Contributed by Shirley
It's a Korean dish that is served at the beginning of the first hot weather in summer, to help adjust the body to the heat (later in summer comes the purifying soup). Every ingredient in it is considered to be cooling.
It's probably the most complex thing I make but since it is done in stages spread over several days, it doesn't feel that difficult (to me, anyway). Most of the stages can be done quite a long time in advance and frozen until needed.
A nice extra if the weather is truly hot, humid and miserable, is to make extra clarified chicken broth and freeze it in ice cube trays. The ones that make cute little ice cubes are best. As serving, add a spoonful of ice cubes to each bowl, then ladle the soup over the ice cubes. This makes for an icy cold soup that is extra refreshing.
Put the 3/4 cup of flour on the clean surface you will use to knead the noodle dough. Make a well in the middle of the flour and drop the egg (minus the shell, of course!) into it. If you're finicky, use a fork to start stirring the flour gently into the egg. If you don't mind getting your fingers slimy, just use your fingers.
Keep stirring/mixing in flour until you have a rather dry dough. Depending on the exact size of your egg, the relative humidity, etc, this may be more than the 3/4 cup of flour, sometimes a lot more.
When you have a nice dry dough, knead for about ten minutes. You should feel the dough getting more and more elastic as you go.
Cover the dough with a well wrung out damp cloth and let it rest in the fridge for an hour or so.
Bring out the rested dough and whack it on the kneading surface a few times. Really wham it down! This makes it easier to roll out the dough and, believe me, you need every advantage you can get. The objective is to roll the dough out to an even 1/8th inch thickness. The dough's objective is to stay about an inch thick and it will actively resist your attempts to flatten it. All's fair in noodle rolling. I find a combination of rolling with a rolling pin alternating with using my hands to stretch and pull the dough out in all directions works the best.
When the dough is 1/8 inch thick, use a sharp knife or pizza cutter to cut it into matchstick sized noodles (about 1/8 inch wide) and about one inch long. As you cut the noodles the first way, separate the strips from each other--they badly want to stay together so it's easiest if you just put a stop to that right then.
Put the noodles uncovered into the refrigerator or the freezer to dry out. In the freezer, you can put them into an uncovered container as soon as they are frozen (they won't stick together once frozen). In the fridge, you can put them into a ziplock baggie once they are dried out. The noodles will keep for a month in the fridge and for six months in the freezer.
The chicken meat can be leftover scraps or fresh, raw chicken meat or a combination. Don't use any bones--bones make it into a chicken stock, which turns into a jelly-like texture when chilled. Broth stays liquid when chilled.
Roughly chop everything (into cubes or pieces about one inch on a side or so). Place everything into a stock pot and turn on the heat. As the liquid comes to a full boil, some foam will rise to the surface. Skim this foam off. Turn the heat down so that the broth is barely simmering, cover the pot, and leave it for four or more hours.
Remove the meat and veggies from the broth (the meat is usually pretty darn tasty by this point! can be used to make sandwiches or whatnot). Place the broth in the fridge and allow to cool overnight. The fat will rise to the surface and solidify, so that it is easily removed.
Put the broth on the stove and use a whisk to mix in the egg whites. Keep whisking the broth as you turn on the heat and bring the broth to a full rolling boil. When the broth reaches a rolling boil, stop whisking and turn off the heat. Let the broth cool for half an hour or so, until the pot is cool enough to handle safely. If all has gone well (you were diligent in your whisking), there will be a cap of white foamy looking stuff on top of the broth.
Strain the broth through four layers of cheesecloth. Easiest to do by laying lightly dampened cheesecloth (each layer at an angle to the one below it) in a vegetable steamer or large strainer.
Voila! All the bits and pieces are stuck to the egg whites and the broth is crystal clear.
Personally, I feed the leftover raw yolks and the cooked egg white stuff to my dogs, who think of it as a wonderful treat.
Remove all the visible fat on the chicken, then dice it into cubes about 1/4 inch. Put the peanut oil and sesame oil into a wok or frying pan and heat. When hot, put in the diced chicken breasts. Stirring constantly, stir fry or saute until done. Just before you turn off the heat, drizzle the honey over the meat and stir in thoroughly.
Bring the broth to a rolling boil, add the chicken, skim off any foam, then cover and turn down to a bare simmer. Simmer the chicken for two hours or so.
Remove the chicken and strain the broth through cheesecloth. Refrigerate both chicken and broth. Remove any fat that solidifies at the top of the broth.
If you are using fresh shrimp, wait until just before you add them to the soup to shell, de-vein and roughly chop them. If you are using canned shrimp, rinse well under cold water. Fresh shrimp are wonderful but less-than-fresh aren't so great and I'd use canned instead. Refrigerate until ready to add to the broth.
Separate the green tops from the solid (white) bottoms of the green onions. Cut the bottoms into thin slices and place in one container. Cut the tops on the diagonal, about an inch long and place into another container.
Cut the carrots and cucumber into matchstick sized pieces about an inch long.
Cut the apple into 8 parts (or use an apple ka-chunker to do it the easy way!), then cut each piece into about 10 parts, each part with a little of the red skin on it (looks pretty that way) .
Put the broth into the stock pot; eyeball it and if it looks a little low, add some fresh cold water (remember, this is a double chicken broth, so it's pretty rich and a little water won't make it taste diluted) .
Bring to a rolling boil and add the egg noodles. If you just made them, they'll cook in 8-12 minutes. Check by fishing one out of the broth every minute or so from the 8 minute mark and cutting it in half--so long as there is a whiter core in the middle, they aren't done (the traditional way to check is to bite the noodle but with the modern concerns about raw eggs, cutting them is a safer way to check nowadays). These noodles turn into a tender-but-firm noodle that is pretty forgiving. They don't turn into mush easily.
When the noodles are done, add the chicken and bring back to a rolling boil. Add the shrimp and bring back to a rolling boil.
Add the nuts and turn off the heat.
In thirty seconds, add the carrots.
In thirty seconds, add the bottom parts of the green onions.
In thirty seconds, add the cucumbers.
In thirty seconds, add the green tops of the green onions.
In thirty seconds, add the apples.
Put the soup in the fridge and chill thoroughly.
At this point, you can add (yet) another step: strain the broth through cheesecloth and use egg whites to clarify the broth again. If you are trying to impress someone or planning on serving the soup out of a clear glass bowl, this will leave the broth crystal clear again with a clear view of all the ingredients. However, it's not necessary for the flavour of the soup .
Let the soup rest in the fridge for 24 hours to let the flavours meld. Just before serving, taste the broth and add salt if needed (if you used salted cashews, it may not need any salt at all) .
This page last updated 08/192003/