Nontraditional Naengmyeon: Spicy Cold Korean Noodles and the Gonchu Giveaway Winner

Necessity has driven us all to do it at some point in our cooking careers, but I am really not a fan of that whole "kitchen sink" school of making dinner. You know, that thing where you just sort of take every little odd and end in your fridge and throw it in a pot and call it Kitchen Sink Pasta or Kitchen Sink Soup or Kitchen Kink Surprise.

Kitchen Sink Mess is more like it.

That said, I did have to employ a bit of that approach here, as I wanted cold Korean noodles (like the ones I had at the Korean American Festival) but I was not equipped to make the real, authentic thing - my most egregious substitution in this dish is Japanese soba noodles instead of Korean buckwheat noodles. I think it worked, though, because I stuck to a theme and didn't just toss any random thing into the pot. This is truly a simple and refreshing dish with huge flavor, and it was just the thing Poppa Trix and I needed on a sweltering hot night.

Nontraditional Naengmyeon

makes 4 servings

1 tbsp sesame oil

4-5 cloves garlic, smashed

4 cups beef broth

1 glug of tamari soy sauce

1 glug rice wine

1 tbsp gonchu pepper powder

8 oz soba noodles, cooked and cooled

8 quail eggs, hard boiled

1 cucumber, cut into matchsticks

4 radishes, sliced thin

gochuchang

cilantro, to garnish

To make the broth, saute the smashed garlic in the sesame oil until fragrant. Add the broth, soy sauce, rice wine and pepper powder.  Simmer until the flavors come together and allow to cool. Refrigerate until cold. Divide the noodles among four bowls and pour the broth over top. You may add ice cubes if you wish. Garnish with the cucumber, radish, a dollop of gochuchang, cilantro, and quail eggs. Sprinkle a bit more pepper powder on top if you like. Enjoy with ice cold soju!

And now, for the winner of my Korean pepper powder giveaway ... I am very happy to announce that it's Janis of Bite Me New England, a real lover of Korean food!

Congrats, Janis - I am looking forward to seeing what you make with it! 

And remember: To Celebrate my 2 year blogoversary, I have even more fun and one-of-a-kind giveaways coming up, so stay tuned!