Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Television

- It's a really beautiful contrast of textures.

I'm not gonna lie.

This beats takeout by a long shot.

- It's got so much high-impact flavor.

And we've got the spice of the kimchi and the gochujang instantly balanced out by the crisp and cool cucumbers.

- It makes for a great bring-along to a dinner party or a summer potluck.

Let's get started.

- You know, everyone's familiar with Italian noodles, but the world of noodles is actually a much bigger and more interesting place.

So today we start with Singapore curry noodles made with eggs, vegetables, and shrimp.

Then a Korean spicy noodles made with gochujang, kimchi, and soy sauce.

And finally, a classic: sesame noodles with chicken and scallions.

So please stay tuned as we explore the wide and surprising world of noodles.

- We're gonna be making a very quick-cooking recipe for Singapore curry noodles.

But an interesting fact, this dish did not originate in Singapore.

So how it came to be named that is kind of a mystery.

But it is a super-popular menu item in a lot of Chinese American restaurants.

And it all starts with working with the correct noodle.

In this medium-heat-safe bowl, I have rice vermicelli, also known as rice sticks or maifun.

And I'm going to soak these in boiling water to cook them.

I'm gonna go ahead and get my water boiling, and I'm going to pour just enough to cover it all up.

Excellent.

So, using my spatula, I'm just going to push them down to ensure that they stay submerged.

And then, like I said, I'm going to let these sit for about three minutes until they're fully tender.

After that, I'm going to drain them through a colander, run some cold water on top to stop the cooking process, drain them again, and make sure that they are completely cool before moving on in this recipe.

So I've drained my noodles, and, as you saw earlier, they were pretty long.

So here is where we get to use some scissors.

I'm just gonna go in here and snip in a couple places just to shorten the noodle length and make it a little easier to eat.

This is probably the closest we'll get to arts and crafts in this recipe, and I'm not mad about it.

Okay.

So now we can move on to what really gives these Singapore curry noodles their flavor, the sauce.

And that starts here in this little bowl.

And I'm going to mix up some Shaoxing wine.

If you don't find any Shaoxing wine out there in the world, a dry sherry will totally work, as well as some soy sauce, a little bit of brown sugar for sweetness, and the ingredient that lends that beautifully golden color, curry powder.

To help bring this all together, we're going to throw in just a little bit of water.

And just for a little kick, we're throwing in a little bit of black pepper as well.

And we'll give this a mix until it is all homogeneous.

So now we could actually get to cooking in this recipe.

And we're going to cook first our eggs.

Now we're cooking our eggs separately here, so that way we could establish really distinct pieces of egg throughout the stir-fry instead of having them kind of meld in with the noodles that we'll be mixing in.

To start, I have two eggs in here.

Going to whisk those up until they are nice and smooth.

Okay.

And with that all ready, I'm gonna go ahead and get my pan heated.

So here I have a 12-inch nonstick skillet, and I'm gonna set that over medium high.

And in that, I'll be heating up a little bit of oil.

And we want this oil to be, basically, just on the verge of smoking.

We want it that hot, so that way the eggs cook quickly and evenly.

Okay, my oil has begun smoking, so now we could cook this egg.

Once I throw it into the pan, I'm going to swirl the pan around to spread all that egg out and get it cooking.

But it's important to not overcook these eggs.

We really just want them set with a little bit of a shine to them, and then we'll transfer them out of the skillet and onto the cutting board.

It's only going to take a couple seconds for this egg to cook.

And I like to use a spatula or a fish spatula to make sure that it could release from the pan quite easily.

So now I'm gonna make a little bit of room on my cutting board, so I could transfer this egg right on out.

So now, we're gonna go ahead and chop this up into little pieces so that way, again, we could stir-fry them throughout the noodles.

I like to bundle it up and then give it a super rough chop.

We're looking for bite-sized pieces.

Yep.

And that's that.

With the egg out of the pan, we are ready to stir-fry all of the other ingredients, but keep in mind this is a stir-fry, which means it moves really quickly.

So make sure you have all of your ingredients ready to go, so that way you're not searching and scrambling while things overcook in the pan.

So to start, I'm returning my nonstick skillet right to medium-high heat, and I'm going to add in a little bit of oil.

We'll heat that up until it's shimmering.

And while that heats, let's talk about our protein, the shrimp.

Now these shrimp have been sliced horizontally, so that that means we get basically more bites of shrimp throughout the entire dish.

After we cut up this shrimp, we also seasoned it with a little bit of salt and a little bit of pepper.

And the way they cook up is they kind of form this twisty coil, which I just think looks really cool.

So my oil is shimmering.

That means we could throw in our shrimp.

Now we're gonna throw the shrimp in into a nice even layer and cook them for about a minute and a half to two minutes, completely undisturbed.

That way, they brown up real nice.

(pan sizzling) So once you get your shrimp in a nice, even layer, walk away.

Don't touch it.

Let it cook for about a minute and a half to two minutes.

And that way, it'll develop a nice brown crust on the bottom.

You could actually already see some of the shrimp has started to coil up and form those really neat coiled shapes that I was talking about earlier.

You don't want to go any further than two minutes, though; otherwise the shrimp overcooks.

(pan sizzling) Okay, so we are ready to move this out of the pan.

So, with the shrimp out of the pan, we're getting right back to cooking.

Go ahead and top off your skillet with a little bit more oil, and that should immediately come to heat, so that way you could cook up your garlic.

This is garlic that's just been minced.

We're only gonna cook that for, like, 30 seconds, barely even that, just until it starts to get aromatic.

Love the smell of cooking garlic.

We'll follow that up with some snap peas, as well as some carrots that have been cut up into matchsticks.

And finally a little bit of salt.

We'll give that a stir.

And you want to cook these veggies for about two to four minutes, or until they're tender crisp.

All right, so these veggies are nice and tender crisp, so let's go ahead and follow it up with all that flavor.

I'm gonna throw in that Shaoxing wine mixture that we made earlier, and immediately follow it up with those noodles that we snipped.

Now, from here, I like to switch to tongs just to help move those kind of unwieldy noodles around.

And you can see, they take on that really beautiful golden color from the curry powder in that Shaoxing wine dressing.

All right, so now that the noodles have all taken on that golden color, let's bring it all together.

We're gonna throw in our shrimp as well as our chopped egg, and we're gonna give this whole thing a toss and really, basically, just cook the shrimp through.

We want to make sure that all of that shrimp is now opaque and is evenly distributed throughout the noodles.

Now, to cook that shrimp through, it should only take about two to three minutes, since we cooked it really well earlier.

And there you have it, an entire platter full of Singapore curry noodles that came together... (fingers snap) ...like that.

Now I get to eat it.

So, let's see, what piece do I want?

Let's go for this chunk right here.

Oh, yeah.

Cutting up all of that shrimp into those thin slices really maximizes how much shrimp you get in each and every bite.

All right, so let's go ahead and get right into it.

Let's get some shrimp in there.

Ooh, that looks good.

Mmm.

That sunny yellow color really alludes to all that flavor that's packed in, and the shrimp is succulent, not overcooked.

And those veggies give a nice crispness.

It's a really beautiful contrast of textures.

I'm not gonna lie, this beats takeout by a long shot.

And now, you know how to make Singapore curry noodles right at home.

- So, today, we are going to be making a spicy chilled Korean noodle salad.

We are going to be using somen or somyeon noodles for this.

You can find these at your Asian store.

They do tend to have a little bit less starch and a little bit less protein.

As a chilled noodle salad, it won't get gummy, it won't stick together, and even after a couple of days, it's still pretty good.

So to prepare our noodles for our salad, we are going to boil them for just about two minutes.

Super quick because it's a thin noodle, and it'll cook very quickly.

Once they're cooked up, we're going to rinse them under cool water, add some ice cubes, toss it up, rinse and drain, so we don't end up with a gummy noodle.

The more starch that we get off of these noodles, the easier it will be to keep it from sticking together.

For this salad, we're going to be using gochujang, which is a fermented Korean red pepper paste.

Now, this salad, by its nature, is spicy.

If you want to take a little bit of the spice out, pull a little bit of the gochujang out.

I, however, like spicy, so, we're going all in.

And so to my gochujang I'm going to add a little bit of unseasoned rice vinegar, some soy sauce, some juice from my kimchi.

Talk about kimchi in just a second.

Kimchi juice, little bit of white sugar, some toasted sesame oil, and some sesame seeds.

And the only thing that I need to do to make my dressing is just whisk this up.

So now that we've got this all combined, we're gonna let it hang out, let the flavors marry a little bit, and I'm gonna prep my vegetables.

I have an English cucumber here.

I am going to only use about half of it.

You lop off the end.

And I want to be able to cut this on the diagonal so we can make some matchsticks in just a little bit.

So I'm gonna cut on my diagonal.

Typically, we end up with very, very thinly sliced vegetables in a bibim guksu.

But for this, I want to go a little bit thicker for some textural variety.

So to slice it into matchsticks, easiest way is to take our slices that are diagonals and stack them up.

So all I need to do is take my little stack and cut straight through.

Last little bit of cucumber here to get our vegetables all set.

I've also got some thinly sliced kimchi.

Kimchi is a fermented cabbage with a little bit of salt, vinegar, and chilies that's been fermented over time, so it's got this really pleasant little funk.

It's gonna add some awesome flavor to our Korean salad.

So now that I've got all my vegetables ready, it's time to assemble.

We've got our chilled and rinsed noodles.

We have our dressing that's been hanging out.

So now I'm going to add my noodles to my dressing, and I'm gonna add my kimchi as well.

We're just gonna give this a quick toss.

Want to make sure to get all the good little dressing bits up from the bottom, make sure my sesame seeds are nicely incorporated throughout.

That looks good and incorporated, so I'm gonna serve myself up a little bit.

Going to add my noodles.

I'm gonna add some of my sliced up cucumbers, just a bit for crunch, for brightness.

Add a little bit of scallions.

And a touch of sesame seeds.

And, of course, everybody loves a good runny egg.

All righty, let's cut this egg open.

All righty, time to taste.

Mmm.

Oh, such a good bite.

It's got so much high-impact flavor, and we've got the spice of the kimchi and the gochujang instantly balanced out by the crisp and cool cucumbers.

So, there you have it.

We have our Korean spicy chilled noodles.

- (whispering): I want to tell you a secret.

I love a good pasta salad.

But what's more is I love this pasta salad 'cause it's made with ramen noodles.

I want to introduce you to our ramen noodle salad with chicken and scallions.

Let's get started.

So I'm gonna start by toasting some sesame seeds.

Now, you can skip this step if you find pre-toasted sesame seeds in the grocery store.

I'm using white sesame seeds for this on medium heat, and I'm gonna gently toast them, continuously stirring, for about three to four minutes until they get nutty and lightly browned.

Okay, I can see a visible change in my sesame seeds, they've started to brown.

And it's important that I stop toasting them before they go over the edge.

So I'm going to pause now, and I'm going to take out one tablespoon of the sesame seeds for garnish for later.

The rest of them are going inside the blender, and I'm gonna let them cool.

All right, so my sesame seeds have cooled, and now I'm going to build my sauce.

I have a neutral oil, grapeseed oil.

I have sesame oil.

I have mirin.

I have rice vinegar.

And I have some soy sauce.

In addition, I have some chopped ginger and a little bit of water to thin out the sauce.

Let's add them all to the blender.

And now I'm gonna blend them to a smooth paste.

And remember, you can scrape down the sides of the blender to make sure everything gets in there.

There's always an errant sesame seed or two.

(blender whirring) My sauce is done.

This is looking smooth, creamy, absolutely wonderful, and it smells delicious.

Let's move on.

We're going to cook our ramen.

So for this recipe, I'm going to use a very particular kind of ramen noodle.

We're not going to use the ten to a dollar college ramen that you might remember from days of yore.

We're going to use a non-instant ramen.

It's dried, and sometimes it looks squiggly like this.

Or sometimes it comes completely straight, spaghetti-like.

Now, if you can't find this in your local Asian store, you can use a little hack.

So for this little pasta hack, you're going to use two quarts of water that have been alkalized by four teaspoons of baking soda.

In that, you put your regular Italian pasta, like spaghetti, and boil it as usual.

You'll see the color turn almost yellowish, and the texture will be much bouncier, chewier, and more absorbent than when you cook it regularly.

So I'm gonna bring my water up to a boil.

Follow the instructions on the package.

All of them have slightly different cooking times depending on the manufacturer.

And you don't want to overcook these.

They can go to overdone very quickly.

We want them just al dente.

In go the noodles.

Make sure they're nice and separate.

So I'm going to boil these noodles and then immediately drain them, rinse them, and make sure they're completely free of all additional starch.

They want to be cold, they want to be rinsed, so they're not gummy or sticky.

All right, my ramen are cooked, cooled, rinsed.

Let's move on.

I'm going to prep some scallions.

Just gonna thinly slice these.

Okay, my scallions are sliced.

I'm gonna reserve half of these for garnish later.

All right, let's go ahead and build our ramen pasta salad.

I'm gonna add my scallions.

I'm also adding some shredded chicken.

I recommend using leftover rotisserie chicken.

You can also add shrimp, Or, if you like, some tofu.

And now I'm going to add that lovely sesame ginger dressing.

Let's give this a mix.

Now, remember, when you're mixing this, use tongs but be gentle.

Very aggressive mixing is going to break the noodles, and I like me a long strand of ramen.

Okay, this is looking great.

I am so ready to make myself a plate.

I'm gonna garnish with some of those scallions, a little extra sesame seed.

And, to finish, some chili oil.

I cannot wait to taste this dish.

This is really, really good.

The ramen is super chewy.

It's absorbed all of that delicious flavor with the sesame and the ginger and the chili oil.

The scallions give it that wonderful pop of flavor.

This is our sesame noodles with chicken and scallions.

It makes for a great bring-along to a dinner party or a summer potluck.

You can get this recipe and all the recipes of this season at MilkStreeTV.com.

- So when I was growing up, it was my brother who made udon.

- Is he an older brother or younger brother?

- He's older, but dads make udon in Japan.

They're not necessarily soba, soba's like a... at another artisanal level.

But udon is something that everybody, every dad makes.

- So for, like, you know... - It's like barbecue.

- ...clumsy, stupid dads, it's like doing hamburgers.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- It lets you do that.

- Yeah, like, that's my, my thing.

You know barbecue, right?

Cheeseburgers and udon.

Yeah, it's perfect.

Same thing.

- (laughing) The thing about udon is, and you're gonna experience this soon, is that you're just stomping on it.

It's a no-brainer.

Right?

- So you are famous, though, of stomping on your dough.

You develop the gluten in a udon noodle more so than an Italian pasta, right?

- That's right.

- There's more gluten.

- Oh, yes.

It just, I didn't even think about that.

But I think the stomping makes a huge difference because I don't know how, I mean, wheat pastas, you just knead it and... in a... - Right.

- By hand or in a... - And it's pretty quick.

- Really, we like to put our weight on it, and the hands are not good enough, so we stomp on it.

And even the artisan udon masters still stomp on it, even in these modern times.

So, I think the stomping with your feet has a lot to do with it.

We call it koshi.

Koshi is, you know, like in sumo wrestling?

You go boom, boom.

- Mm-hmm.

- Have you seen that?

- Mm-hmm.

- When you wrestle, you use your hips?

That's the koshi, I think, and you want it to have structure.

And udon is the primary example of something that has good structure in a dough, in a noodle.

So I stopped to put on my socks.

- Ooh, I love it.

Okay.

So, I'm gonna give you one.

- Okay.

- And, as you can see, it's double bagged so that, in case the first one bursts, the second one saves it.

But you want to leave this, the inner bag open so that we don't... - Pop it.

- Pop it.

Okay?

And then, let's just lay it there.

- And the top one open as well I assume, right?

- Yeah.

And we're gonna just stomp on it.

Are you ready for the exercise?

This is... - I want to see it when you stomp.

Are you, like, jumping up in the air, or you're-- what are you doing?

- Well, you could turn on the music, if you like.

We're kneading it with our feet.

Now we're gonna fold it.

- Yeah, you know, you're, you're a little weird.

I like that.

- So we do this over and over until you stomp on it about a hundred times.

And then you let it rest, ideally, at least one hour to overnight.

The dough has rested, and we are ready to roll it out.

Just roll and hard thing about, uh, wheat noodles is they're so elastic, and they want to-- you roll it out, and they want to, they're like rubber band.

They want to spring back.

- So with pie dough, you want to be very careful not to overwork the gluten.

- Uh-huh.

- Is that something you have to worry about here, or do you want to work the gluten?

- You want to work the gluten.

- Yeah, that's what I thought.

- Yeah, you could do, so we stepped on it.

It can take a lot.

It's very forgiving.

I'm just gonna roll it up.

Use this pin to kind of stretch it, like this, and then roll.

I am actually pulling this way.

You see, I'm using my triceps.

Like that.

- That's cool.

- Now, I want you to do it.

- So, I'm supposed to pull out and push it?

- Yeah, pull out and push.

- I see.

- Start from the center and you work your way out.

- I see.

Okay.

Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Ooh, I like this.

- You like it?

- Yeah.

We're gonna try cutting the, uh, noodles with a, a more serious knife called men-bocho, or, it's-- hocho is a word for knife, and men is something dedicated to cutting noodles.

- So is that heavy?

- It's pretty heavy, yeah.

- Oof.

- If you work with professional noodle knives, they're about this big.

- Really.

- And carbon steel and really heavy.

But this one is for home cooks.

That's about one-eighth.

Yeah.

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