2016 Cookbooks II: (Momofuku Follow Up)

This will round off the cookbook series of emails unless I get another one this year, but I need a break from these restaurant recipes. I appreciate how they reuse so many things and keep so much cool stuff on hand, and I’ve learned a lot. But to do these things as a home cook, you either have to stock your fridge, freezer, and pantry for making only and all their dishes, or you have to spend days getting things together and reducing recipes for one time use.

So back to Momofuku, I finally made David Chang's two signature dishes:

Momofuku Ramen

This is pretty ironic because at least in college, ramen is thought of as the ultimate easy and cheap meal, yet this version took days and was actually pretty expensive by the end of it. I took his advice and did not make my own noodles, but found a source for very good fresh ones. Still, the broth alone took about 12 hours with multiple components. A lot of that was simmering, but much of it is hands on, and it’s never unattended. It was all worth it for someone who enjoys epic cooking sessions like this and Kara loved eating it too. The toppings include:

• pork belly (6 hours marinating, 2 hrs cooking, with regular basting)

• pork shoulder (I had some frozen from Super Bowl, but that would have been another 6 hrs)

• slow poached egg (45 mins, constantly monitoring the water to be 140º- very cool technique)

• Asian style collard greens (45 mins)

• flavored bamboo shoots (30 mins)

• chopped scallions

• toasted nori

• [I omitted fish cakes because I couldn’t find them. I called my Japanese store in LA just to see, and even they didn’t have it]

Momofuku Pork Buns

I used the same pork belly from the ramen, and the recipe for quick pickled cucumbers is truly fast (like 10 minutes). Add some store-bought hoisin sauce, chopped scallions, and the only thing that took time was making dough and 25 steamed buns (now I have a bunch frozen). These are delicious. He admits to not inventing this recipe—it’s a classic—but for whatever reason, his version has become a huge hit, and we loved it, too.

Bonus: Pickled Shiitakes

Like I said, these restaurant cookbooks don’t waste. So what to do with spent dried shiitakes used just for the broth? We can pickle that! Marinated in soy sauce, sugar, sherry vinegar, with a bit of ginger, they’re a very tasty accompaniment.

 

 

 

2016 Cookbooks IV: Heritage

Heritage is all about local, time-honored recipes, perfected using traditional local ingredients with gourmet touches, in this case, specifically Lowcountry dishes from South Carolina’s coastal region. The book repeatedly stresses that the success of the dishes hinge on using very specific ingredients- flours, peas, cornmeals, grits, seeds, and particularly rice from the region. There’s an especially fascinating history behind rice in South Carolina, how it was the first major cash crop, but as times changed and slavery was abolished, specific types virtually died out. If you’re interested in the history, the author of the book, Sean Brock, is heavily featured in the second season of the PBS series The Mind of a Chef narrated by Anthony Bourdain, which is available on Netflix streaming.

Only recently can you again source these regional ingredients, so I ordered a load of stuff from his vendor, Anson Mills, and set out to duplicate some Lowcountry cookin’. Of course I plated on the classic McCarty’s pottery we have made from Mississippi clay and served with iced tea in Mason jars (I’m a weak Southerner, I only lightly sweetened it).

Lowcountry Hoppin’ John

This recipe was is so important to Lowcountry cuisine, he chose to include the full recipe in the introduction. At it’s most basic, it’s something like black eyed peas and rice (look at the gross wikipedia picture if you want). But this version uses Sea Island Red Peas and Carolina Gold Rice, plus specific rice cooking techniques and a gravy made from the pea’s liquor and homemade chicken stock. It really was pretty amazing and I will be making it again. And again.

Cracklin’ Cornbread

Yes, just skillet cornbread, but cooked with bacon bits and bacon fat, buttermilk, and most importantly, it uses Antebellum Coarse Yellow Cornmeal. It’s hard to ever go wrong with homemade cornbread, but this was very good.

Skillet Roasted Chicken with Pan Sauce

A simple recipe he suggests from the start of the book; that’s an entire half chicken on that plate, smothered in pan sauce with lots of parsley, lemon, more homemade chicken stock, and a few cloves of roasted garlic. Delicious.

Pole Beans with Tomatoes and Benne Seeds

Beans braised in vegetable broth and topped with heirloom tomatoes which were roasted in the oven for 8 hours. He calls for heirloom beans (Turkey Craw, greasy, types I hadn’t even heard of), but the best I could get was organic haricots verts, which I love, so I used those. It’s garnished with another Lowcountry classic, benne seeds (pronounced like Benny), which as I understand it are basically sesame seeds grown in the South, and that’s about what they taste like.

Grits Cooked Like a Southerner

I’ve loved grits since I was a kid, but I’ve never had them quite like this. The method for the Antebellum Coarse White Grits I ordered required an overnight soak, then a cooking technique about as elaborate as proper sushi rice. It took an hour and a half with a frequently stirred pot. It’s not the box you get at the grocery store. I followed Sean’s lead and just served them plain, with salt, a squeeze of lemon, a dash of hot sauce, and a pat of butter. Compared to what I’m used to, I noticed a huge difference in texture, and the flavor was certainly more corn than cardboard, but if this is how they used to do grits, I can see why we use quick boxed options now (but I will never buy the packets of microwave stuff, yuck).