The World Cup Food Challenge - Day 6 South Korea (Black Bean Noodles)

South Korea's turn came around in this World Cup Food Challenge, the most obvious dish to prepare was Kimchi. At least to my mind, it was the most obvious. Perhaps not Kimchi on its own, but in a fried rice or noodles or something. There was but one slight problem. The problem was not to find kimchi or even prepare it at home; that would probably be manageable. The bigger and rather more insurmountable obstacle, was the fact I really do not like it and would really prefer not to have to eat it. So I had to search for something else. My knowledge of Korean food, unfortunately, extends no further beyond Kimchi and Korean barbecue restaurants. I would have liked to ask a young Korean girl who was in my German class many, many years ago. She was quite an impressive young lady really. She was only eighteen - I think; she may have been seventeen- when I met her, and was spending three months in Germany on her own, having (if I recall correctly) travelled abroad for the first time, to learn German just because she thought it might be useful for her to know the language later on in life. We are still connected on Facebook but do not really keep in touch, so it would have been nice to get in touch to see how she is getting on. Unfortunately, I decided that it was going to be South Korea's turn in this challenge, erm... on the day itself, which did not leave me very much time to ask for a recommendation. So, I asked Google instead and found this. (And yes, I do realise that I could very well just get in touch with her anyway.)

Black Bean Noodles

Ingredients
(I mainly followed this recipe: http://mykoreankitchen.com/2014/04/09/korean-black-bean-sauce-noodles-jajangmyeon/, of which there is a printable version of the recipe on the website. As usual, I reduced the portion by randomly reducing the quantities. I'll just reproduce the quantities from the original recipe here.)

Fresh Chinese style noodles (I assume this refers to egg noodles. I did not have any at home, and did not want to buy some because I had quite a bit of other types. Waste not, want not; I used rice noodles instead.)
1 large onion, cut into small cubes (I used half an onion)
1 zucchini, cut into small cubes (I used a bit less than half a one)
2 large potatoes, cut into small cubes (I used one medium one)
7 large button mushrooms, thinly slices (I used a handful, I am not sure how many, Swiss browns)
1/4 cabbage, cut into small pieces (I had some pak choi in the fridge, so used one large leaf from that instead)
600g pork, cut into small pieces (I used one schnitzel fillet instead, pre-bread crumbing of course)

(Pork marinade)
1 tbsp refined rice wine (I did not have this, so I used a combination of rice wine vinegar - which let's just be clear, is NOT the same thing - and erm.., dare I say it, vodka instead.
ground salt
ground black pepper
1/4 tsp ginger powder (I was a lot more liberal that that. I think I might have even used a full teaspoon for my reduced portion. I do believe that there is such a thing as too much ginger, but it is miles away from a measly quarter of a teaspoon, that's for sure!)

(Sauce)
6 tbsp Korean black bean paste (Chungjang) (All right, so it did not say on the label of the jar that I bought that it was Korean, and it had a bunch of Chinese characters (yes, I am sure they were not Korean characters) on it, so I am guessing my jar of black bean paste failed the "Korean" part of this test, but I am hoping it is not far off in terms of taste and flavour.)
6 tbsp cooking oil
2 tbsp brown sugar
4 tbsp refined rice wine (again with the vodka...)
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup water
starch water (5:4 potato starch and water)

Method
1. Fry the black bean paste in cooking oil for 3-5 minutes, stirring continuously so as not to burn the paste.
2. Add brown sugar and stir for another 2-3 minutes.
3. Remove the paste, leaving the oil in the pan.
4. Fry pork in the same pan, until cooked. The pork will take on some colour and flavour from the black bean paste from the oil that was left in the pan.
5. Add potatoes, onions and zucchini, and stir until vegetables are partially cooked, about 3-5 minutes)
6. Add remaining vegetables (cabbage, mushrooms) and stir for another 2-3 minutes.
7. Pour the cooked black bean paste into the pan and mix well, stir for 1-2 minutes.
8. Add chicken stock, water and rice wine. Cover the pan (if possible) and allow to simmer for 7-8 minutes.
9. Meanwhile, cook noodles.
10. When noodles are ready, add starch water to sauce to thicken before serving.
11. Enjoy!

Verdict: success!
I really, really liked this! I think it worked quite well with the rice noodles, but then again, I am generally a big fan of rice noodles anyway, have always been. And these noodles were medium thick, which I think was optimum for absorption of flavour. I would not recommend using vermicelli noodles, for example; I think the taste might be a bit too intense with thin noodles. I can imagine that it would work well with regular egg noodles or udon. I actually made enough for four portions: I had one, took one to work the following day, and froze two. And I am looking forward to having the other two portions soon. This is the best thing about this challenge so far: all the new food I have discovered and which can add to my repertoire.