Rice & Noodles
Mul Naengmyeon (Chilled Buckwheat Noodle Soup)
Prep
20 min
Cook
5 min
Servings
2
Photo: KOREA.NET - Official page of the Republic of Korea · CC BY-SA
Steps
- 1
Skim every trace of fat off the cold beef broth - it must be completely clean.
- 2
Mix the broth with dongchimi brine if using, vinegar, sugar and salt.
- 3
Freeze the broth 1-2 hours until slushy with ice crystals, not solid.
- 4
Boil the noodles 3-4 minutes only.
- 5
Rinse them hard in cold running water until they squeak, then drain.
- 6
Coil the noodles into deep chilled bowls.
- 7
Pour the slushy broth over and arrange beef, cucumber, pear and egg on top.
- 8
Serve with mustard and vinegar to add at the table, and scissors to cut the noodles.
Did you know — Korean culture
The clear-broth version is Pyongyang-style, and its defining quality is restraint - the broth is meant to taste faintly of beef and radish brine and very little else, which is why first-timers often find it startlingly plain. Regulars regard adding the mustard and vinegar before tasting it as something close to a faux pas.
Cold is not enough - the broth wants to be partly frozen. An hour or two in the freezer takes it to a slush with ice crystals still suspended in it, and that is the temperature the dish is built around. Merely refrigerated broth goes lukewarm within a couple of minutes of meeting the bowl.
The broth must be scrupulously skimmed while it is cold, because any fat left in it congeals into unpleasant pale specks the moment it chills. Refrigerate the stock, lift the solid fat cap off the top, and only then season it.
Naengmyeon noodles are famously difficult to bite through, which is why scissors arrive with the bowl rather than being used in the kitchen. Cutting them early lets them soften and lose their spring in the broth; the diner cuts them at the table, once, and eats immediately.
Troubleshooting
Broth going warm quickly? It was only refrigerated. Freeze it to a slush before serving, and chill the bowls too.
Pale specks floating in the broth? Unskimmed fat. Chill the stock and lift the solid cap off before seasoning.
Noodles gone soft? They cook in 3-4 minutes and keep softening until the cold rinse stops them.