Beijing style braised noodles with green beans (豆角焖面) has been my new like for the summer table. We are a family who loves porridge very much in hot summer day. However three porridge meals cannot provide us enough energy for the day. So my solution is to serve porridge with buns, cold noodles or dried noodles. Due to summer heats, I really cannot find any interests in hot and warm soup noodles (but I do love them in winter). That’s why you find this noodle listed here.
This braised noodles is very different from common soup noodles. It taste unsmooth at all. But the big flavors are almost absorbed by the noodles. It is a tradition to use pork belly, which is considered as the best part of pork by many people including me to provide the oil for frying the beans and braising the noodles. If you prefer to use other parts, you may need to add around 1tablespoon of oil before frying them.
Talking about pork belly, there are some quite interesting facts. In Chinese, we call this part as 五花肉, meaning marbled meat literally. In my hometown, we call this 三线肉 meaning three lined meat, as three lean meat layers can be found embed with the fat. Pork belly enjoys high popularity in different Chinese cuisines. And we have lots of popular across the country dishes feature pork belly as the main ingredients, like this famous Hong Shao Rou (red-braised pork belly) and this crispy roasted pork belly.
- 400 g fresh noodles , around 1 pound
- 100 g pork belly , sliced
- 2 cloves garlic , sliced
- 2 dried chilies , I skipped but optional in case you want it to be slightly spicy
- 300 g green beans , you can adjust based on personal preference
- oil , if you are using other part of pork instead of pork belly
- 1 thumb ginger , minced
- 2 green onions , cut into pieces
- 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
- 1/2 tablespoon dark soy sauce
- pinch of salt
- 1/4 teaspoon sugar
- 2 cups water , or slightly more if needed
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Cut the pork belly into thin slices. Usually, there is no need to marinate pork belly. Trim the green beans and cut into halves. Prepare all the other ingredients too.
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Throw pork belly into wok, fry over medium fire until you see there is pork fat oil coming out. Add garlic, ginger and green onion. Fry for another minute until aroma.
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Place green bean in and continue frying for couple of minutes. Add dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, salt and sugar. Stir everything together. Pour 2 cups of water. Bring to boil.
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Lay the noodles to the liquid by two batches. Each time after laying the noodles, press them down to soak in the liquid. Cover the lid immediately and then cook for 4 -5 minutes. During the process, you can turn the noodles slightly over once. At this time, the sauce will be almost absorbed by the noodles.
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Serve immediately.
Please note, after cooling down, the noodles will become very sticky.
Interesting and my be really to try this exotic?
Thank you so very much for this recipe. I made it just now and it taste great. The only thing is that I made some slight changes because I had some bell peppers to use. So I just added them.
When I am in the mood for delicious chinese food I look at your website for inspiration. Keep up the fantastic work.
Thanks Sonja.You words help me fight off the dark clouds and made my day!
Thanks for for this recipe. I had some friends come around for lunch today and they all loved it. But I have say that I allso put fresh mushrooms in. Turned out real yummy cheers from New Zealand.
Thanks Peter. You must spend a nice time. Adding other vegetables is a smart choice.