Ramen Study No. 1

Here are the results of stage one of building a good ramen broth - something that advances well beyond the chicken broth stage.  Guided by David Chang's Momofuku cookbook, I tried a few key elements.  I started with the cooking liquid created when rehydrating dried shitake mushrooms.  Second, I added some chunks of onion, and finally briefly infused the broth with katsuo-bushi, or dried bonito flakes.  The bonito really gives it more of a smoky quality than any kind of fishy taste.  At this stage, I had a very flavorful broth, but not a very colorful soup.  But I was hungry so I added noodles and ate it all.  Other elements, like konbu and pork, will have to wait for Study No. 2.

Ginger-Scallion Noodles

Here's something simple to try the next time you have a craving for noodles or just don't want to cook.  It's a really simple recipe, and it comes from the Momofuku cookbook, and it makes enough to store in the fridge for later.  Basically, it's ginger and scallions.   Here is a link to the recipe.

It's a lot of ginger. It looks like it's going to be overwhelming, but it's not, don't worry.

David Chang recommends serving with a quick salted pickle.  This is basically a sliced cucumber mixed with salt and sugar and let to sit for a few minutes.  I added water chestnuts from a can because we had them in the pantry, or you could try roasted cauliflower.  His suggestion that a dash of hoisin sauce over the top is the perfect finish sounds spot on, but I will have to save it for next time.

Spicy Beef Noodle Soup

This is one of my creations, based (very) loosely on an attempt to recreate a spicy beef noodle soup I had in Allston, MA several years ago. I made my own beef stock from a couple pounds of beef back ribs. I followed my basic stock recipe for chicken applied to beef. Brown the meat, cover with water, add onions and garlic and a celery stalk, and simmer gently for as many hours as you have. After a couple hours I rescued the meat from washing out and pulled it off the bone, separating out the lean bits for later use in the soup. With the stock made, I bought wheat-based Chinese noodles, mustard greens, scallions, and garlic for the soup. When it was time to make the soup itself I added everything together, flavored the broth with soy sauce and fish sauce and served. Some extra sriracha sauce kicks it up a notch. The mustard greens turned out very well here.

Alongside this I made the Davod Lebovitz scallion pancake recipe. All I will say is that it shows lots of promise, but I need to try it again to make sure it's thin, and easy to eat.

Chinese Pork Noodles

There are many things to discover in pork stir fry. I have loved lo mein since I was a kid. Now I often find it too greasy, so this was an attempt to make it at home. Shopper's is great in latin american international, but their asian selection leaves much to be desired. These are egg noodles, but a bit too thin. The tenderloin is marinated in a brown rice wine and is quite tasty. There is also a whole Napa cabbage in here which gives it some nutritional value. Next time I will amp up the veggies and cut down a bit on the pork, but another solid asian recipe from Cook's.

Cold Sesame Noodle Salad

Sesame oil is one of the magic asian flavors that can be really fun to play with. This recipe doesn't use it! It comes out great. The basic technique here is to toast and blend sesame seeds into a paste that then gets thinned with soy sauce, mirin, and rice vinegar (a few more of the magic asian flavors) and mixed into the salad. If you don't like spending big bucks on a McCormick jar of sesame seeds looks for a cheap bag in the international section. Add the veggies you want, or even chicken or tofu, and serve at room temp. When refrigerated, you don't get the right texture and the flavor is reduced.