CSA week 18 - Momofuku scallion noodles with roasted cauliflower and quick-pickled zucchini

Momofuku is such a hot restaurant and cookbook right now and this recipe so easy, it's all over the cooking blogosphere. Oddly, nobody really tries to describe what it tastes like. I suppose it seems like it should be obvious--ginger and scallion--but like the Chinatown scallion sauce this is a refined version of (which I talk about a bit at the bottom of this post) there is a profound synergy here that has an electrifying effect on whatever food you use it with. You can read the chef raving about it here, but there's no reason not to just try it for yourself.

Momofuku Ginger Scallion Noodles

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups thinly sliced scallions, greens and whites
1/4 cup peeled and finely minced fresh ginger
1 fluid ounce grapeseed or other neutral oil
1 teaspoon light soy sauce
1/3 teaspoon sherry vinegar
1/3 teaspoon kosher salt, or more to taste
1/2 pound ramen noodles
Momofuku roasted cauliflower
Momofuku quick-pickled zucchini

1. Mix together the scallions, ginger, oil, soy sauce, vinegar and salt. Let sit for 15-20 minutes.

2. Cook noodles. Drain and toss with sauce. Top with cauliflower, zucchini and your protein of choice (I seared a handful of bay scallops). It's important to dress the noodles well. I found that the dish improved as a dug down into the bowl and got to where the sauce had dripped down.

Momofuku roasted cauliflower
[I just did a little more reading and found that the Momofuku cookbook just uses a simple pan-roasted cauliflower without the dressing. This works too.]

Ingredients:
1 small head cauliflower
1 drizzle peanut oil
2 Tablespoons Thai-style fish sauce
1 Tablespoon rice wine vinegar
2 Tablespoons sugar
juice of 1/2 lime
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small medium-hot pepper, seeded and thinly sliced
1 Tablespoon cilantro stems, finely minced
1/4 cup cilantro leaves, roughly chopped
2 Tablespoons mint leaves, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon shichimi togarashi [so-called Japanese seven-spice powder although it's mostly not spices. It's citrus peel, ground chilis, Szechuan pepper, sesame, poppy and sometimes hemp seeds and powdered nori]
[The stand-alone cauliflower recipe calls for toasting the shichimi togarashi onto puffed rice. I figured that would get soggy mixed into the noodles so I just added it to the marinade.]

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut cauliflower into florets. Toss cauliflower with the oil and spread on a baking sheet without crowding. Put in over and roast for 30 minutes, stirring once. Check doneness; the cauliflower should be tender and spotted with brown bits.

2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine fish sauce, vinegar, sugar and lime. Stir until sugar is dissolved adding a little water if necessary. Add garlic, pepper, cilantro, mint and shichimi togarashi. Add a little more water if there isn't enough liquid to moisten everything.

3. When cauliflower is done, cool briefly and dump into the large bowl. Toss to coat and let drain as there should be excess dressing.

Momofuku quick-pickled zucchini
[The recipe originally called for cucumber, but zucchini is close enough and closer to hand.]

Ingredients:
1 cup zucchini, thinly sliced
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1. Toss zucchini in sugar and salt. Let stand 5-10 minutes.



Like I said up top, the scallion and ginger merge into something more than the sum of the parts. It's fresh, sharp, a little tangy, a little salty. It's just gorgeous and it actually brings out the best of the noodles flavor rather than just using it as a vehicle. The zucchini doesn't add a lot, just some textural interest, really. It's interesting on its own but it's slight bite (surprisingly tart given the lack of vinegar) can't stand up to the sauce's intensity. The cauliflower on the other hand are sweet and earthy with a nice crunch to them. A really good combination of flavors and textures, really easy and using a lot of CSA vegetables I had on hand. Winner all around.

CSA week six - asam pade daging and sambal goreng bloemkool

Over the last couple of days I made both the Sumatran beef dish and the Javanese cauliflower dish I mentioned earlier. There are some Indonesian ingredients you may be unfamiliar with that I'll talk about in a separate post, but the recipes themselves, both from The Indonesian Kitchen by Copeland Marks with Mintari Soeharjo, are quite straightforward. Actually, the beef stew recipe was rather too straightforward:
1. put everything into a pot and boil until cooked.
2. serve.

I put that at the world's fourth oldest recipe after
1. bury in ashes, wait until cooked,
1. impale on stick,
2. suspend over fire until cooked,
and
1. tenderize with rock.

Since I do have access to a modern American-style kitchen I added a few steps to improve the flavors and textures.

Asam Pade Daging
Sumatran Hot and Sour Beef

2 pound boneless beef chuck or round eye roast, cut into 1 inch cubes
1/4 cup thin-sliced onions
5 cloves garlic, sliced thin
1 slice fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
2 teaspoons salt
1 piece of laos
2 salam leaves
1 stalk lemongrass
6 kemiri nuts, crushed
1 tablespoon crushed fresh or dried hot red chile pepper
2 tablespoons tamarind, dissolved in 3 tablespoons water (this is actually an enormous amount of tamarind and the dominant flavor in the dish)
4 cups water

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

2. Brown beef in batches with a tablespoon of oil in dutch oven. Remove to bowl.

3. Briefly sauté onions, garlic, ginger, chile, salt and turmeric in beef drippings to release flavors.

4. Return beef and add the rest of the ingredients. Cover dutch oven and place in real oven. Cook for 2 to 2 1/2 hours until beef is tender.

5. Bring dutch oven to stovetop and remove beef with a slotted spoon. Boil sauce down to 1 cup. Return beef.

6. Serve over rice with a bit of sambal.


Sambal Goreng Bloemkool
Javanese Cauliflower Stew

1/4 cup sliced onion
2 cloves garlic, sliced
2 small fresh hot green chiles, sliced thin
1 pound cauliflower, cut into small florets
1 cup coconut milk
1 salam leaf
1 piece of laos
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon shrimp paste
1 teaspoon tamarind, dissolved in 1 tablespoon water
1/2 cup cubed ripe tomato

1. Fry the onion, garlic and chiles in a tablespoon of oil for two minutes on high heat. Add the cauliflower and fry for two minutes more.
2. Add the coconut milk, salam leaves, laos, salt, sugar, shrimp paste and tamarind liquid. Cook five minutes over medium heat, stirring and basting frequently.
3. Add tomatoes and cook three minutes more.
4. Cauliflower should be tender but still crunchy. Serve over rice with a drizzle of kecap manis.