Ha Ha Minced Pork Noodle Bowl - 哈哈豆瓣面

Hello! This is one of my wife's favorite noodle bowls! Very tasty and easy to make. It takes a little bit of prep process, but once you're done, it'll be enough to feed everyone. I personally love noodles. A lot of love goes into preparing noodles. There are a few things that I hold as "musts" when it comes to making noodles-

• Don't break the noodles shorter! (long noodles = long life)
• Don't over cook the noodles! (mushy noodles are gross)
• Do a noodle taste test! (taste and break a noodle as you are cooking them. If you see a speck of white in the center of the noodle- it is perfectly cooked = al dente.) 

It may take some practice and finesse in mastering the doneness of a noodle, but remember that you can always cook an undercooked noodle further but can't take back one that has been obliterated in the boiling process.

So...LET'S COOK!

Ingredients 

-1/2 lb ground pork
-12-16 oz dry Cantonese noodle(any size S , M or L) -works with spaghetti too-
-1/2 bag dry pressed tofu(diced)
-1 cucumber (peeled and stripped)
-2 pcs green onion(chopped)
-4 pcs garlic(minced)
-1/4 white onion(diced)
-11/2 cup water/chicken stock
-3 tbs  cornstarch (mix with 5 tbs water)

-1/4 tbs sugar
-4-5 egg(beat evenly)
-1/2 tbs sesame oil

Sauce Mixture

-21/2tbs  Ha Ha soy bean sauce
-1/2tbs hoisin sauce
-11/2 tbs dark soy sauce

Chinese Egg noodles go great with this dish. There are various kinds that you can buy so buy one that suits your taste.

This dry pressed tofu is probably the best thing in the world. It has a nice spice already baked into it and it's easy to cook with.

There are also various brands of this sauce. This is the brand I prefer but you can choose one to your liking.

Everything will be diced into small pieces and will blend well in our sauce. Set your prepped ingredients aside and ready for cooking. Mix up and break your eggs for a scramble.

Cucumber Julienne Strips

This is best explained in pictures-

Peel off the skin first and trim off the ends.

Cut it into manageable parts. I usually do 3 which also gives it the length that I like.

Remove the seeds from the center. Cut your partition in half and then those pieces in half. Now you have a good angle for cutting out the seeds. With cucumber now trimmed, you can cut them into julienne strips.

Finished cut. You can see the trimmed out seeds up at the top.

Noodle

 -In a big noodle pot bring 2/3 of water to boiling with couple tbs of vegetable oil.
-Add in the dry noodles and let it cook for 7 mins (frequently stir it with tongs or chopsticks to make sure the noodle won't stick on the bottom or stick together).
-To check the noodle if it's done or not. just eat a piece. If the noodle is still hard and raw in the middle, then cook for a little while longer. If you follow the 'white center' technique, the uncooked speck should be the size of a thick sewing needle.

Noodles are drained and then will be moved to a temporary bowl for adding oil to prevent them from sticking together.

- After the noodles are cooked, drain the water and add the noodles to a large bowl. Add a little bit of cooking oil to the noodles so that they do not stick together. Stir and mix up the oil as evenly as possible. When the noodles are resting in this state, remember that there is still residual heat from the boiling water. This is part of the reason why the noodles shouldn't be overcooked because they are essentially still cooking while sitting. Always better to be a little bit on the safe side in this situation. Not only are the noodles holding heat while resting, they will also continue to reheat when we add sauce to it at the end.

Egg strips

In a  nonstick pan, heat it up in high heat with couple tbs vegetable oil. Next, add in the egg and let it cook for 30 sec then flip it over for another 30 sec or until fully cooked.

Remove the egg from the pan and onto a cutting board. Roll up the egg and slice it into strips. Set this aside for later.

Roll it up like a burrito and then cut like so. This will make cutting it into strips nice and easy.

The Meat Sauce

-In a pan/wok, heat it up in high heat with couple tbs vegetable oil. Add in garlic, onion and green onion. Stir it little bit till it starts to become aromatic, and then add the ground pork and dried tofu. Allow the grounded pork to cook for a min to sear and bring out the flavor. Adding the sauce mixture now will give it potential to burn the sugars and change the flavor of the dish.

-then add your sauce mixture- soy bean sauce, dark soy sauce, hoisin sauce, sugar and finally water/stock

Sauce mixture has been mixed and is ready for adding to the pan. It's best to prepare your  liquid sauce mixture before hand so you're not scrambling to get it all together in a hurry.

-bring it back to broil, let it cook for about 5-10
-while this is boiling, prepare a cornstarch mixture with water (add cornstarch into a small bowl and then add cold water. Stir this mixture around until it looks and feels like milk).
- after the meat sauce has cooked for the alotted time, add the mixed cornstarch only little at a time to avoid the sauce being too thick. While pouring, stir the sauce at the same time. When the sauce starts to thicken (almost like a nice gravy) turn off the heat.
-finish the sauce with the sesame oil. You don't necessarily cook sesame oil because it burns extremely easily. So that's why it's usually added in at the end of cooking dishes because of its sensitivity to heat.

Plating

- in noodle bowl, fill  up half  bowl of noodle, pull a few scoops of the HaHa  meat sauce over the noodle, then top it off with the egg and cucumber strips! If you like spicy add some Sriracha, dry hot chilis, or hot chili oil! Ha Ha Noodle Bowl!  哈哈豆瓣面, Enjoy it!

Feel free to add more fresh vegetables to this dish! The thick savory sauce compliments the freshness of  the cucumber. It's a filling and delicious dish!

Coming up next!
-Meggi Steak - 美極士的球


Happy Cooking!
~Hoby
Matthew 11:28
"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."