Ooof, it’s a little dusty ‘round here.
How ya doin?! Life’s been HECTIC; I can’t keep up. Hope you’ve been doing gooood.
I can’t believe we are only 7 months away from Christmas. (Christmas is basically my anchor for the 365 days it takes earth to revolve around the sun.) I can already predict how the next 7 months are going to go: I’m going to sporadically remember that Christmas (aka baking business’ biggest, busiest period) is approaching and think up some ideas for festive pastries, then suffer from option paralysis, then realise it’s too late to look for packaging and then feel the crushing weight of stress and anxiety having nothing ready, while social media constantly reminds me that every business is trying to get a slice of the pie, then default to selling pies and come 26th December, I’ll *finally* be able to sit down with a glass of wine in my hand (if I admit to double fisting, does that come off too desperate and thirsty?) and enjoy the last week of the year and breathe. TLDR: the next 7 months is going to come along just fine.
As all southeast asians know, it’s been disgustingly hot. I sometimes think about my future and having a family or something along those lines, and then the humidity and heat slap me in the face, shaking me, yelling ‘DO YOU REALLY WANT TO PUT YOUR OFFSPRING THROUGH THIS?” The answer is always decidedly NO in CAPS but then who will i impose my crushed dreams on?
I digress. Back to it.
A while back I was doing some research for a consulting job and I read about how butter + kimchi = God’s gift to mere mortals. Wait, no — those are dogs. But anyway. Putting kimchi fried in butter *will* make that thought float in your head as you roll your eyes up to the heavens. (Is my writing a little unhinged so far? Because I have a nice glass of beer next to me. Read: glass, not pint, because I’m drinking fancy craft beer.)
I don’t quite remember what happened during my little R&D sesh but I thiiink I was testing some butter-roasted radishes (guys, those are SO GOOD, you have to try them and change your life. It changed mine and I crave them quite a bit but do nothing about the craving because radishes aren’t everywhere. I’m going to include a small how-to snippet later.) and had to make a meal out of it and put some kimchi in my bowl because.. I like kimchi. And there was nothing else. Oh, eggs. I poached some eggs. I can’t tell you exactly, but I think I mixed the radishes with the kimchi and good lord. It was good.
Ever since then, I’ve been very into the pairing of butter and kimchi. It’s very nouveau coréene, you feel? I totally just made that up. Don’t come at me. This mango, coconut and sticky rice IPA is fun.
ANYWAY. Sorry I digressed again.
On Friday, the hunger pangs hit at lunch time. Since I don’t eat meat on Fridays because catholicism — I honestly feel like they should start tailoring the rule to make it no seafood because seafood is way more luxurious than meat? — and didn’t have any fresh produce, I had to work with whatever I had on hand. Which was kimchi and butter and dry noodles. And eggs. I had wanted to make a kimchi fried rice, but kimchi fried rice HAS to have processed meat, or else it’s just not. Y’know? So then I thought — BUTTER KIMCHI NOODLES.
This is nothing new; there are recipes on the internet and you can pretty much follow them I think. Like on BA, but it does sound a bit fussy with chicken broth and all that jazz.
Now for the part where I pretend-give you a recipe for the dish:
Ok this is going to be brief because cooking should be ~relaxing~ and go-with-the-flow etc.
*First first, fry some eggs (if you’d like) in the same pan you’ll be frying the kimchi and noodles in, so you don’t have to wash more pans. Or, poach eggs in the same pot you boiled your noodles in (after cooking noodles). Winner winner chicken dinner.
First, grab some noodles. I used those Chinese shaved (or rather, taiwanese) wide, flat noodles with frilly edges. I simply love the texture — noodles are all about texture, so find one you love. Italians will say the shape is very important etc and yes, ok it is important but we are here to PANTRY COOK. So use what you have. I probably wouldn’t use spaghetti or a thin noodle but if you must to fill your stomach, do NOT HESITATE. Using pasta shells detracts from the slurping experience, in case you wanted to use those. Udon would be nice.
Depending on how long your noodles take to cook, you could start with boiling them. The process is short, and I don’t fancy draining my noodles in another bowl (one less thing to wash). The instructions on my packaging of noodles said 5 - 7 minutes.
Throw into a heated pan a large piece of butter. I would say 20g per portion (if you’re weighing), but eyeballing will do no harm here. If you’re the kind who would drink liquid butter, then maybe add more. If you don’t add enough here, you can always add more at the end for a beautiful silky sauce. (Even if you do, you can.) Then, add as much kimchi (fermented, not fresh) as you deem fit. (I usually judge based on how much of it I like, but I LOVE kimchi, so I try to tone it down a little in consideration of others who maybe don’t love it in the same intensity.) If your kimchi has some juice in it, pour that in to cook off for extra flava. Then, add like a tablespoon or two or so of gochujang. (I probably used a heaping tablespoon for 3 servings.)
At some point, it’ll start splattering everywhere, which is pretty rude but also means the moisture has evaporated, so I kinda stop frying it at this point and TASTE. (I added fish sauce for savouriness and a pinch of sugar.) I find the best-tasting kimchi (to my palate) has shrimp/anchovy on the ingredients list, so if yours doesn’t have that, you can amp up the umami/depth of flavour with fish sauce. As for sugar, that’s dependent on your brand of kimchi or how fermented it is — if it’s more fermented i.e more sour, sugar balances the acidity. If your noodles are ready here, you don’t have to turn the stove off. Simply add your noodles and a half ladle of noodle cooking water in, to create a sauce. Starting with less water allows you to add more if necessary, but the same cannot be said about removing extra water. Toss, toss, toss, taste. More butter? Add.
Do know that wheat noodles do not behave like pasta — they just keep plumping up with whatever liquid you add, so you really want to make this just before eating.
I thought some seaweed would do beautifully here, so I added a sheet, haphazardly cut into strips with my scissors. Also, did you know that you should be storing your seaweed sheets in the freezer?! Oh hang on. It’s much, much better to top your noodles with seaweed AFTER plating them into individual portions, because if you do as I did and continue tossing your noods, you basically get a sad softened clump of seaweed that you’ll pathetically attempt to evenly distribute among portions.
Serve IMMEDIATELY.
I had romaine in my fridge so I charred that and seasoned with salt, then garnished with scallion vinaigrette. If you haven’t had charred romaine, be prepared to change your life. The lettuce wilts in the most pleasing way and gets JUICY while retaining crunch. Ugh.
For charred romaine: slice baby romaine lengthwise, after trimming a little of its stem off. Trimming too much will result in leaves falling apart with very little heart to hold it together. Heat up your pan till it’s HOT. Either brush the cut side of your romaine with some oil, or pour some oil into your pan. Hit that romaine with heat, leave untouched for some minutes until you smell some charring. Check for caramelisation then remove. Season with good, flaky salt and lemon juice. Or whatever you like.
For roasted radishes: get those baby red radishes. They tend to vary quite a bit in size. If large, halve. If small, leave intact. But it really is up to you. The smaller you cut them, the higher the heat you’ll want to cook with, as radish is nice tender with some bite. Make a compound butter if you wish. Yuzu kosho is excellent here, but miso / doenjang / (confit) garlic would be nice. Maybe some sambal belacan? Whatever paste-y condiment that you love putting on everything can be mixed with butter for compound butter to roast your radishes with. Your compound butter should be MMMTASTY before it goes to coat your radishes. Toss the radishes with butter, season with a little salt, roast at any temperature between 190-220°C for 10-15 minutes. I don’t know your oven setting here, so I can only suggest a range. When they’re done, their white flesh will turn translucent and their red skins might lose some of their vibrancy. Eat. Resist eating the entire batch. If they are still crunchy-crunchy and bitter, they’re not done yet.
Hope you have a good week ahead!
xx
M