This past Saturday I had made plans to go to my friend Susanna’s for dinner. This small feeding experience quickly turned into a 10 person dinner party. This expansion was a) totally predictable and b) fervently welcomed (I heart my friends)! Most of you undoubtedly know that it IS HATCH GREEN CHILE SEASON (!!!!!!) and I have been getting requests, and cravings,  for hatch green chile mac and cheese and hatch green chili pulled pork.  Susanna and I planned, in the wee hours of the morning, to make that for dinner. So when I woke up at two in the afternoon, at which time I  grouchily reprimanded her for keeping me up chatting until the wee hours of the morning, I was forced to ask what the backup plan for dinner was because pulled pork was not happening until three am the next day (at the earliest).  Luckily,  Susanna had a request for Larb (or Laab depending on your region) from Big Jimmy, so the plan was to do an Asian menu: Larb as the appetizer; veggie stir fry, Somen noodles, and marinated flank steak. As the day wore on I added General Tso’s chicken to that list due to the insatiably strong resistance of a craving I could not keep at bay. The menu changed again when J and K Bear, fresh off the plane from Alaska, brought over 20 pounds of fresh salmon. I have to say this was the best menu addition! The salmon was fresh and delicious and complimented the meal perfectly. The flank steak was abandoned in the fridge to be enjoyed later in the week.

The main reason I was excited about Asian, apart from it’s generally being awesome sauce, was because I got to re-browse through Momofuku. It is a Greek tragedy, but Momofuku has been accumulating dust since I have run out of cookbook browse time (well free time is one issue, the reading of the Hunger Games, 50 Shades, and Millennium Trilogies really sucked up most of my cookbook browse time). Travesty, I know. The book inspired me to make the somen as a separate dish from either the stir fry or protein. Somen with Ginger Scallion Sauce. The result, though adapted to utilize available ingredients, was delicious and easy peasy. As the book states, the sauce can top anything from noodles to meats and can be used for a few days. If serving with noodles, remember to serve with side accoutrement of sriracha, somen dipping sauce or soy, and hoison as the sauce is not liquid heavy – and because those ingredients are just plan tasty.

Note: you can use homemade crispy shallots or the store-bought brand Lars Crispy Onions. Additionally, you need to use a neutral oil – such as grapeseed – so that the other flavors are not overpowered. I did not have grapeseed and used peanut and olive oil. It’s  fine, just expect the oil to carry the more predominant flavors of the oil than with grapeseed oil.

Somen with Ginger Scallion Sauce

Serves 8-10

Somen, three bunches
Dried shallots
Light soy sauce
Hoison
Sriracha
Ginger Scallion Sauce

Ginger Scallion Sauce
Adapted very slightly from Momofuku

Two bunches green onions, thinly sliced
Large knob of fresh ginger (finely minced it should be about a half cup)
One and one half teaspoon light soy sauce
Three Fourths Teaspoon Sherry Vinegar ( I used a half teaspoon Sherry Wine and a fourth teaspoon rice wine vinegar
Three fourths teaspoon salt, adjusted to taste
One fourth cupgrapeseed oil (I used half peanut, half olive)

Boil water for noodles as instructed. The noodles should take a maximum of three minutes to cook, so make sure to cook them after you have prepared the sauce.

In a medium bowl, combine the green onions, ginger, soy sauce, vinegar, and oil and mix well. Add salt slowly and taste before adding more. Adjust flavors according to taste (for example I used a bit more ginger and added some soy sauce). Reserve and allow to sit for at least 30 minutes so that the flavors can hang out and get all awesome. When the noodles have been cooked, top them with the sauce and LIGHTLY Drizzle Soy sauce around the sides of the serving bowl and mix together well. Top with the crispy onions and serve with soy (or favorite noodle base), sriracha, and hoison so that everyone can customize their noodle bowl!