Exploring a cookbook, "Momofuku", by David Chang

Based upon reviews I had read, I asked for this book over the holidays. Now, I find myself somewhat intimidated by the book. I was wondering if anyone else had explored it and had some suggestions on where to start.

i've played around with it (if you can call it that), having made the ginger scallion sauce. i've also made some of the pork shoulder, though didn't cook it as long as he says to. still came out ok, makes a great snack.

also gearing up for pickling, so far have done cucumber slices and napa and both came out great, and work well as a side/garnish for various meals.

would love to see what other people are doing, especially if anyone tries the ramen broth or the pig's head thing.

lougord99 wrote:Based upon reviews I had read, I asked for this book over the holidays. Now, I find myself somewhat intimidated by the book. I was wondering if anyone else had explored it and had some suggestions on where to start.

The pork buns recipe is stupid simple and absolutely delicious. I highly recommend starting there. I made the buns from scratch, which is was surprisingly easy, if a bit time consuming. In any event, David Chang strongly encourages people to just buy the buns. If you do that, I'm pretty sure you can't go wrong and you'll have a real crowd pleaser on your hands.

Try the roasted summer corn recipe, its very straightforward.

I actually made a triple batch of this using thawed frozen corn for a dinner party buffet recently - I'm sure it'll be better with fresh corn in the summer, but its pretty darn good even with frozen (I didn't bother make the ramen broth, just used water).

I came to this via a recipe for roasted asparagus with the miso butter & poached eggs Chang had up on the NYTimes website - that's excellent as well & very simple - I suspect that the miso butter works well with a lot of other roasted vegetable options.

This was one of my Xmas presents -- it's been on my list since it was published two years ago.

It's a great read: creating the first two parts of his now four-ship fleet should not have worked, he should have gone bottom up -- he's the first one to admit it.
There's a couple of nice essays on oysters, ham (by Andrew Benton), and a long essay at the start describing his somewhat untraditional path to restaurant ownership, starting with an obsession with ramen.

I have never eaten at any of his restos (but they're on my NYC to-do list). From descriptions here, the closest thing in the city would be Schwa, if Schwa was inspired by Japanese food.

I nearly ran out and bought all the ingredients to make ramen broth. As it is, today I bought the kitchen staples for it (eg konbu, dried shiitakes). It's the first broth-making I've seen that's more elaborate than Thomas Keller's. I will try it, though.

Compared to some of the other high-end cookbooks I have such as Alinea and French Laundry -- maybe even Batali's Molto Italiano -- this is very approachable food. The difference between my food and his will be quality of ingredients (I don't have the Greenmarket just down the street, so I'm likely to try the Miso Butter Corn with frozen kernels), and the finesse in execution.

Of the recipes in the book outside of the ramen (whose seductive draw was partially eased by a trip to Mitsuwa), the ones that have immediate appeal are the ssams -- which were part of Chang's original goal for Momofuku Ssam Bar that didn't work out as a menu staple (Ssams are Korean things wrapped in lettuce leaves, his idea was burritos). There's a hanger steak one, and a pork belly one that I really want to try. Part of the prep for those two dishes are pickles: a mustard seed one, and cucumbers.

I've always loved spicy kimchi cucumbers, so that was first. I used the somewhat weak bulk cayenne I've got in my cabinet in place of the Korean chili powder, and an hour into the pickling, they're pretty mild (I think it's time to ditch that cayenne powder). But they're crisp, salty and sweet, I like 'em.

The other one I did was the mustard seed pickle, which, really, is just whole-grain mustard, when you think about it. I didn't have yellow mustard seeds (and didn't see any at my two grocery-related stops today), so I made them with brown mustard seeds. It took a little longer to thicken up than the recipe said, and it made a larger quantity than the 1 cup stated (I don't know how 1 cup mustard seeds plus 1.5 cups each water and rice vinegar gets to 1 cup in 45 minutes at low simmer anyway), but it looks like a nice condiment.

Keep an eye on this thread, the pork belly ssam may show up before the new year.
I also bought ingredients for his Asian caprese salad: shiso, cherry tomatoes and silken tofu. That's probably going to a new year's eve or day party (I've got one of each).

Really looking forward to watching this thread progress. Godspeed!

The pickles are getting eaten quickly -- they've lost a lot of moisture and are not so photogenic.
Time for another batch soon.

For a new year's eve party, I brought their Asian Caprese Salad:

Momofuku caprese salad by joelfinkle, on Flickr
Slight change from original recipe: I didn't bother to cut mozzarella-shaped rounds of tofu, just sliced it; I used chinese black vinegar as I don't have sherry vinegar in the house. Note: grape tomatoes are very hard to peel, they have a very thin wall of flesh, and tend to leak seeds when you try to squeeze the skins off. I used a pint each of red cherry and golden grape tomatoes.

Is ohba the same as shiso? It seemed like it might be from Wikipedia (and ohba is what Mitsuwa had), but the ohba leaves I have do not have any minty or basil-y flavor to them that I can tell. It was more lettuce-like.

It's pretty simple: two pints of tomatoes, 2/3 of them peeled, the rest sliced in half; sliced tofu, slivered shiso, salt 'n' pepa, and a dressing of 1 part mild vinegar, two parts oil, a splash of soy and sesame oil.

It's been a Momofuku of a day. I used miso butter (just what it sounds: 1:1 ratio of each) on an english muffin topped by scrambled eggs with asparagus and mushrooms. Mmm, like an umami hollandaise. With the work below, that's three more recipes down. It's a great cookbook for understanding re-use, and using one prep for other things later. If all his pickles are as good as the kimchi cukes and the shiitakes (below), I'm in for a lot of sour, salty, low-fat snacks this winter.

I'm about halfway through making Momofuku's ramen broth. I had a chicken in the freezer that when I took it out was too freezer burned for roasting, but would be just fine in the stock pot. So I ran out to Meijer for neck bones (nice source for those, plus marrow bones, ox tail, shanks of all manner of beasts) and got started, probably too late in the day. It'll be done around midnight, longer if I want to 2X concentrate it.

So far:
1) Konbu. Evidently, konbu can mean a lot of things. The recipe calls for 2 3x6" sheets. Mine came out of the pouch in soft rags, and when rinsed turned into a gelatinous mass. Added good flavor, just a pain to get those sticky gooey shreds out of the pot after their 10 minute steep.
2) Shiitakes. Half an hour of simmering, and they come out (they were then pickled in soy sauce, sugar, sherry vinegar and ginger, per another recipe).
3) Chicken. An hour and a half (that bird was tougher than the hour they recommended), it's now been shredded and what wasn't too leathery will go into another meal later this week. What was too leather went into the dog.
4) Pork neck bones (roasted a little earlier) and bacon. Bacon came out after an hour, and was then fried up to top burgers. It gets very lacy and thin from partial rendering -- it also lost much of its smokiness and salt, but still provided a bit of crisp porkitude for the burgers.
5) Now I'm simmering away. More later.

[later]
6) Around 11PM, add scallions, carrots, onion
7) Around midnight, strain. Pulled a lot of relatively bland and mushy pork off the bones for dog treats. What else can you do with this stuff? Mock rilettes?
Brought it to a roaring boil with the lid on, turned off the fire, I'm going to sleep and hoping it's relatively sterile (Cathy's probably screaming "No, don't!").
I'll boil it more in the morning to reduce it for storage (frozen).

OK, finally time for ramen.
To serve 3:
3 cups concentrated broth, deconcentrated with equal amounts of water (Pan #1). Adjust taste with tare (all I have is Tare for eel, it's a little weak-flavored), mirin and soy.
12 oz thin noodles from Assi plaza. They're not quite right, because they have eggs in them, but they also have potassium and sodium carbonate (alkaline salts or kansui). They tasted a little eggy. Cooked in salted water (Pan #2)
Poached Eggs (Pan #3)
Menma -- bamboo shoots cooked on a low flame with oil, sesame oil, soy, chile (Pan #4)
While the noodles are cooking, some juliened pea pods were blanched in the same water in a spider (so there wouldn't have to be a pan #4)
Slice the following:
Scallions
Leftover roast chicken
Leftover slow-cooked chicken pulled from the carcass when I made the broth
Fish cake

Serve the broth with noodles, topped with the other stuff and a couple triangles of nori tucked into the side of the bowl.
All in all, very good. Needed a little more soy. I added some togarashi, didn't really taste the difference. The chiles in the Menma really added a lot of flavor.

I've got 4 more pints of concentrated broth, so I can repeat as needed.

I'm gaining a lot of respect for Chang's flavors. After starting a teriyaki-like marinade for a skirt steak (mirin, soy, black pepper, garlic, ginger, sesame oil -- no measurements), I decided to open the book and see what he suggested for accompaniments. Finding his "Hangar Steak Ssam", i said, "I can do that." He listed kimchi puree, I decided to just use the kimchi whole (actually sliced), since I like the crunch. But the other garnish is "Ginger Scallion Sauce" which is listed in the book for Ginger Scallion Noodles (which I now have to try).

Ginger Scallion Sauce is really more of a relish: five parts sliced scallions to one ginger, with a little salt, oil and vinegar to moisten and wilt the scallions. Bright and fresh, a great foil for a rich piece of steak.

Some white rice on the side, with some sauteed veg (onion, sliced portabellas, orange bell, baby bok choy), and some lettuce to wrap the meat and garnishes up in (note: romaine hearts make lousy wraps -- too narrow), and it was a great meal.

i've made the ginger/scallion sauce several times but have yet to find the perfect ratios. i think i keep wanting the sauce you get with chinese roasted chicken, which is pastier.

or not. depends where you get the chicken from. in any case, i've had the sauce with noodles several times and don't quite get why they're so great. in fact the noodles/sauce seemed mismatched to me.

Subject: bopNgrill (evanston)

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

The highlight of this meal sponsored by the Korean Consulate was Bo Ssam, which was very likely inspired by Momofuku. Recipe is linked to already and here is an article on it.

The chef from bopNgrill also had garlic cooking in the pork fat, which was outstanding.

I have been thinking about this preparation ever since enjoying it.


Bo Ssam by cal222, on Flickr


Bo Ssam with condiments by cal222, on Flickr

Now take a piece of lettuce to show others the way. Place into it a torn string of meat, a dab of rice, some hot sauce or kimchi or pickles. Fold and bite, fold and bite. Try it with a scissored shard of the candied pigskin. Or with an oyster. Or both. Repeat.

...

After musing about this meal for almost a month, I decided last week to make one. I knew from bopNgrill they had rubbed into their pork butt a mixture of salt, pepper and sugar, then roasted it for six hours at 250 degrees F.

Meanwhile I learned of the published recipe in the NYT from David Chang's Momofuku. What a lovely coincidence, because I was already committed to this plan having purchased a pork butt.

Yesterday, I rubbed into the 3-4 pound piece of pork butt a mixture of 1/2 cup each of Kosher salt and sugar. I left it to rest overnight in the refrigerator.

This afternoon, I set the oven to 275 degrees (between Momofuku's recommended 300 and bopNgrill's 250) for a four hour roast basting every hour. At three hours, I added three garlic heads sliced off at the top resting cut side down in the fat.

Just after hour four, I tested it by easily twisting a fork in the meat. I let the meat out to rest (for no more than an hour according to Momofuku). Meanwhile, I made the sauces, cooked the rice and heated the oven to 500 degrees.

When the rice looked like it would be done within 10 minutes, I applied brown sugar-only to the pork butt. While Momofuku suggested adding a tablespoon of Kosher salt, I thought the pork's crust tasted salty enough. I flipped the garlic heads cut side up. I inserted the pork butt and garlic heads back to the oven for a 10-15 minute cook.

At about 7 minutes, I saw the sugar had not yet carmelized. I basted a little pork fat, which speeded the glazing along. About 2-3 minutes later it was ready to come out of the oven.


Bo Ssam by cal222, on Flickr

When everyone sat down to dinner, I enjoyed explaining this meal (using a larger pork butt) costs $200 at Momofuku in New York and $150 at bopNgrill in Chicago. While I only bought a half pork butt for around $5.34, this was at least a $100 to $75 value respectively.


A serving of Bo Ssam by cal222, on Flickr

Louisa Chu pointed out I wasn't the only one getting my kicks making this meal for next to nothing:



The active period involved is inconsequential. The cook time is lengthy, though checking back once an hour is hardly anything to complain about. This is a meal that would impress guests as well as family. Well worth doing.

Regards,

Cathy - did you rinse the meat before cooking? The video you linked to shows them rinsing, but the recipe from Momofuku does not indicate any rinsing. Some reviews on various sites suggested that without rinsing the crust was too salty.

jygach wrote:Cathy - did you rinse the meat before cooking? The video you linked to shows them rinsing, but the recipe from Momofuku does not indicate any rinsing. Some reviews on various sites suggested that without rinsing the crust was too salty.

HI,

I didn't suggest rinsing. What I did was brush off the extra salt/sugar, pat dry and into the oven with the fat cap (whatever there was) up.

At the end, you pat on the brown sugar (I skipped the addition of salt, because the surface was salty). It seemed to balance out.

If you are salt-sensitive, why not rinse?

The variant at BopNGrill was rubbed only with salt, pepper and sugar.

Regards,

Trying it tomorrow, will let you know how it turns out. Thanks.

jygach wrote:Trying it tomorrow, will let you know how it turns out. Thanks.

Let the meat get very, very tender. I think you and yours will be very happy with the result.

Regards,

Wow, Cathy, those pics are gorgeous. Your picks on the BopNGrill thread had already motivated me to try this. I have an 8 lb Boston Butt covered in sugar and salt in the fridge right now. Thanks for the tips.

Cathy,

Thanks for the inspiration. I made this last night for dinner and it was magnificent. I used pork shoulder instead of pork butt. I did not rinse of the salt and sugar, but did wipe off all the salt and sugar that remained on the surface. I roasted at 275 F. And basted occasionally. Like Cathy, i too left the salt out of the glaze. This was a wonderful medley of textures, fatty, soft, chewy, crunchy. The glaze tasted like candied ham.

I served this with some traditional and other less traditional accompaniments - rice, leaf lettuce, ginger and scallion sauce, ssam sauce, pickled shredded carrots and daikon, kimchi, and chopped green Thai chilies with garlic.

Everybody at dinner raved about the meal. An easy dish with great visual and taste impact.

Hi,

I am so happy you agree on the ease of preparation as well as outstanding result.

Pork shoulder and pork butt are names for the same cut. I am sure we both used the same.

I sliced leftovers for some raman soup.

Regards,
Cathy

Curious how "sweet" this skews? I'm not a fan of candied ham, etc. but everything else about this looks wonderful...

boudreaulicious wrote:Curious how "sweet" this skews? I'm not a fan of candied ham, etc. but everything else about this looks wonderful...

Add less sugar.

Problem solved.

I realize I could do that --was asking those who have made it for their thoughts on proportion prior to experimenting on a nice piece if pork.

boudreaulicious wrote:Curious how "sweet" this skews? I'm not a fan of candied ham, etc. but everything else about this looks wonderful...

HI,

The sugar-salt at the beginning has the effect of a brine.

The brown sugar at the end (on top of a somewhat salty crust) evens it all out.

You could experiment with the last part of the cook where the brown sugar is applied. You could taste it as-is before brown sugar, then add (or don't add) the brown sugar or leave a section off.

Or leave the sugar-salt bark for others and eat the interior.

Many ways to play with this and find what suits your tastes.

Regards,

I like the idea if it's balanced--thanks for the additional info.

Regarding the sugar and salt marinade/rub, I think they flavored the meat and kept it moist. I did not feel either the salt or the sugar overwhelmed the taste of the meat.

If you eat the meat with rice, wrapped in lettuce, and add the different sauces, the sugared crust adds a delicious crunchy sweetness which ends up being pretty balanced. The original recipe calls for salt added to the sugar for the glaze which would balance the sweetness even more.

Exactly the info I was looking for--thank you Jyoti!!!

We really enjoyed this dish. I can see doing some riffs on this. As far as technique, it's nothing earth shattering--a dry brine followed by a slow roast at a relatively low temp, then finish with a glaze at high temp. I thought that the brown sugar crust really balanced out the salt from the brine so if using less sugar, I would suggested rinsing the dry brine carefully. I loved the crusty parts--pork candy, basically.

I left the fat cap on but scored it so the brine would penetrate:



Prior to the brown sugar/high heat:



With brown sugar glaze (I did add salt to this):


Thanks for the tips Cathy and Jyoti!

We enjoyed the condiments, particularly the ginger scallion sauce/relish. I can see keeping a bowl of this in the fridge for use throughout the week. I'm not a big kimchi fan but we bought some spicy pickled cucumbers at Joong Boo/Chicago Food Corp.



We made one additional condiment--reduced pork juices with some gochujang added to cut the salt.



Dinner:




We wrapped some up in spring roll wrappers to make the dish easier to take for lunch:


Thanks for the tips Cathy and Jyoti

Can you guys give me some ideas on what you did for the sauce? David Chang calls for a base of ssamjang ( fermented beans and chili ). I looked at H-mart, but couldn't figure what this may be.

lougord99 wrote:Can you guys give me some ideas on what you did for the sauce? David Chang calls for a base of ssamjang ( fermented beans and chili ). I looked at H-mart, but couldn't figure what this may be.

I think that ssamjang can be bought in tubs at H-Mart, just look around the red tubs of gochujang. Otherwise, you can combine gochujang (red pepper paste) and daenjang (soybean paste).

Thank you. That is exactly where it was. They had several varieties of Ssamjang.