Recipes
Jajangmyeon, Korean noodles
Here's how to prepare jajangmyeon, the Korean noodles with bean paste and vegetables from the Netflix series Squid Game .
The term jajangmyeon indicates a first course belonging to the Korean gastronomic tradition. Despite its unattractive appearance, it is a tasty and particular typical product with an interesting story behind it which we will not fail to tell you. But we know you are here after seeing them in the first episode of the second season of Squid Game and now you can't wait to replicate them.
The main ingredients, in addition to Korean noodles, are black bean paste (chunjang – can be purchased online or in ethnic stores), diced pork (usually bacon), and vegetables . There is also no shortage of richer versions (such as those with hard-boiled eggs) or vegetarian ones, without meat or fish.
Preparation
How to prepare jajangmyeon recipe
First, heat a pan and pour in the vegetable oil. Add the black bean paste and fry for a couple of minutes. In this way some of its bitter taste will be attenuated.
Set it aside and add the bacon to the same pan. Brown it until it begins to release its fat.
At this point, add the chopped onion and brown it for a couple of minutes, until it is translucent, then add the potatoes , carrot and courgettes cut into cubes of half a centimeter on each side, browning them for a couple of minutes.
Return the bean paste to the pan and mix. Cover with water and bring to the boil before adding the sugar (to lower the flavor of the sauce) and the corn starch dissolved in a little water. This step is essential to thicken it and give it its typical appearance. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally until the potatoes are tender.
In the meantime, cook the Korean noodles following the instructions on the package. In fact, cooking times and techniques can vary greatly from one product to another.
Distribute the noodles on plates and cover with the prepared sauce. As an accompaniment you can use sliced cucumber and pickled daikon (danmuji), an ingredient widely used in Korean cuisine.
Here is a video with all the steps to make the dish. We also added the carrot but as you can see it is optional.
For a vegetable version you can easily omit the bacon. The result will still be excellent thanks to the strong flavor of the sauce. Furthermore, among other typical dishes of Korean cuisine, we recommend you try gimbap , a sort of tasty and sumptuously stuffed sushi.
Conservation
The best advice is to consume them at the moment and not store them.
History
We mentioned in the introduction the history of this dish which, as you can imagine, certainly does not begin with the Neflix series. The jajangmyeon were born in 1905 in a restaurant of a family of Chinese immigrants in the Korean city of Incheon. The name is a sort of mispronunciation of a Japanese dish , zhájiàngmiàn , modified to better adapt to the tastes of the Korean community.
After the Korean War ended (we are in the 1950s) this dish was sold for very little, therefore it became a popular dish. Today, jajangmyeon is the dish of Black Day , a kind of singles holiday that falls on April 14 every year. Basically, those who have not received gifts on Valentine's Day (when the boy gives the gift to the girl) or during White Day (when the opposite occurs) gather to enjoy these noodles.
Read also
Tteokbokki, the Korean dumplings from Squid Game
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