You will always have a feast for your eyes when dining in a Korean restaurant. I am always filled with anticipation to see what banchan, or Korean side dishes, are brought out to accompany the meal I've just ordered.
I almost enjoy eating the banchan more than the main course. 🙂
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Jajangmyeon is Korean comfort food at its best. It originated in China, and now is considered a type of Chinese-Korean fusion food.
It is delicious noodles topped with black bean paste. The black bean sauce is added to a stir fry that consists of diced pork, zucchini, potato, cabbage, and onion. It is then topped with some cucumber matchsticks to finish it off. You will definitely want a heaping bowlful of the jajangmyeon as it is so scrumptious!
You'll need the following ingredients to make this fantastic Korean comfort food:
Once you gather your ingredients, the hardest part of this recipe is dicing the veggies. Other than that, this comes together pretty quickly and you will be rewarded with some amazing delish noodles!
The black bean paste I used is by the Korean brand Assi. You can buy this at your local Korean market or at Amazon using this link. The black bean paste is called "chunjang" and it is fermented caramel, soybean, and flour. The taste is a bit salty and sweet, and of course the color is black. Once opened, the chunjang will need to be stored in the refrigerator.
The noodles that are used for this dish are typically made of wheat, and very often sold frozen in Asian or Korean stores. They may be labeled udon or jajangmyeon noodles. However, I only had these Kalguksu Knife-Cut Korean Style Noodles and they worked perfectly fine! The Kalguksu noodles are not traditional for this dish but I enjoyed using them. In general you will find both dried and fresh varieties of noodles available in your local Korean market, and it's fun to experiment with both kinds of noodles!
It's super easy to make Jajangmyeon!
Begin by heating up a pan on med high heat, and add olive oil. Once the oil is hot, add the minced ginger and garlic. Stir fry constantly for 1 minute. Then add the pork and continue stir frying until no longer pink (approximately 3-5 min).
Then add the cabbage, onion, potato, and zucchini. Stir and lower the heat to medium. Cover and cook for around 10-15 minutes or until the vegetables are tender, stirring every so often.
Add 1 cup of chicken broth, soy sauce, sugar, black pepper, and the Korean black bean paste. Bring to the boil, and then turn down the heat and simmer for about 5-10 minutes.
In the meantime, heat up water and cook your noodles of choice according to package directions.
Add the rice vinegar as a final step and the jajangmyeon is ready to eat!
A Korean meal is not complete without the national dish of Korea, which is kimchi. So you'll want to serve the jajangmyeon with some kimchi. Kimchi is pretty much salted and fermented vegetables with seasonings. There are so many different kinds available, all delicious! You can buy prepared kimchi at your local Korean market. Or you may want to try this delicious recipe for Pa Kimchi, which is Korean Wild Green Onion Kimchi.
I also recommend that you have serve some cucumber matchsticks and yellow pickled daikon radish with this dish. You can find the pickled daikon radish at your local Asian market in the refrigerated section.
April 14th is Black Food Day. What is Black Food Day? In Korea it is a day when single people get together to eat black food (typically jajangmyeon!) to commiserate over not being part of Valentine's Day or White Day.
In Korea, Valentine's Day is observed by women giving men gifts on February 14. March 14 then, is White Day. On this day, men return the favor by giving women gifts. Then one month later, April 14, Black Day (or Black Food Day) singles who didn't receive gifts on Valentine's Day or White Day get together to eat the jajangmyeon! By the way, jajang refers to the black bean paste sauce, and myeon refers to the noodles.
Jajangmyeon is an awesome meal for any day, not just April 14. 🙂 It is budget friendly, and quick and easy to prepare.
I always love to practice pronouncing the name of the international dishes that I cook. If you are not familiar with jajangmyeon, then click here to listen to the pronunciation. Then you can practice saying jajangmyeon until it rolls off the tongue. 🙂
Try this delicious noodle dish and bring a taste of Korea to your table! 식사 맛있게하세요!! (Enjoy your meal in Korean). 🙂
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Cheers!
Grace
This post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my link. Here is a post about Korean Green Onion Kimchi!
My mother is Korean. Growing up I didn't have the best appreciation for Korean food, but I certainly do now. Korean food is hands down one of my favorite cuisines, and I am excited to share some Korean recipes with you...starting with kimchi.
Kimchi is so very important in Korean cuisine. There are many different types of kimchi, which basically refers to fermented and pickled vegetables.
Kimchi is generally served as a side dish, or "banchan.'' I confess that sometimes I am way more excited about the banchan than the main dish! Typically you will be served several types of banchan if you dine at a Korean restaurant. They are colorful, beautiful, varied, and delicious!
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I confess I know very little about Japanese food, but I am determined to change that! My sister is Japanese, and I really hope that I can learn how to cook a great Japanese meal for her one day.
Therefore, I’m starting with a very basic recipe, the Japanese pickled cucumber. Otherwise known as tsukemono, Japanese pickles are a mainstay of Japanese meals. Asazuke are lightly seasoned quick pickles, which is what our recipe is for. I’m having quite a lot of fun trying to pronounce these words. 🙂
Serve tsukemono with with rice, as a snack, side dish, or garnish, as typically done in Japan. This cucumber asazuke is a very quick and simple preparation. I originally made this to go into a poke bowl (click here for the recipe). This pickle is very light and refreshing, and a perfect and easy recipe to start with in my quest to learn about Japanese cooking and cuisine.
...This page may contain affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my link. This post is about delicious Thai Red Curry With Chicken!
I absolutely love dishes that are colorful and spicy! Thai red curry fits the bill, and is one of my favorite meals.
This recipe utilizes ready made red curry paste, so you can cook up this curry quickly and easily.
There are many types of ready made red curry pastes available, but the one I have been using is by Mae Ploy, which I pick up at my local Asian market. Just look at the ingredients of the paste:
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The popularity of Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps just keeps growing, and it is easy to see and taste why! They are so delicious, and you'll be pleased to know you can easily make restaurant style quality wraps at home!
This recipe is so tasty and very budget friendly as well. I hope you will enjoy it and make this your go to recipe for fast, easy, and awesome tasting Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps!
...This page may contain affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my link. This post is about an easy and authentic Thai Cucumber Salad Recipe which makes a perfect side dish!
If you love food with BOLD and INCREDIBLE flavors, then you MUST make this authentic Thai salad recipe! This recipe is:
Thai cuisine is absolutely one of my favorites!! And one of my favorite Thai dishes is the Thai cucumber salad which is superb for summer months!
"Cool as a cucumber" is a well known phrase. It actually refers to being calm and composed rather than low in temperature. However the phrase comes from the cool traits of the cucumber! From the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture: "This phrase may have originated from the fact that even in hot weather, the inside of cucumbers are approximately 20 degrees cooler than the outside air." Pretty cool!
This Thai Cucumber Salad is so refreshing and will definitely help you beat the heat! It is the perfect summer side dish!
The vegetables in this salad include fresh cucumbers, green onions, onion, and cherry tomatoes.
Feel free to use yellow or red onion in this easy Thai cucumber salad recipe.
For visual appeal, it's super fun to peel the cucumber in stripes as pictured above. To prep the vegetables, slice the cucumber into thin slices. Then slice the onion, cut the green onion on the bias, and finally cut the cherry tomatoes into halves. Now you're ready to add the Thai Cucumber salad dressing!
The sauce is comprised of just 3 ingredients! They are:
My favorite fish sauce is the Three Crabs Brand. I am including a link to Amazon for Three Crabs Brand Fish Sauce for convenience if you would like to purchase on Amazon. Or you should be able to find this and the rice vinegar at your local grocery store or Asian market.
It's so easy to make this authentic Thai cucumber salad recipe!
Begin by adding the 2 teaspoons of sugar, 6 teaspoons of fish sauce, and 2 tablespoons of tangy rice vinegar to a small bowl. Next, add your prepped veggies to a large bowl.
Then simply combine the sliced cucumbers and other prepped veggies and the sauce and voila! Your Thai Cucumber Salad is ready in about 10 minutes!
Not every Thai dish is spicy! This simple recipe for Thai Cucumber Salad has a mild flavor and is absolutely delicious! No Thai chiles are required for this recipe!
There are 5 flavors of Thai cuisine: sweet, sour, spicy, salty, and bitter. To get it just right, you try to find the right balance of flavors in the dishes, and the end result is complex and amazing. It is my understanding that you need at least 2 of these flavors in a Thai dish in order for it to taste right. In this dish you will taste a bit of sour, some sweet, and also wonderful salt!
Use regular or English cucumbers for this dish!
Yes! As soon as it's ready you can eat it. I do recommend giving it a couple of hours in the fridge for the flavors to infuse though if you have time!
This salad is best consumed within a day or two.
If you don't have rice vinegar, you could sub apple cider vinegar, seasoned rice vinegar, or white wine vinegar.
This authentic Thai cucumber salad may just become one of your favorites! Cool and crisp cucumbers with this fab Thai tangy dressing makes for such a great side dish!
Take it to your next potluck. I can guarantee that people will ask you for your Asian cucumber salad recipe!
You may also enjoy these recipes if you like Thai food!
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Cheers!
Grace
