Pot noodles are my guilty pleasure. There, I've said it, and I'm not ashamed of it, though I do on occasion berate myself for reaching for Asian instant noodles instead of spending time onsomething more wholesome.
Then again, the time commitment required to make noodles from scratch varies, from a quick stir-fry using supermarket ingredients to a fancy ramen that involves several stages and an overnight rest. (Mind you, I have spared you the need to make the noodles yourself, which some ramen fanatics would consider sacrilege.)
The noodle you use depends on what you want from a dish: wide and flat opaque rice noodles are naturally gluten-free, as are those translucent, long, thin glass or cellophane noodles, which are made from vegetable starches such as mung bean or sweet potato. Thin, light, brown buckwheat soba noodles are perfect for cold dishes – cubes of mango mixed with cooked butterbeans or fried squares of aubergine, herbs and toasted nuts work for me – whereas the light yellow and stiffer wheat flour ramen noodles are better served warm in a soup.
White wheat flour udon noodles, ribbon-like kishimen noodles, vermicelli-like hiyamugi wheat noodles… there are variations for all occasions, time requirements and dietary intolerances. And before youget noodling, stock up at an Asian food store, if you can – rice vinegar, palm sugar, mirin, soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, black andwhite sesame seeds, Thai red shallots and kaffir lime leaves are alluseful pantry staples – though most large supermarkets also have agood (if more expensive) range.
Japchae with mushrooms
Japchae is a Korean dish of sweet potato noodles mixed with vegetables. Omit the oyster sauce to make it vegetarian – it works just as well without – and use tamari soy sauce if you want it to be gluten-free as well. Serves four, generously.
40g dried black fungus (pak-pui) ordried wood ear mushrooms
100ml soy sauce
2 tbsp muscovado sugar
1 tbsp oyster sauce (optional)
200g sweet potato starch noodles (Korean vermicelli)
1 tbsp sesame oil
250g large spinach leaves, washed
2 tbsp groundnut oil
1 small onion, peeled and finely sliced
5cm piece ginger, peeled and julienned
2 large red chillies, deseeded and julienned
1 large carrot, peeled and julienned
150g shiitake mushrooms, cut into 1cm slices
2 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
Put the dried mushrooms in a bowl, cover with boiling water and set aside for 30 minutes. Drain, discard the woody stem, then cut into 0.5cm-thick strips and set aside. In another bowl, whisk the soy, sugar and oyster sauce, if using, and set aside.
Fill a medium pan with water and bring to a boil. Add the noodles, cook for eight minutes (or according to the packet instructions) and drain. Transfer to a medium bowl, pour on the sesame oil and mix. Refill the pan with water, bring to a boil, cook the spinach for a minute and drain.
Heat the groundnut oil in a wok or sauté pan over a medium-high heat, then fry the onion for five minutes, stirring a few times, until it starts to take on some colour. Add the ginger, chilli, carrot and shiitake, fry for two minutes, then add the rehydrated mushrooms, noodles, spinach and soy-sugar mix. Stir-fry for two to three minutes, remove from the heat, stir in the sesame seeds and serve.
Stir-fried noodles with cabbage, sesame and peanuts
Use a mandoline or food processor tospeed along the slicing and shredding, and make this a very quick meal. The mix of black and white sesame seeds looks great on the plate, but use just white if that's all you have. Serves four, generously.
200g dried thick rice noodles
½ small white cabbage, tough inner stalk removed, leaves finely shredded
2 tbsp sunflower oil
2 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
10cm piece ginger, peeled and julienned
2 medium green chillies, deseeded and finely sliced
3 tbsp white sesame seeds
1 tbsp black sesame seeds
1½ tbsp sesame oil
1½ tbsp rice-wine vinegar
2 tbsp soy sauce
40g coriander, roughly chopped
1½ tbsp lime juice, plus 1 tsp finely grated lime zest
60g roasted and salted peanuts, lightly crushed
Bring a medium pan of water to a boil, cook the noodles for seven minutes (or according to the packet instructions), drain and set aside. Refill the pan with water, bring to a boil, cook the cabbage for two minutes, drain, refresh in cold water and set aside to dry.
Heat the sunflower oil in a large wok or sauté pan over a medium-high heat. Add the garlic, ginger and chilli, stir-fry for two to three minutes, until the garlic starts to colour, then add the sesame seeds and cook for a minute, until they begin to toast. Add the cabbage, sesame oil, vinegar and soy, cook for two minutes more, then stir through the coriander, lime juice, zest, peanuts and cooked noodles – if they've started to stick together, rinse them with boiling water first. Heat through for a minute and serve.
Shoyu ramen
You need to start this a day ahead, so the flavour of the stock develops, and so you can lift off the fat after a night in the fridge. "Tare" is a general term in Japanese cooking for all sorts of soy sauces used for grilling, dipping or basting. Serves eight.
900g boneless pork shoulder, rolled and tied (if you prefer it less fatty, just remove some fat from the joint)
Salt
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1kg chicken bones and carcasses
50g smoky bacon rashers, cut widthways into 3cm thick slices
50g ginger, roughly sliced
3 garlic cloves, roughly sliced
14cm x 14cm piece kombu (optional)
4 trimmed spring onions, 2 cut into 4cm pieces, 2 finely sliced
4 eggs
200g Tenderstem broccoli, quartered lengthways and cut on anangle into 5cm pieces
600g fresh (ie wet) Asian wheat noodles, such as ramen or udon (Amoy's Straight To Wok thick or medium udon are good)
4 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp shichimi togarashi (or a good pinch of chilli flakes) per portion
For the marinade
200ml soy sauce
150ml water
100ml sake
50ml mirin
For the tare
75ml soy sauce
1½ tbsp sake
1 tbsp mirin
Rub half a teaspoon of salt all over the pork. Heat the vegetable oil in a very large saucepan on a high heat. Sear the pork for eight minutes, turning regularly, then add the chicken bones, bacon, ginger, garlic, kombu (if using) and the 4cm pieces of spring onion. Pour in three litres of water, bring to a boil, then lower the heat to medium-low and simmer uncovered for three to four hours, skimming off any fat or scum every now and then, until the pork is tender; add water, if needed, to keep the bones submerged. Set aside to cool, then refrigerate overnight.
The next day, skim off all the surface fat and return the stock to the heat, so it becomes liquid again. Remove the pork, discard the string and cut into 0.5cm-thick slices. Put the meat in a large bowl and set aside. Strain the stock through a fine sieve, keeping the liquid but discarding everything else – you should have 1.8 litres of stock (add water to make it up any difference) – and set aside.
Fill a medium pan with water and bring to a boil. Add the eggs, cook for six minutes, until soft-boiled, then drain, refresh in cold water and peel. Add to the bowl with the pork.
Mix all the marinade ingredients, pour over the pork and eggs, and set aside for at least an hour.
Bring a saucepan of water to a boil, cook the broccoli for two minutes, until just cooked, then drain, refresh, drain again and set aside.
Pour the stock into a large pan on a medium-high heat, add the tare and bring to a simmer. Lift the pork out of its marinade and add to the pan with the broccoli and noodles. Simmer for a couple of minutes, until the noodles are cooked, then divide between eight bowls. Lift the eggs out of the marinade (this can now bediscarded) and cut each in half lengthways. Top each portion with ahalf-egg, sprinkle over the finely sliced spring onion and drizzle with sesame oil. Sprinkle the shichimi togarash on top and serve at once.
Yotam Ottolenghi is chef/patron of Ottolenghi and Nopi in London.
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