Korean Noodle Salad (Salad Guksu)

A saucy favourite of mine from Korea. A little like a noodle version of my beloved bibimbab but with a different and fresher dressing/sauce. I've adapted a recipe from Lee MinJung's Step-by-Step Cooking Korean and given you more ideas based on versions of this salad I've eaten.

While this cold salad is just fantastic in hot summers, it's also great for those winter days when you just can't stand the thought of another heavy (and possibly white and stodgy) dish. Here in France I'm eating a lot of tarts, gratins, purees, bread and cheese, pasta - all food I love but that leads me to crave something fresh and colourful. The markets at the moment have a great array of turnips but not many vegetables to get excited about. This is a salad that can be made with few or many vegetables, depending on what you have available. I would have loved to add in some spicy sesame leaves but I have trouble finding ANY Asian ingredients, let alone any as exotic as that! So today's salad was made with just noodles, lettuce and cabbage, carrot, cucumber and on top boiled egg (no good tofu or tempeh to be found either) and seaweed.
It wasn't at all boring though as the sauce is very flavourful and turns this from just a healthy bowl of vegetables into a treat to look forward to.

Serves 2-4 depending on amount of veggies used and serving size. (bowl of salad in photo is one of 3 servings)

Salad Ingredients

soba noodles* 2 bundles
lettuce and/or cabbage 5 leaves cut into thin 4cm lengths

and choose from these other toppings:

cucumber 1 med, cut into thin 4cm lengths**
carrot 1 med, cut into thin 4cm lengths
red capsicum, 1med, cut into thin 4cm lengths
nashi (Asian pear) 1, cut into thin 4cm lengths
cherry tomatoes, 10 cut in half
seasame (perilla) leaves, 2, cut into thin 4cm lengths
radishes, 4, thinly sliced
radish sprouts, small handful
spring onions (scallions/green onions), 2, cut into thin 4cm lengths
seaweed sheets, 2 large /1 package of small salted Korean kim sheets, cut into thin 4cm lengths
kimchee (cabbage or radish type) if you're not a strict vegetarian or vegan (it is often made with small dried fish). I didn't use kimchee but if you do be aware it will affect the flavour of whole dish.
eggs, 1 per person, hard boiled, halved or quartered
OR (vegan option)
tempeh or tofu, marinated, 1/2 block, sliced in 4cm lengths, fried

* If you don't have soba noodles (available in most supermarkets) you can use many other types of noodles including brown rice noodles, buckwheat noodles, sweet potato noodles (chewy!), acorn noodles (great if you can find them), angelhair noodles...
**My new julienne cutter tool - looks similar to a potato peeler - is earning its keep in my kitchen!

Dressing Ingredients

3 T light soy sauce
3 T vinegar (rice vinegar is usual, or I like to use cider vinegar)
3 T fresh lemon juice
2 T agave nectar/ mild honey or 3 T brown sugar
1/2 T vegetarian oyster sauce
1 T crushed garlic
1 1/2 t wasabi
1 T chilli powder / Korean chilli flakes
1 T seasame oil
2 T toasted seasame seeds

more dressing options:
replace the veg oyster sauce and chilli powder with 4 T Korean red chilli paste (gochu jang - great paste to have if you can find it; look for it in Korean or general 'Asian' grocery stores).
you could use a knob of grated ginger and some coriander leaves for un-Korean but still delicious additions

Method

Combine ingredients for dressing and blend well. Refrigerate.

Blanch noodles in boiling water (or if using another type of noodles, cook till just tender) then wash under cold running water. Drain well.

Mix noodles with dressing and half the lettuce and other toppings. Use (clean!) hands to mix ensure thorough mix.

Garnish with remaining lettuce and toppings and serve.
I like to add the seaweed last as it gets soggy and chewy quickly. In the one in the photo I didn't have my favourite small Korean kim sheets so sliced up the kind used for 'california rolls'. I sprinkled the eggs with salt, chilli powder and sesame seeds.

Dolsot Bibimbap

Bibimbap is one of my very favourite meals. I used to eat it just about every single day when I lived in Seoul. Eating out is the thing to do in Korea - often to socialise at lunchtime with co-workers, but for me, working weird shifts, I often ate alone, something unheard of for Koreans it seems. Although I loved the days when I had company, I would always enjoy eating out when I had something as delicious as this to indulge it. Back then, I never tried to make it at home because basically cooking, esp when garlic is involved, is not the best idea when you live in a one room apartment with the stove 2m from your bed. Anyway, when surrounded by reasonably priced and excellent restaurants, I'm happy to leave it to the pros.

If you get the chance, do visit South Korea. Not only does it have delicious food, but it is beautiful - even Seoul is surrounded by wooded hills. The culture has both modern and traditional elements tourists will enjoy.


This colourful dish can be made many ways - many restaurants have their own way of doing it with particular vegetable combinations. Dolsot bibimbap (the winter version) is served in a large stone bowl that I think is heated on a stove. I haven't found these wonderfully heavy bowls for sale here so I have made mine with some earthenware lidded pots I have which I preheat in the oven. Bibimbap is usually also topped with bulgogi (thinly-sliced beef) though of course I get mine without. I do usually go for the egg on top though. The egg in summer is usually fried while for the winter version of this dish, shown here, it would be cracked straight onto the hot rice, too cook as the sizzling bowl is brought to your name. Who doesn't love the excitement of sizzling dishes delivered to your table? You can make normal bibimbap and in the summer use more raw ingredients like beanspouts, lettuce and grated carrot but on cold days the crackling rice and warm vegetables of the dolsot version is just the thing.

What I love most about this dish is the morish spicy Gochujang sauce - a chile paste you can buy from Korean food stores - or, if you are lucky, the Asian food aisle of the supermarket. I had to visit 5 Asian shops before I found this last time - not because they didn't stock it, but because I was doing my shopping at the wrong time and they had all sold out!

Here is a picture of what I used to make it for a cold rainy day yesterday. The green packet is yummy salty seasoned Korean seaweed and the bottle is Asian seasame oil. Usually I would use carrots but thanks to our juicer we had run out. Parsnip made a sweet and earthy alternative to both carrot and the bracken fronds my favourite bibimpap restaurant used (which I haven't found here).

Dolsot Bibimbap

Get all your vegetables washed and chopped first of all, then you can just cook them, one after the other, in the same pan (less dishes to wash). All the vegetable toppings can be at room temperature but the rice must be fresh and hot.



I'm going to give you directions to make enough for 4 people but you can adjust quantities to suit.

Ingredients:

8 shiitake or other mushrooms, trimmed and sliced
1-2 bunches of spinach, trimmed and rinsed well.
1 parsnip and 1 small carrot / 2 med carrots jullienned
1 med / 3/4 large zucchini
8 small sheets Korean seaweed (seasoned laver) cut into strips with scissors
1-4 cloves garlic (depending how much you love it), thinly sliced

1 /18 ozpacket of firm tofu, dried in (paper) towels, sliced into 2cm strips
2 t tamari

spray vegetable oil for cooking
1 t or less of Asian seasame oil for seasoning (strong flavour)

4 cups of fresh cooked rice.

-I used brown rice as I love the flavour but I'm not the best at cooking it - it likes to spit and bubble over from my rice cooker (any tips appreciated) so I keep my eye on it, adding water gradually to avoid big boil-overs. About halfway through cooking I added a handful of black rice which apart from probably being nutritious and all, dyes the rice a wonderful purple colour! White Korean rice is very yummy too - I love the smell of it cooking, but today I'm giving you this especially healthy and nurturing version.



Method

1) put the rice on in the rice cooker. If you have earthenware bowls and want to make this dolsot version, preheat your oven now too - you can put the bowls in so they heat up with the oven.

2) heat a frying pan and spray with a little oil, add the tofu, season with the tamari and fry tofu till golden brown on each side. Remove and set aside, leaving pan on heat.

3) spray frying pan with oil and add zucchini. saute until soft but firm - about 2 minutes.

4) now add mushrooms to pan, spraying on both sides. When they are partially cooked, add the garlic. Don't cook too long - about 3 minutes, you want them soft and starting to brown but not all shrivelled.

5) remove the mushrooms, leaving most of the garlic slices if poss. Add just a splash of water then put the spinach in, letting it steam just long enough so the leaves are just wilted, about a minute or two. Transfer immediately to a colander, rinse with cold water and squeeze water from the spinach. (or with perfect timing and perfect sprinkle of water, the spinach may be just softened enough to skip this 'rescue' step). Combine garlicky spinach with a few drops of seasame oil - a little goes a long way.

6) add parsnip / carrot to frying pan with further dash of water - just enough to stop them sticking to the pan. Saute until limp, about 3 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and set aside.

7) when rice is cooked, transfer 1 cup of cooked rice into each bowl - remember to use good oven mits if removing hot bowls from the oven. Cover bowls and put back in oven to let the edges crisp up.

8) while the rice is in the oven, mix up the following paste:

Yangnyeom Gochujang

Makes about 1/2 cup

4 T Korean chile paste (gochujang)
2 T Asian seasame oil
1 T tamari / light soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 T (toasted) seasame seeds
1 green onion, chopped
1 T Korean malt syrup (mool yut) or sugar - I leave this out and it's still great

Combine in a small bowl to serve with your bibimpap (let everyone add their own, so they can have it as spicy as they like). If you want to make this paste in advance (or you have left-over), it will keep in a well-sealed container in the fridge for about a week.

9) Test your rice bowls - when the edges are starting to stick and go crunchy, it's ready to add the toppings and serve.
Now stack the seaweed sheets and slice into three strips. We do this last to keep the seaweed crispy. Arrange the vegetables, including seaweed on top of the rice in each bowl, separating the colours for best visual appeal. If you especially enjoy seasame oil, you can drizzle a few drops on each bowl and if you want to add an egg, you can do this now. Serve with the yangnyeom gochujang and any side dishes you may like - last night we had seasoned roast pumpkin. Another day I'll share some other Korean side dish ideas.

10) When people have been served and added the amount of paste they wanted, they mix everything together in their bowl with a metal spoon. Yes, this is one Korean dish that is usually eaten with a spoon, not chopsticks!


"jal meokkesseumnida!"