Sasha's Kitchen: Homemade Shoyu-Chicken Ramen

Ramen is the new cupcake.  Well maybe not, but at least in New York, gourmet ramen noodle joints are one of the biggest food trends to hit the city, from Chuko in Brooklyn to Momofuku Noodle Bar.  I've heard great things about Ippudo as well.  I thought I'd give homemade ramen a try.  Initially I considered using David Chang's recipe from Momofuku noodle bar, but I don't cook with pork at home.  I've had a great soy broth and also a great miso broth at Chuko, so I figured I could try devising my own soy-chicken based ramen, or Shoyu, as the Japanese refer to the soy flavor.  I came up with my own recipe that was delicious and had a great Japanese flavor.  I love serving the ramen with the hard boiled (or soft boiled if you prefer) eggs as well. Yum!  Instead of serving in regular soup bowls, since I don't have Japanese ramen bowls, I used large cappuccino mugs from Anthropologie - so cute!

Sasha's Shoyu-Chicken Ramen
1 whole chicken, cut up, about four pounds
1/2 cup of low sodium soy sauce
1 large onion, cut into quarters
4 garlic cloves
4 quarts of water
four small pieces of kombu
2 oz fresh ginger, peeled
soba, lo mein or ramen noodles
3 large soft boiled eggs, soaked for an hour in equal parts soy sauce and mirin
three diced scallions

In a large stockpot, combine the water, chicken, onion, ginger, garlic, soy sauce and kombu.  Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer and simmer, partially covered for two hours to allow the broth to get a delicious flavor, just like if you were making chicken stock for matzo ball soup. The when the two hours are up, strain the broth and reserve it of course.  Prior to simmering, but after boiling, you'll want to skim the chicken fat from the top of the broth so the end result will be clear.  Shred some of the chicken for serving in the ramen soup.

Boil the noodles according to package instructions and add to the broth and chicken.  Hard boil three eggs and soak for an hour in a mixture of mirin and soy sauce, and chop up some scallions for serving.  Optional - add some corn or steamed spinach.

Sasha's Kitchen: Homemade Shoyu-Chicken Ramen

Sasha's Kitchen: David Chang's Momofuku Fried Chicken with Octo Vinaigrette

I confess, I have not yet been to any of David Chang's Momofuku restaurants (my husband has though!) but I've been dying to get to Momofuku noodle bar and try out the fried chicken and other dishes there.  It's pretty high up on my list of pricy New York restaurants to try, or to fucking try, as Chang would say (he swears quite a bit as noted in this humorous Huffington Post article). Anyhow, I decided to try making Chang's Fried Chicken with Octo Vinaigrette, from the Momofuku cookbook to see how it stacks up next to Thomas Keller's buttermilk fried chicken from Ad Hoc at Home.  I've got to say, this might be my new favorite fried chicken recipe ever. They way I followed the recipe, it is fried, but not as deeply fried, which is just perfect. Plus, the octo vinaigrette that goes on top of Chang's chicken might just be the most delicious chicken dressing ever! The brine here is key with both recipes - it gives the chicken the most moist, succulent flavor ever. This was a winner with my whole family and I plan to make it again next week.

One thing i should note that I did differently. Chang calls for steaming the chicken then deep frying. I really wanted to do this, but my steamer was too small and I would have been cooking the chicken in batches until about midnight the night I made this. So, we would up baking at a low temperature, and then frying the chicken. I was worried it would not be as juicy if I did this, but my husband insisted because he was hungary and low and behold it was still amazing. So read on for the full recipe!

David Chang's Momofuku Fried Chicken with Octo Vinagirette

4 cups lukewarm water
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup kosher salt
One 3- to 3 1/2-pound chicken, cut into 4 pieces - (I used a four pound whole chicken cut into eight pieces, but you can also use all wings and legs if you prefer)

4 cups grapeseed or other neutral cooking oilOcto Vinaigrette

David Chang's Octo Vinaigrette

2 tbsp finely chopped garlic
2 tbsp chopped peeled fresh ginger
1 fresh bird's eye-chili, seeded and chopped
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup usukuchi (light soy sauce) - I substituted light soy sauce
2 tbsp grapeseed or other neutral oil
1/4 tsp Asian sesame oil (this makes the dressing what it is!)
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
Fresh ground black pepper

First, brine the chicken. Combine the water, kosher salt and sugar in a large pot with a lid and dissolve the ingredients in the pot. Add the chicken pieces and brine in a refrigerator for at least one and no more than six hours. I found that 4 hours was perfect. 

Set up a steamer on the stove. Drain the chicken and discard the brine. Put the chicken in the steamer basket. Turn the heat to medium and set the lid of the steamer ever so slightly ajar. Steam the chicken for 40 minutes, then remove it from the steamer and put it on a cooling rack to cool. Chill it in the refrigerator, preferably on the rack, for at least 2 hours or overnight. I must add that I instead baked the chicken at 300 degrees instead of steaming, and it worked out just fine, so don't be afraid to do this if you need to. 

Take the chicken out of the refrigerator and allow to set for thirty minutes before frying.In a deep skillet, heat enough oil for the chicken to be submerged to 375 degrees. Fry the chicken in batches, turning once, until the skin is deep drown and crisp, 6 to 8 minutes. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate to drain the excess oil. I fried the chicken in grapeseed oil, as recommended, which was lovely!

Combine the ingredients for the Octo Vinaigrette in a bowl. Make sure the garlic and ginger are chopped or pureed finely (I bought them pre-chopped).  Top the chicken with this delicious vinaigrette and enjoy!

Sasha's Kitchen: David Chang's Momofuku Fried Chicken with Octo Vinaigrette

Sasha's Kitchen: Momofuku Milk Bar's 'Crack' Pie

The following recipe is part of the Momofuku (David Chang) craze that has taken New York by storm.  I love the desserts at Momofuku Milk Bar.  Those of you who are familiar with Momofuku may already know about their famous Milk Bar "Crack" Pies that sell like hotcakes for $40 a pie.  The crack pies (which don't contain any crack at all, obviously) are pies made of an oatmeal cookie crust with a gooey butter & milk filling.  I was so happy with how mine came out using the actual Momofuku recipe from the Los Angeles Times adaptation.  In fact, I couldn't taste the difference between mine and the Milk Bar version at Momofuku in NYC.  So, if you are craving Momofuku Milk Bar, without further ado, here's how to make their famous "Crack" Pie.  It wasn't as complicated as it sounds from the recipe, I swear.  Actually, it was as easy as - well - pie.  It's a bit on the unhealthy side (all that butter) but oh so good as a special treat.  The recipe makes two eight inch pies so you have one to share with friends.  If you only want one, feel free to do the math and cut the recipe in half.

Momofuku Milk Bar Crack Pie (adapted from this recipe)

Cookie for Crust
2/3 cup plus 1 T flour
1/8 teaspoon baking powder (scant)
1/8 teaspoon baking soda (scant)
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick butter (softened)
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup rolled oats (scant)

Crust
crumbed cookie (above)
1/2 stick butter (melted)
1 1/2 T brown sugar
1/8 tsp salt

Filling
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cups light brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup plus 1 tsp dry milk powder
2 sticks butter (melted)

First, prepare the cookie.  Preheat the oven to 375 and combine the dry ingredients.  Beat the butter brown sugar and sugar in the basin of a stand mixer until light and fluffy.  Whisk in the egg, and beat in the dry ingredients, before stirring in the oats.

Spread on a cookie sheet like one big giant cookie.  Bake until golden brown for about 20 minutes.  Allow to cool.  Once cooled, crumble by hand, or in a food processor.  I was lazy and used my food processor.  Mix the crumble with the melted butter, brown sugar and salt in step two to make the crust.  Spray two eight inch pie dishes with PAM and press the crust into each shell to form a conventional pie crust.  Set the shells aside while you prepare the filling.

Heat the oven to 350.  Combine the brown sugar, salt and milk powder.  Whisk in the melted butte,r heavy cream and vanilla.  Gently whisk in the egg yolks.  Divide the mixture and use to fill the two shells.  Bake the shells for 15 to 20 minutes at 350 and then at 325 for another 10 minutes.  Remove the pies to cool on a rack when they are only slightly "jiggy" and are golden brown.  Refridgerate until chilled and dust with powdered sugar.  Serve chilled.  Yum!

Sasha's Kitchen: Momofuku Milk Bar's 'Crack' Pie

Amasea's kitchen in Sun Valley: A cauliflower experiment

When it comes to food, I'm a sucker for inspiration. I've gone on shopping sprees based on episodes of Top Chef or a page out of the dearly departed Gourmet. So when I heard last week's Splendid Table, I keyed in on the idea of cauliflower, a vegetable with a wonderful wintery quality.

Here's the original recipe:
http://splendidtable.publicradio.org/recipes/side_fried_cauliflower.shtml

But despite the promises of Lynne Rossetto Kasper and Momofuku's David Chang, I didn't think the crispy rice and fish sauce vinaigrette would sell with my fiance, who is a bit picky about his food and was somewhat skeptical of cauliflower in the first place.

Instead, I took inspiration from my inspiration and decided to merely roast the cauliflower with a mix of key lime oil and olive oil, salt, pepper and some red curry powder (just the boring Spice Islands kind -- when the fiance and I merged our kitchens, we ended up with approximately 87 million spice jars, and have been trying to find ways to use them up).

Here's how the original recipe says to roast:
To roast the cauliflower: Heat the oven to 400°F. Put the florets in a large mixing bowl, add a splash of oil—enough to coat them, start with a couple tablespoons—and toss. Spread the cauliflower out on a rimmed baking sheet (or two—you want space around the cauliflower so it roasts, not steams) and pop into the oven. After 20 to 25 minutes, the cauliflower should be browned in spots and tender.

I say they forgot something: Turn the cauliflower about halfway through. I ended up with cauliflower that wasn't just brown in spots, it was dark brown and crispy in a few places and seasoned-white everywhere else. Which created a discontinuity in texture that ultimately wasn't as pleasing as I had hoped. I believe turning the cauliflower would have mitigated that, and will try turning the next time I decide to roast it.

To accompany the cauliflower (which, though a side, was the main experiment of this plate), I put a large pan on medium high heat. In it I put olive oil, green peppercorns, yellow curry powder, a little powdered red pepper, and salt and pepper. I added sliced yellow fingerling potatoes, and once they were about half done, several chicken tenders. When the chicken and potatoes were done (the potatoes got a nice sear), I removed them, leaving the oil, spices and peppercorns in the pan. I added a little heavy cream and white wine, resulting in about a cup, maybe cup and a half, of sauce.
I also made some garlic bread, melting butter and olive oil with tons of pressed garlic and salt and pepper, then smeared that on slices of fresh olive oil-rosemary bread. That went in the oven (with the cauliflower) throughout the potato/chicken process.

I didn't think to take a picture of the plate -- which is OK, since it was pretty blandly colored, between the garlic bread, cauliflower, chicken, potatoes and basically beige sauce. But at the top of the page is a picture of the cauliflower, with some sauce on: You can clearly see the brown spots.
Lesson learned, veggies turned.

Amasea's kitchen in Sun Valley: A cauliflower experiment