David Chang’s Chinese Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients:

• whole roaster chicken, cut up by part (yes, you can be sloppy here) and use The. Whole. Thing. Bones & everything.
• Enough water to cover the bird parts (approx 8-10 cups)
• Salt
• 1 – 2 onions
• 1 – 2 green onion (scallion)
• 1 – 2 shallots
• 4 – 5 cloves garlic
• 1 – 2 carrots
• 1 pc star anise
• Coriander seeds
• Black peppercorns
• 1 – 3 bay leaves
• Soy sauce
• Sesame sauce

Combine the chicken parts, lots of water and salt in a large pot and boil the s**t out of it (David’s words, not mine), approx. 1-2 hours. Longer if you want, which means more flavour.

In a separate pot, do the same with all the veggies, pepper, salt, star anise, coriander, bay leaves and boil.

Once they are both done, strain the veggie pot and keep the liquid only – dispose of the veggies. For the chicken do the same and let the chicken cool before you pull it all apart, keeping only the dark and white meat as desired (no skin or bone).

Take all the chicken you’re keeping for the soup and toss in a bowl with sesame oil, soy sauce, salt and pepper. Use as much or as little as you need, depending on the flavour you want, but I am fairly liberal because it tastes so yummy.

Combine both broths into a big pot, dump the chicken in and cook on medium heat for about 10 min. Add the noodles close to when you are ready to serve the soup. Cook until noodles are al dente. You’re done!

 

(Found on: Lemons for Love)

Spicy Lamb Hand-Ripped Noodles

Photo by Farideh Sadeghin

Recipe from Jason Wang for Munchies

Servings: 2
Prep: 45 minutes
Total: 1 hour and 20 minutes

 

Ingredients

for the noodles:
14 1/8 ounces|400 grams wheat flour
3/4 teaspoon fine salt
vegetable oil, for brushing

for the soup:
7 ounces|200 grams lamb meat, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon shaoxing wine
1 large egg white
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon soy sauce, plus more on the side to taste
1 1/4 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon fine salt
1/2 cup|40 grams chopped scallions
1 red onion, thinly sliced
chili oil, to taste
black vinegar, to taste

Directions

1. For the noodles: Mix together the flour and salt in a stand mixer fitted with a hook attachment or by hand in a large basin. Slowly add about 1 cup cold water with the mixer on low speed until dough is formed into one piece and the mixing bowl has little to no residual dough/powder or pieces stuck to it. Shape the dough a bit into a big block and then use a knife to cut it up up into long rectangular slabs, then cut each long rectangular slab into small pieces, about 4-by-2-by-3/8 inches. Cover the pieces with vegetable oil and place them in the refrigerator right away to prevent sticking.

2. For the soup: Mix together the sliced lamb, wine, and egg white and marinate for 20 minutes at room temperature.

3. Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over high until smoking. Add the lamb and egg mixture and cook, tossing, until the meat is almost done, about 3 minutes. Add the cumin, soy sauce, sugar, and salt and cook to let the flavor set in, 3 minutes, and then remove from the heat. Stir in the scallions and onion (the heat of the meat is enough to cook them even with fire off).

4. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. When the water is almost boiling, take 2 pieces of the dough from the refrigerator. Press the dough flat on a non-floured work surface and take one end of the piece in each hand and pull. Slap the dough on the table until it becomes elongated into a wide noodle. Rip this noodle down the middle, creating a longer, continuous, circular noodle and throw it into the boiling water. Repeat with the rest of the pieces for more servings of noodles. Boil the noodles until cooked through, and then drain and transfer to a bowl. Add in the lamb, and toss with soy sauce, chili oil, and black vinegar to taste.

Illustrations for a Chinese Lord of the Rings in a Stunning “Glass Painting Style”

Book covers drawn by artist Jian Guo.

Part of a competition held by the publisher of the new Chinese text, the beautiful, monochromatic illustrations draw on many of the design elements of Tolkien’s original paintings for the trilogy’s covers, elaborating on the iconic ring and towers with intricate Asian lines and flourishes.

The artist, an architectural student, describes his style as “glass painting style,” which he uses for its “sense of religious magnificence.” Interestingly, before seeing Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings adaptation in 2002, he had never heard of the books. (Previous Chinese translations of the books feature rather unimaginative covers with images from Jackson’s movies.) The films converted him into an avid reader of Tolkien.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms podcast

Romance of the Three Kingdoms is considered one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, and its literary influence in East Asia rivals that of Shakespeare in the English speaking world. “Written 600 years ago,” writes the BBC, “it is a historical novel that tells the story of a tumultuous period in Chinese history, the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. Partly historical and partly legend, it recounts the fighting and scheming of the feudal lords and the three states which came to power as the Han Dynasty collapsed.”

And now the ancient meets the modern…

If you listen to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms podcast, you can hear John Zhu’s attempt to retell this epic tale and make it accessible to a Western audience. The first 110 episodes are available on YouTube, the web, and iTunes–with at least another 10 to come. Quite a feat. Have a listen.

To learn more about Romance of the Three Kingdoms, listen to this episode of the BBC’s In Our Time.

Fu Baoshi art

This is an ink painting by Chinese artist Fu Baoshi (1904–1965) showing a scholar artist in his studio. Fu Baoshi was a scholar painter and art historian. He studied Western and Japanese art in Tokyo where he developed his own style based on a fusion of Western realism and traditional brushwork. His work expressed a personal taste for subjects drawn from Chinese poets of the past.

Image © Fu Baoshi estate