For those of you who saw the title of this post and went “What the hell is a Momofuku?” let me explain. Momofuku is a group of restaurants in New York owned by Chef David Chang. The group includes Momofuku Noodle Bar, Momofuku Ssam Bar, Milk Bar, and a few more. Anyway, I became mildly obsessed when I bought my dad the Momofuku cookbook for his birthday last year (he was obsessed after having eaten at one of the restaurants on a trip to NYC). Momofuku translates in Japanese as Lucky Peach, which is the name of a magazine that David Chang has recently published, all about cooking and eating. It includes articles by some other chef favorites like Anthony Bourdain, Wiley Dufresne, and Mario Batali.
Anyway! I found this recipe for a Momofuku noodle bowl on a blog called A Cozy Kitchen, which I’ve used before and I really enjoy. While the recipe is a little ingredient heavy, it’s really delicious, so although it may be a little extra work to get all this stuff (luckily Jonah and I already had the Asian ingredients), it’s worth it. We use stuff like soy sauce and rice wine vinegar all the time. They’re handy things to have around for a quick and easy meal (feeling lazy? marinate some chicken in soy sauce, mirin, garlic, and olive oil). We did fudge some things though, so I’m putting in the actual recipe and in parentheses what we did.
1 medium sized cucumber Thinly slice the cucumber. In a bowl toss the cucumber with salt and sugar and let it sit for a few minutes and then taste one of the slices. Adjust the salt and sugar as necessary. I ended up probably using twice or even 3 times as much sugar and salt. Just because I wanted it. Thought it tasted better. In a different bowl combine the scallions, ginger, 1/4 cup of olive oil, soy sauce and rice wine vinegar. Allow to sit and marinate for 30 minutes. While those items are marinating, heat the Tbl of olive oil in a pan and add the cauliflower. Cook them on high till they start to brown and get a bit crispy. While the cauliflower is cooking, you can boil water and cook your noodles according to the package. Once the noodles are cooked, toss them with the scallion/ginger sauce. Now, serve the noodles in a bowl, and top with the cauliflower and cucumbers. Now, this is a vegetarian dish, but Jonah and I were hankering for some more protein, so we bought a chicken breast. Jonah cut it up into bite size pieces and cooked it with a bit of fish sauce, hoisin sauce, and soy sauce, and it was good. A delicious addition to the dish. Yum!Momofuku Noodle Bowl
Ingredients
¼+ tsp salt
½+ tsp sugar
2 ½ cups (or one bunch) thinly sliced scallions
½ cup (or just one large piece) minced ginger
¼ cup grapeseed oil (we used olive oil because we didn’t have grapeseed)
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp rice wine vinegar
1 Tbl olive oil
½ large head of cauliflower, cut into florets
1 lb noodles – ramen, soba, or lo mein (we used udon)
Instructions