Black sesame noodles with mushrooms and baby bok choy
Welcome to To Vegetables, With Love, a celebration of a vegetable life, less ordinary.
My book Tenderheart is available from Books are Magic, Kitchen, Arts and Letters, Book Larder, Bold Fork Books and also here or here.
When we lived in London during the 2000s, I remember really dreading January. Every day was like Groundhog Day, low and dark skies, a mist on our faces. That month was depressing. The thing that made gloomy days tolerable in London was pubs with fireplaces. And really good chips (fries) with malt vinegar.
I am very affected by light and I crave a big sun. That is one of the perks of a New York winter - despite the frigid temperatures, usually the skies are bright and affable. Lately, this hasn’t been the case. For the past week, I’ve woken up to grey and gloom, and misty rain that very much feels like London. It has affected my mood. As a result, I created a dark and intense noodle dish.
If you asked my mother, she would say that creating a black noodle dish in the lead up to the Lunar New Year is inauspicious. She is superstitious at the best of times, but never more so than during the new year.
Black is the colour of….(not good things)
Don’t wash your hair.
No sweeping.
Don’t speak harshly.
No eating meat (I’m cool with this one..)
It is hard to unshackle yourself from the lessons of our parents.
But I persist. Perhaps this black sesame noodle dish is an small act of defiance.
Black sesame is one of my forever flavours. I love the deep, intense nuttiness, the dramatic colour. My favourite tong sui (sweet dessert soup) is black sesame soup. When we were young, my mother would say that eating it would make our hair blacker. And have you tried the black sesame mochi balls in To Asia, With Love? Craving those right now.
Black sesame works well in both sweet and savoury applications. I have all the black sesame iterations in my pantry – the seeds, the powder and the paste. The powder is great for black sesame soup and for baking – I use it in my black sesame banana bread, also in To Asia, With Love. The paste is similar in texture to tahini, of course. It can be used in a similar way.
Black sesame paste (also sold as black tahini) is available at Chinese and Japanese supermarkets, and also online. It is rich and nutty, with a slight bitterness. It can be used in both savoury and sweet recipes (the black sesame and sweet potato bundt in Tenderheart is one of my favourites). If you can’t access it, you can substitute with regular white sesame paste or tahini, which is less intense but still earthy and creamy. The result is very close to dan dan noodles.
I used frozen ramen noodles in my testing. I love the bouncy texture and the long strands. However, any noodles would work here. Many people ask what type of noodles should I use? For general noodle recipes like this one, it doesn’t really matter. Use what you have. Obviously if you are making ramen, you should use ramen noodles, or for Singapore noodles, then you should absolutely seek out the right rice vermicelli noodles, but I always encourage flexibility and an open spirit when it comes to cooking.
COOK / EAT / SHARE
On February 10, we enter the Year of the Wood Dragon. The dragon is the only mythical creature of the Chinese zodiac, and as kids, we were always told the dragon was the most prized and auspicious year to be born. The dragon is a symbol of nobility, power and honor and is strongly associated with yang energy — vitality, vision, and vigor. For those cooking a Lunar New Year feast, consider lo han jai (buddha’s delight) and my vegan lion’s head balls. These spinach, dumpling and ginger dumplings are delightful - watch my instructional video here and below. Remember my ‘Hetty’s Chinese Takeaway’ series I did with ABC Everyday a few years ago? Find all the recipes here.
Cooking from Tenderheart: I made the fennel and lentil avgolemono last week and it hit the spot on a cold night. My friend Julia cooked dinner for me last week - she made the fried ginger and charred green onion noodles (ginger chapter) and my NYT Cooking tomato dumpling salad - I lapped it up as it’s so fun to taste my recipe cooked by someone else (everything was spot on!). I’m making my broccoli wontons with umami crisp, so consider that too. I was talking about ‘meatballs’ with a friend the other day and I also recommend the eggplant balls with spicy tamarind tomato sauce (though I’ll prob skip the sauce and eat it with Brooklyn Delhi’s Tomato Achaar).
THIS WEEK’S RECIPE
Black sesame noodles with mushrooms and baby bok choy
© Hetty Lui McKinnon for To Vegetables, With Love
