Cooking Challenge Week 35 - Marinating - Bulgogi and Thai Cucumber Salad

It's a Neglected Cookbook Project double feature!  Both recipes are (slightly) adapted from Williams-Sonoma Collection: Asian, which my brother and his wife gave to me for Christmas years ago.  It's a well-written, beautifully-photographed book, and yet somehow I never found myself cooking from it.

So a few weekends ago I picked it out of the NCP pile and starting leafing through.  Knowing the marinating challenge was coming up, these two just jumped right out at me.

I know the ingredient list for the bulgogi looks long, but the marinade and the sauce use mostly the same ingredients in different quantities, so it's really not that bad.

Bulgogi (Korean BBQ)

Marinade

• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar
• 4 green onions, minced
• 1 tsp ginger paste (or finely chopped ginger)
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tbsp water

Sauce

•  1 clove garlic, chopped
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 tsp Sriracha chile sauce
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 green onion, minced
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds
• 1 tbsp water

• 1 1/2 lbs beef tenderloin
• 1 tbsp canola oil

Make the marinade: Using a mortar and pestle, crush the garlic with the sugar to form a rough paste.  (Alternately, if you don't have one, use a cutting board and the flat of a heavy knife to mash them together.)  Transfer the paste to a small bowl and add the remaining marinade ingredients, whisking well to combine.  Set aside.

Make the sauce just as you made the marinade, combining everything in another small bowl.  Refrigerate until needed.

Cut the beef across the grain as thin as you can manage (1/8" or less is ideal).   Placing the beef in the freezer for 30-45 minutes before slicing can help firm it up and make it easier to get thin slices.  (Mine actually weren't so good, I need to get my knives sharpened.)

Add the beef slices to the marinade and toss to mix.  Cover and refrigerate 1-3 hours.

Prepare a hot fire on a charcoal grill, or preheat a grill pan on the stove on high.  Brush the grill rack/pan with the canola oil.

Remove the beef from the marinade and pat dry, discarding the marinade.  (I tried to get most of the sesame seeds off, afraid they'd burn, but really they didn't, so there's no need to be too fussy.)  Working in batches, arrange the beef in a single layer on the hot pan.  Sear, turning once, until crisp and browned on both sides, about 2 minutes per side.  Wipe down and re-oil the pan between batches if necessary.

Here, I served it over rice, drizzled with the sauce, with a side of...

Thai Cucumber Salad

• 2 lbs. cucumbers
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 cup rice vinegar
• 4 shallots, thinly sliced
• 1 red jalapeno or other fresh red chile, seeded and julienned
• 2 tbsp fresh cilantro leaves

Peel the cucumbers, halve lengthwise, and scoop out the seeds.  Cut crosswise into 1/4" thick slices.  Place in a colander, sprinkle with 1 tsp of the salt, and toss to mix.  Set aside to drain for 1 hour, then pat the cucumbers dry.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the sugar, the remaining 1 tsp salt, and the rice vinegar.  Heat until the sugar and salt dissolve, about two minutes.   Set aside to cool.

To assemble the salad, in a large bowl combine the cucumbers, shallots, and chile.  Pour the cooled vinegar mixture over and toss well.  Garnish with the cilantro leaves, and refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving.

Cooking Challenge Week 3 - Soup - Chiang Mai Noodle Soup

Some people probably go through life without ever making soup from scratch.

I am not one of them.

There are nine different soups in my freezer right now.  Not just nine freezer bags of soup--nine types of soup, most with two bags' worth, a few with three.  Despite only having to feed myself and my husband, I never make a batch of soup smaller than four servings, usually six, sometimes even eight or ten.  I love soup.  And I love how well most of them freeze!

(For the curious:  top row, left to right - chicken noodle, Dublin coddle, turkey mulligatawny, potato, pork and sweet potato stew.  bottom row, left to right - spicy bean soup with carnitas, white turkey chili, ground beef chili, and borscht.)

So when I saw that this week's challenge was soup, I nearly threw my hands up in despair.  I make soup every week!  What on earth could I do to make it special?

Answer: Reread every recipe in my trusty The Cook's Encyclopedia of Soup, and find an overlooked recipe that was bound to set my taste buds on fire.

Literally.

And so I present Chiang Mai Noodle Soup.

 
Chiang Mai Noodle Soup
(adapted from The Cook's Encyclopedia of Soup; 4 servings)

• 1 15-oz can coconut milk
• 2 tbsp red curry paste
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 2 cups cooked chicken meat, cut into bite-size pieces
• 2 1/2 cups chicken stock
• 1/4 cup fish sauce
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• lime juice, to taste
• 2 to 3 oz. rice sticks (a.k.a. cellophane or glass noodles)

Garnish options:

• chopped scallions
• sliced fresh red chilis
• minced shallots
• pickled mustard leaves, chopped
• fried sliced garlic
• fresh cilantro leaves
• fried noodle nests

Pour about one-third of the coconut milk into a large saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring often.  Add the curry paste and turmeric, stir to mix together, and cook until fragrant.  Add the chicken meat and cook about two minutes, stirring well to ensure all the chunks are well-coated with the paste.  Add the remaining coconut milk, chicken stock, fish sauce, and soy sauce.  Season to taste with salt and pepper, and simmer 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the rice sticks in shallow heatproof dish and pour boiling water over to cover.  Leave to soak 10 minutes.

Next, prepare your chosen garnishes.  (I just went with scallions, not having thought to buy red chilis as well, and not having access most of the rest.)

Remove the soup from the heat and add the lime juice to taste.  Drain the rice sticks and divide between four bowls.  Ladle the soup over the noodles, add the garnishes, and eat!

Bring the little bit of coconut milk to a boil.

Dump in the turmeric and curry paste.  (It's obviously supposed to be Thai red curry paste for a Thai/Burmese dish, but I didn't have any--I used an Indian hot curry paste, it tasted fine.  Once you add the fish sauce, you can't mistake it for anything but southeast Asian!)

It smells pretty amazing at this point.

Toss in the chicken and let that cook for two minutes or so...

...then add the chicken stock, fish sauce, soy sauce, and the rest of the coconut milk.

These are the only non-pasta noodle my local grocery stocks, so that's what I used.  The recipe actually calls for one pound of fresh egg noodles, and the picture shows the kind of thick, round noodle I've seen in some Chinese dishes.  I like rice sticks, so I had no problem using them instead.  I used one of the three 'cakes' of noodles in the package, which seemed like plenty.

Pour boiling water over them.  This is another reason I love our electric kettle, it doesn't take up a burner!

Meanwhile, prep your garnishes.  I fancied up my scallions by chopping them at an angle--easy, but it looks pretty.

Like so.

Take the soup off the heat and add the lime juice.  Purists will insist on fresh-squeezed, but I prefer the value and convenience of bottled.  I honestly can't tell the difference!

 The rice sticks are ready to drain...

...and divide between the bowls.

Ladle on the soup...

..and throw on those garnishes!  Since I didn't chop up any fresh chilis, I added crushed red chili pepper as well, which is an easy way to customize the heat level.  Hot for me, extremely hot for my husband!