Ulmyeon

Ingredients do not recognize national boundaries -Iron Chef Michiba

How many times have Iron Chefs Michiba and Morimoto employed Korean recipes/ingredients in winning their battles?  Samgyetang? Okdol Bibimbop?  Variations on jeongol? With the ‘hibernation’ of Boston area restaurants due to the current situation, my wife was bemoaning the fact that we just couldn’t just step out to get ulmyeon for a quick meal.  With that in mind I looked about the web for a reasonable recipe written in English to try. I ended up running into an internet video at  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53uBGH6mOnU) from the OpenKitchen channel for Korean cuisine.  The ingredient list for ulmyeon looked like (converted from metric measurements)

Didn’t have jagjangmyeon noodles…used udon instead

 

carrot, scaled up for 2 portions

5 1/4 oz  Jajangmyeon noodles
1 3/4 oz  squid (body, no tentacles) – score and then cut into somen like strips
3/4 oz     shrimp
1/3 oz     scallion greens – 3″ julienne strips
1              scallion white part – 3″ julienne strips
3             garlic cloves – slice as if making garlic chips then julienne
3/4 oz    carrot – 3″ julienne strips
3/4 oz    napa – isolate the white core, cut into 3″ julienne strips, chiffonade the green parts
1             black ear mushroom
1/4          onion (sliced)
1             egg (beaten)
1 t           soy sauce
2 T          rice wine (sake, soju)
1 t           sesame oil
3/4 t + 1/8 t salt
1 T + 3/4 t     starch (for slurry)
1/2 t        white pepper
2 c          broth or water (chicken stock?)

2 nice leaves of napa

 

separating and shredding the scallions whites and greens

 

mise-en-place underway;
napa (on the board), clockwise, light scallions, green scallions, thinly sliced then shredded garlic, carrot

The ingredient list looked like it was meant for one generous portion – meaning I would need to double the ingredients for my wife and I.

vegetable mise-en-place done, napa in the center, sliced onion between scallion and carrots

Interestingly, my wife looked over the numbers and I asked that I use the following ingredient list:

All seafood cleaned; now for the knife work on the squid bodies

 

opening up the squid body and cross scoring it across the interior before cutting into thin somen-like strips

2 x 3 1/8   udon noodles (2 bundles from the 9.5 oz package)
8 oz        squid (body, no tentacles) – score and then cut into somen like strips
8 oz       shrimp
5 1/3 oz scallops sliced into 3rds (“coins”)
2/3 oz       scallion greens – 3″ julienne strips (from 2 scallions)
2              scallion white part – 3″ julienne strips
3              large garlic cloves – slice as if making garlic chips then julienne
1 1/2 oz   carrot – 3″ julienne strips
1 1/2 oz   napa (2 nice leaves) – isolate the white core, cut into 3″ julienne strips, chiffonade the green parts
1              black ear mushroom (I was thinking of using mixed mushrooms but that got pulled out)
2              egg (beaten)
2 t          soy sauce
1/4 c         rice wine (sake, soju)
2 t            sesame oil
1 t + 1/8 t salt
2 T + 1 t + 1/2 t starch (for slurry)
1 t        white pepper
4 c       no-salt chicken stock

slicing the scallops into coins; the technique is to start slicing ‘coins’ from the bottom of the scallop

And based on what I was viewing, it was clearly important I did a mise-en-place for the ingredients since the cooking and assembling of the

seasonings for the soup base

 

unsalted chicken stock

 

5 x 1/2 tablespoons of starch to have equal amounts of water added to make a thickening ‘slurry’ for later

dish was going to go rapidly.

While I was working on the main portion of this recipe, my wife volunteered to preparation the udon by blanching the noodles, shocking them, rinsing them and then setting them aside for plating.  The udon would be cooked for about 3 minutes (yes, the package said 4, but hot soup was going to be poured over them just before serving!).

4 cups no salt roast chicken stock

 

Bringing the stock up to heat with soy sauce, salt, white pepper, soju

Into a soup pot on medium heat would go the stock, the soy sauce, sake/soju, salt/pepper, bring to a boil and then add the vegetables,

In go all the vegetables (yes, yes I know the scallion greens were supposed to go in at the end)

seafood.  Once the seafood was cooked through, it would be time to add the slurry thickener and then the mixture would need to come to

seafood makes its entrance

the boil again.  Once the ‘soup’ came to a boil, the heat would need to be lowered to a simmer and the beaten egg would now be drizzled in.

2 eggs to be beaten added to the soup

 

beaten eggs were transferred to a spouted measuring cup and drizzled into the hot soup

Bring the entire mixture back to boil, lower the heat, add sesame oil, and add then green scallion parts to garnish and pour over each portion

just a bit of sesame oil to garnish

of noodles and serve.

sesame oil drizzled around the soup

Now it was time to plate.  My wife helpfully loaded our ramen bowls with the udon noodles at the bottom. And then it was just a matter of ladling the soup from pot to bowls.

Ulmyeon/Ulmyun/Wool Myun is served!

Upon tasting the recipe, my wife was extremely happy that we could now have this at home given the dining restrictions that were currently in place in Massachusetts.  The comment was that it was as good if not better than the ulmyeon we had in restaurants.  From my perspective, I was sort of glad and followed my instincts regarding the amount of soy sauce and salt; 4 cups of liquid was likely covered by the 1 1/8 t salt and the seasoning the rest of the ingredients was covered by the 2 t of soy sauce.  My sense is that the original recipe as translated might have been a touch on the saltier side.  Still, this is a good recipe to have and I’m glad I got the opportunity to learn how to make it for a cold fall/winter’s night. It would be interesting to see how this dish would turn out with dashi or fish fumet.