powder for about 2 minutes.
Next, add the the onions and onion powder to the pan.
Stir/fry everything for 2-3 minutes, until the onions become soft.
Once the onions soften, add the zucchini, cabbage and sugar to the pan. Stir/fry for 3-4 minutes.
Next, push the pork/vegetable mixture towards the edge of the pan, leaving a circular opening in the middle.
Add the remaining 1½ tablespoon of oil to this circular opening. Then add the black bean paste.
With a wooden spatula, continuously and quickly stir/fry the black bean paste in a circular motion for about a minute.
After stirring/frying the paste, mix and coat it over the other ingredients in the pan.
Continue mixing until everything is evenly coated with the black bean paste.
The water that we mixed with the corn starch —that was set aside before—whisk it again a few times, because some of the corn starch has now probably settled to the bottom of the bowl.
After whisking the water/corn starch mixture, pour it into the pan.
For 2-3 minutes, stir everything together.
Next, lower the heat to medium.
Let the jjajang sauce cook on medium heat for an additional 8-10 minutes, stirring every 1-2 minutes.
You’ll notice the color of the sauce changing. As it cooks more, it will become a deeper, richer color.
The sauce about halfway through the process…
What the sauce looks like in the final stage.
Turn off the heat and ladle over a bowl of rice or noodles.
Traditionally, jjajang bap is topped with julienned cucumber and/or fried eggs. This is my personal preference topping it off with scallions when making it at home. Enjoy!
