Day Six - Mexico vacation

I was unable to post or cook the last two weeks because I was vacationing in Oaxaca. But I did eat as much as I could and discovered new ways of eating some favorite foods. There were some humongous pieces of chicharron at the big Sunday market in Tlacolula, a town about 40 minutes west of Oaxaca City.


A few days later we ate at Itanoni, a casual restaurant several blocks north of the centro in Oaxaca City, where maiz reigns supreme and tortillas are made to order using freshly ground native Oaxacan corn and cooked on a clay oven. It is the closest thing to what was eaten in the region centuries ago. Itanoni is trying to preserve the connection between the growers and eaters by eliminating the manufacturers and industrial producers of corn products. The food is natural, wholesome, subtle, and so delicious.

There are many fillings to choose from but when I saw a taco con CHICHARRON on the menu that was what I had to have - to start. It was the first time I've had them crunchy and here they were wrapped in the thinnest tortilla you can imagine and topped with a fresh pico de gallo. Biting into this was a revelatory moment.

I'll be cooking for Thanksgiving now but will continue with Momofuku in a few days. I will also let you know when I have my Oaxaca photos up on another blog or site.

Day Five - Page 66 - Pickled Apples

The four-year-old Braeburn apple tree has come through again and is still loaded with sweet, crunchy, and juicy fruit. So,


I decided to throw in some Sichuan peppercorns because it's cold today and a little numbing wouldn't hurt. And anyway, I'll bet this is what they're eating in Chengdu at this time of year. The recipe says, "These will be ready to eat after an hour in the brine and should be eaten the day you prepare them." Definitely not a problem.

We had the pickles for dinner along with roasted spareribs (not a Momofuku recipe but marinated in my homemade catsup, soy, and leftover fish sauce vinaigrette from Day Three). Is there a more perfect combination than apples and pork? I highly doubt that.

Day Four - Page 90 - Pan-Roasted Asparagus Poached Egg & Miso Butter

I think that this dish establishes Chang as a true original. The miso and butter mixture is such a basic, simple sauce but the nutty oily smoothness of it is masterful. This photo doesn't capture the slippery unctuousness of it as the yolk oozed out of it's soft casing and blanketed the asparagus in a pool of yellow but there wasn't enough time to fuss because John was eating it up too fast to photograph.

This has to be one of my favorite dishes in Momofuku and probably the simplest to make. I sauteed the asparagus in olive oil instead of butter and poached the egg in the traditional manner (in simmering water) but I'll try it with Chang's soft poached egg in the shell method another time. For now, eating asparagus out of season was something that just had to be done and I have no excuses for that transgression!

Day Three - Ramen Redux & Page 160 - Roasted Brussels Sprouts w/ Fish Sauce Vinaigrette

Today I gave the ramen recipe a second try. The first noodles turned into a doughy mass when I stored them in the refrigerator. This time I also had a new tool that made the kneading a lot easier:


Thanks to Wayan I made the leap and got this little robot at Bed Bath & Beyond and I will be a happier mixer and kneader from now on. For this batch, instead of dividing the rolled noodles into piles, I am drying them a little before I package them for the refrigerator. I also rolled them one notch less on the roller so these are thicker than the first batch. A cross section would show a square about 1/8 inch wide.


I topped the noodles with some leftovers and they were devoured in a second. Somewhat chewy and really smooth. Much better mouth feel on these!


That was lunch. For dinner I roasted Brussels sprouts but left out the puffed rice and deep fried cilantro. The fish sauce vinaigrette is a giant blast of umami and this is another delicious way to eat the newly discovered vegetable that suddenly is so popular and seems to be on everyone's menu these days.

Day Two - Page 100 - Pan Roasted Bouchot Mussels with OS

Today was unseasonably hot and a perfect day for the 10 minute drive up Highway 1 to Tomales Bay Oyster Company. Just a handful of very lucky people were enjoying the windless and sunny Monday afternoon barbequeing and eating oysters. I got 2 lbs (about 22 mussels) for $10 then stopped at the Palace Market for some sake. I was going to make Chang's pan roasted mussels with OS substituting Maine's Bouchot for some Pt Reyes morsels. Chang has an explanation for OS (oriental sauce!) but I still don't buy it.


I cooked this outside on the Big Kahuna because ventilation is a problem. But it was a full moon and I had a headlamp on so managed to see what I was doing. This is just after pouring in the sake:


I used white miso instead of Korean fermented bean paste. I'll have to look into that but I assume it's similar to the Chinese bean pastes. We're trying not to use much bean paste because it is so salty and a little goes a long way especially if you are already seasoning w/ soy sauce. (Momofuku dishes don't skimp on the salt.) But what is great about these recipes is that you can do lots of substituting, just go with what you have on hand and so far it has turned out pretty tasty.

Day One - Page 48 - Ramen

Let the rumpus begin. Got started today on Momofuku, the cookbook, with alkaline noodles (aka ramen). Luckily, John had an old, unopened jar of sodium carbonate up in the darkroom so I didn't have to find a source for it before trying my hand at Chang's handmade ramen. Wikipedia says, "Most noodles [the ramen kind] are made from five basic ingredients: wheat flour, salt, water, and kansui which is essentially a type of alkaline mineral water, containing sodium carbonate and usually potassium carbonate, as well as sometimes a small amount of phosphoric acid. Originally, kansui was named after the water from Inner Mongolia's Lake Kan which contained large amounts of these minerals and was said to be perfect for making these noodles. Making noodles with kansui lends them a yellowish hue as well as a firm texture."

I didn't have potassium carbonate (Art says he has some in his darkroom so I'll try adding some of that next time) but since it only required 1/8 tsp for the portion I was making I didn't think it would matter too much.

These barely need cooking. Just throw them in boiling water and remove them right away. I made Ginger Scallion Sauce (page 57) - lots of scallions in the garden right now - and tossed them with the noodles for dinner. Now I'm dreaming of making a trip to Inner Mongolia and making alkaline noodles on the banks of Lake Kan.