Ginger Scallion Noodles

You need ginger scallion sauce on your noodles, in your fridge, and in your life. For real.” That’s David Chang’s advice in the Momofuku cookbook, so who am I to argue? I needed a noodle fix, and the recipe didn’t involve heating up the kitchen to the point where it was uninhabitable, so it was time to make dinner.

To make the sauce, I thinly sliced about 2 bunches of scallions, enough to make two and a half cups. I chopped some peeled fresh ginger and minced it in a Cuisinart mini-prep until I had a half cup. I measured out a quarter cup of grapeseed oil, one and a half teaspoons of light soy sauce, three quarters of a teaspoon of xiaoxing wine (you can substitute sherry vinegar), and three quarters of a teaspoon of kosher salt.

I mixed everything together and let it sit for twenty minutes. That’s the entirety of the sauce preparation.

While the sauce sat, I made some quick cucumber pickles (described here), sliced the remaining slab of char sui pork I had stashed in the Belm Utility Research Kitchen Deep Storage Facility, and brought a pot of salted water to the boil.

Having learned my lesson in the great #noodlefail incident, I used fresh prepared noodles from my local Korean market.

I boiled a pound of noodles for about five minutes, drained them, and then tossed them with about a cup of the ginger scallion sauce.

While the noodles boiled, I also heated up the pork slices.

For the final assembly I topped the noodles and sauce with a splash of soy sauce, the pork, and the pickle slices.

I’m sure I could get more authentic noodles from a Korean street vendor, but until I make the trip to Seoul, my version will be a more than acceptable substitute. The sauce alone is an ingredient worth having around all the time. I’ll leave the parting thought to Chang:

Ginger scallion sauce is one of the greatest sauces or condiments ever. Ever. … If you have ginger scallion sauce in the fridge, you will never go hungry: stir 6 tablespoons into a bowl of hot noodles and you’re in business. Or serve over a bowl of rice topped with a fried egg. Or with grilled meat or any kind of seafood. Or almost anything.

And now I have a whole list of quick recipes I can bang out on a hot summer night. Ginger scallion sauce FTW!

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