hello! Hi everyone, Wesley here. Today we are diving back into one of my favorite series on this channel, which is our series dedicated the wonderful, weird, and culturally murky world of Asian fusion cuisine, with a shot at a variation on the crispy garlic noodles that we serve at the Woo Can Cook pop up here in Oakland. Garlic noodles of course makes for an interesting jumping off point because their origins in Asian cuisine is…very murky and confusing. As far as I can tell, some claim that it originated here in the Bay Area from a Vietnamese restaurant in San Francisco, while others say that it comes from the Italian pasta aglio olio. But really, is there any real point in culturally claiming the idea of putting garlic in noodles…? I mean. Come on.
In any case for the Bay Area locals, our pop up out at Wondrous Brewing in Emeryville serves garlic noodles made with super thin, wok fried egg noodles that puff up during the fry due to their high egg content. Then we top these off with chili oil and of course, fried garlic chips, yielding in a crispy, garlicy, spicy noodle dish that’s quickly becoming a fan favorite. Today we’re gonna do a fun variation on that dish by including a bit of kimchi and nori seaweed to go along with our garlic chips to add a nice bit of brininess and texture to our noodles. Then finally, just to sort of riff on the idea of a pasta aglio olio, we’re gonna bloom some Korean red chili flakes or gochugaru in our garlic oil, to create a Korean inspired chili garlic oil finish, not unlike the use of red chili flake in an aglio olio. Hope you try it.
Serves 2-3
INGREDIENTS
4 cloves garlic
1 inch (about 1 tbsp) ginger
1lb thin fresh egg noodles
8oz kimchi
8 shiitake mushroom
nori
gochugaru
peanut oil
INGREDIENTS (sauce)
4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 2 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)
1 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp gochujang
4 tbsp gochugaru
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp sesame oil
4 tbsp kimchi brine (or 1 tbsp each rice vinegar and fish sauce)
PREP
CRUSH and mince the garlic, set aside
FINE MINCE the ginger, set aside
REHYRDATE the shiitake mushrooms in boiling water for 15 minutes, then slice into strips and set aside
CUT the nori into strips with kitchen sheers, set aside
COMBINE all sauce ingredients, set aside
ON THE STOVE
HEAT a wok over low heat, then add 4 tbsp peanut oil and long yao
ADD the garlic and simmer for 5-10 minutes until lightly golden, then remove from heat and add 1 tbsp gochugaru
REHEAT a wok as hot as possible, then add 4 tbsp peanut oil and long yao
ADD the ginger and saute until fragrant for about 15 seconds
ADD the kimchi and saute for 1-2 minutes, then remove
REHEAT a wok as hot as possible, then add 4 tbsp peanut oil and long yao
ADD the noodles and toss with constant agitation for 2-3 minutes until puffed up
ADD the garlic oil, kimchi, and sauce mixture back to the wok and toss to combine
REMOVE from heat and finish with nori