Udon Noodles with Snow Peas and West African Peanut Sauce

It’s always so interesting to learn how cuisines have been influenced by different cultures and distant places. Cross-cultural effects on food is the focus of Between Harlem and Heaven: Afro-Asian-American Cooking for Big Nights, Weeknights, and Every Day of which I received a review copy. These recipes are from two Harlem restaurants where Alexander Smalls and JJ Johnson created menus with an Afro-Asian-American flavor profile. Because of forced migration, peoples of Africa brought seeds and farming and cooking techniques to many parts of the world. This book explains culinary connections between faraway places such as the mix of cumin, coriander, and pink peppercorns from Ghana that was taken to Puerto Rico and then to the US. And, there’s Roti flatbread found in Trinidad, Suriname, South Africa, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia. The book also offers a very modern collection of recipes with bold, fabulous flavors and lots of dishes I want to taste. For instance, the Roti with Black-Eyed Pea Hummus, Eggplant Puree, and Carrot Curry Puree would be a flavorful and colorful snack platter with cocktails. I have to quote a statement about collard greens that I particularly enjoyed: “’Are Collard Greens the New Kale?’ No. Collards have worked harder than kale ever will. Collards are out there digging ditches and roofing houses while kale goes to spin class and leaves early for brunch.” Love that. And, the recipe for Collard Green Salad with Coconut Dressing made with ginger, lime juice, and chipotles sounds fantastic. Another collard greens recipe I want to try is the Collard Green Salsa Verde served with Salt-Crusted Salmon. A perfect example of a melting pot type of dish is the Afro-Asian-American Gumbo. The roux is made with dried shrimp which is also done in Senegal, okra was of course first grown in Africa and brought to North America by slaves, and the rice is added in a South Carolina style. I got completely distracted by the recipe for Tofu Gnocchi with Black Garlic Crema and Scallions since I’d never before encountered tofu gnocchi. The Beer-Battered Long Beans also got my attention. And, the Cocktails chapter continued the book's excitement with a West African Peanut Punch made with a smooth puree of peanuts, bourbon, and chile honey. My first trip to the kitchen with this book was to try the Udon Noodles and West African Peanut Sauce. The inspiration for this dish came from a mix of African and Japanese populations in Brazil. 

In the book, the dish is made with edamame. I couldn’t help making a local and seasonal adjustment. I had just brought home snow peas from Boggy Creek Farm and opted to use them here instead of edamame. This dish is all about the sauce, and this Mother Africa Peanut Sauce begins with a mirepoix and then some. First, cumin seeds were toasted in olive oil. Then, diced onion, carrots, tomatoes, celery, garlic, bay leaf, cilantro, bird’s eye chile, salt, and lemon juice were added. Next, tomato paste and peanut butter were added followed by vegetable stock. The sauce was stirred well and left to simmer for about 45 minutes. The bay leaf was removed before the sauce was pureed with an immersion blender. For the noodles, carrots were julienned and stir fried before being added to cooked udon along with chopped green onion and snow peas in my case, cilantro, Thai Basil, and the peanut sauce. 

There’s a lot of history that accounts for the combinations of flavors in these dishes, but the recipes are fresh and contemporary. There are big flavors, lots of spices and bright herbs, and a generous use of vegetables throughout the book. It’s going to be fun to continue tasting my way through the pages.

Udon Noodles with Edamame and West African Peanut Sauce 
Excerpted from Between Harlem and Heaven: Afro-Asian-American Cooking for Big Nights, Weeknights, and Every Day by JJ Johnson and Alexander Smalls. Copyright © 2018 by JJ Johnson and Alexander Smalls. Reprinted with permission from Flatiron Books. All rights reserved. Photography by Beatriz da Costa. 

In Brazil, there is an African population and a Japanese population that live really close together, and both grew up on udon West African peanut sauce is the mother sauce: peanut butter, tomato paste, tomatoes, French mirepoix, and our special mirepoix In the end it’s like a pad thai with more frequent flyer mileage in its account. There’s nothing like eating noodles and pasta when the sauce is really right. West African peanut sauce provides the perfect creamy coating for the Japanese udon noodles. 

6 to 8 servings 
1 tablespoon olive oil 
1 cup julienned carrot 
1/2 cup thinly sliced onion 
2 cups Mother Africa Peanut Sauce, warmed 
kosher salt for pasta water 
1 pound udon noodles 
1 cup shelled edamame, boiled in salted water for 5 minutes 
1/2 cup cilantro leaves 
1/2 cup Thai basil leaves 

Heat the oil in a wok over medium heat. Stir fry the carrot and the onion for 1 minute. Add the peanut sauce and stir to coat. In an 8-quart pot, bring water to a boil, salt it, and cook the noodles according to the package directions. Drain and add the noodles directly to the peanut sauce mixture, tossing to coat. Plate the noodles and top with edamame, cilantro, and Thai basil leaves. 

The Mother Africa Sauce 
Makes about 4 cups 

1 tablespoon olive oil 
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds 
1/2 white onion, diced 
1/2 cup coarsely chopped carrots (1 medium carrot) 
1 plum tomato, chopped 
1/4 cup finely diced celery (1 rib) 
1 clove garlic, minced (1 teaspoon) 
1 bay leaf 
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro 
1 bird’s-eye chile, seeded and minced (1 teaspoon) 
1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste 
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (from 1 lemon) 
2 tablespoons tomato paste 
1 cup unsweetened, creamy peanut butter 
4 cups vegetable stock 

Heat the oil in a 4-quart pot over medium heat, add the cumin, and fry for 1 minute, stirring constantly. The cumin will become very aromatic and a few shades darker. Add the onion, carrots, tomato, celery, garlic, bay leaf, cilantro, chile, salt, and lemon juice, stirring to coat the vegetables in the toasted cumin oil. Sauté until the vegetables soften, about 5 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for 2 minutes. Once the tomato paste is incorporated, add the peanut butter, working it into the vegetables with a little stock, if needed. Cook until the oil separates from the peanut butter, about 5 minutes. Add the stock and stir, making sure to bring up all of the tomato paste and peanut butter from the bottom of the pot so it is well blended. Increase the heat to medium high to bring the sauce to a simmer. Cook, stirring, for 45 minutes. Remove the bay leaf. Using an immersion blender, puree the sauce in the pot until smooth. Season with salt to taste. 

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Homemade Udon and Vegetarian Dipping Sauce

Knowing about growing seasons and what ingredients are at their best right now is the first step to making great food. In Japanese Farm Food, of which I received a review copy, Nancy Hachisu writes: “Touching vegetables while they are living is something every cook should do… Learning to trust your instincts in cooking is the only way to get beyond the recipe, and the more you touch farm vegetables, or the more you observe the seasonal fish available, the more you will be able to do this.” Hachisu visited Japan in 1988 intending to return to the US for graduate school. Instead, she met and fell for an organic egg farmer, married him the following year, and has since lived on a farm in Saitama prefecture. With fresh vegetables from the farm and other carefully chosen artisanal ingredients made nearby, she has developed her own take on traditional Japanese farm cooking over the years. Since many of the dishes tend to be made with very few ingredients, she urges you to find the best version of each one of them. By tasting different types of soy sauce, sesame oil, and canola oil, you can then choose ones with the flavors you like most. The book includes pre-meal bites, soups, egg dishes, noodle and rice dishes, vegetables, seafood, meat, and desserts. There are wonderfully simple things like raw zucchini with toasted sesame seeds, a relish made of salt-massaged napa cabbage with citrus zest, and quick-pickled daikon and carrots. Other dishes I want to try are the Miso Soup with Small Clams, the Egg Custard Pots with Asparagus and Peas, the Stir-Fried Celery and Red Pepper with Soy Sauce, the Citrus and Vinegar-Marinated Halibut, and the Tangerine Ice Cream.

First, I had to try making homemade udon. The Hachisus use home-grown wheat for their udon dough, but I made do with store-bought cake flour and whole wheat pastry flour. The dough consists of salt dissolved in water that’s added to flour. That’s it. It’s a very firm dough, and it takes some work to knead it into a cohesive state. Once the dough forms a ball, it’s placed in a plastic bag so you can step on it. That might seem weird, but trust me, it’s a lot more fun than kneading by hand. You just step on the dough to flatten it in the bag. Then, remove the dough, fold it in thirds, place back in the bag, and repeat a few times. After being stepped on a few times, the dough becomes much more pliable. It's then easy to flatten it into a shape to run through a pasta machine. It was left thicker than spaghetti at about one-eighth inch, and it was cut on the thin linguine cutters at lengths of about one foot. The noodles were tossed with a little flour to prevent sticking. The quickly boiled noodles were served with a dipping sauce and garnishes. For the dipping sauce, rather than making the traditional sauce with dashi as suggested in the book, I made a vegetarian dashi with konbu, wakame, and dried shitakes. The dashi was combined with kaeshi which is a mix of mirin, sugar, and soy sauce. For garnishes, I used citrus zest, sliced green onions, and slivered chiles.

The texture of the noodles was light and springy, and the whole wheat flavor of the flour came through. It must be incredible to make them with your own home-grown wheat. And, that’s really what this book teaches. By taking care in choosing your ingredients and by cooking thoughtfully, you’ll be making the most simply delicious meals.

Udon Noodles Teuchi Udon
Recipe reprinted with publisher's permission from Japanese Farm Food, by Nancy Singleton Hachisu, Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC

Serves 6

Tadaaki was always the noodle maker in our house. When I developed this recipe for an article I wrote a few years ago, I had Christopher roll out the noodles because I was busy (and a bit intimidated). I promised him he only had to roll enough for us to shoot the photo for the article, so he obliged. But at the end of the shoot, I was left with the rest of the dough and no Christopher. He showed me how to adjust the pasta machine, and I discovered how simple making noodles is. And my noodles turned out to have the perfect thickness.

1/2 tablespoon salt
31/3 cups (500 g) organic, unbleached cake or pastry flour
12/3 cups/400 cc Noodle Dipping Sauce (see below)
Garnishes (suggestions follow)

Dissolve the salt in 2/3 cup (160 cc) water. Measure the flour into a large mixing bowl. Add the salt water and mix until the dough holds together. Knead until smooth and pliable, then transfer to a heavy plastic bag. Pat the dough out to a 2-inch (4-cm) thick rectangle and knead further by rhythmically and firmly treading on the dough. Remove the dough from the bag, fold in thirds, and repeat the treading process a few times. (Or process with a metal blade in a food processor until the dough is crumbly and knead by hand.) Udon dough, like pasta dough, is dense and semidry, otherwise it will stick when rolled. Roll out with a pasta machine, making rectangles about 2 feet (60 cm) long by 1/8 inch (3 mm) thick. Cut the noodles on the thin linguine setting and cut in half horizontally for 1-foot (30-cm) lengths. Flour the cut noodles as you finish each batch so they will not stick together.

Alternatively, roll out into a rough oblong shape on a counter surface with a 30-inch (75-cm) long dowel 1 1/2 inches (3 cm) in diameter. Roll from the center out, periodically rolling the dough around the dowel to keep from sticking on the counter. When the dough has reached the desired thickness, roll it around the dowel, slide the dowel out, and gently flatten the roll of dough to cut. Slice into 1/8-inch (3-mm) wide strips with a broad-bladed, razor-sharp knife.

Fill a large stockpot with hot water and bring to a boil. Set a large mixing bowl in the kitchen sink and fill with cold water. Scoop up half of the raw udon and boil for 2 to 3 minutes, depending on thickness. The noodles should be softer than pasta but not mushy. Plunge the noodles into the bowl of cold water and refresh under cold running tap water. Shake off and swirl the small bunches into 3 attractive piles arranged on a dinner plate. Cook the rest of the udon in the same fashion.

Dip the udon noodles in a small bowl of dipping sauce (tsuyu) with flavor garnishes (yakumi). Slurping is de rigueur in Japan.

Flavor Garnishes Yakumi: Use finely slivered citrus peel, finely chopped fresh green chile, slivered fresh ginger, torn sansho leaves, a chiffonade of shiso leaves, or finely chopped scallion or chives. Each diner sprinkles the desired garnishes into a small bowl of dipping sauce.

Noodle Dipping Sauce Mori Tsuyu

Makes about 1 2/3 cups (400 cc)

This “sauce” (which is more like a soup) can be served hot or cold, depending on the season. Good for dunking udon, soba, and somen noodles.

1 1/3 cups (300 cc) Dashi (recipe follows)
6 tablespoons Kaeshi (recipe follows)

Flavor the dashi with the kaeshi and use at room temperature, cold, or slightly warm, depending on your mood or the season.

Ratio: dashi : kaeshi—3.3 : 1 ***

Kaeshi

Makes about 2 2/3 cups (600 cc)

Kaeshi is an ingenious concoction that flavors dashi when making dipping sauces for noodles and tempura, or a hot broth for a noodle soup. While not the farm kitchen method, I was beguiled with how kaeshi relates to the dashi as a building block and could not leave it out of the book. Andrew, who works at our friend’s soba restaurants, was kind enough to walk me through the process (and approve of the results).

1/2 cup (125 cc) hon mirin
1 1/8 cup (125 g) organic sugar
2 cups (500 cc) organic soy sauce

Bring hon mirin to a simmer over high heat and cook, stirring constantly, until you no longer smell alcohol (3 to 5 minutes). Stir in the sugar and continue cooking (and stirring) until the sugar granules have dissolved. Add the soy sauce and watch as the kaeshi heats up and comes almost to a boil. You will see tiny bubbles form on the perimeter—remove the pan from the heat as soon as the entire surface of the kaeshi becomes a creamy tan from minute bubbles. Store for up to a year in the fridge.

Ratio: soy sauce : mirin : sugar—4 cc : 1 cc : 1 g ***

Dashi

Makes about 1 1/3 cups (300 cc)

Dashi is probably the most important building block in Japanese cooking. Many chefs (especially those from Kyoto) wax poetic about the special methods they employ to draw out the natural umami of the konbu and katsuobushi when making dashi. Even the water must come from the Kyoto area. Our dashi is a bit more straightforward and quite tasty, despite our more laissez-faire attitude and lack of Kyoto water. We use well water from our family well, and it works just fine. I’m sure the water wherever you live will work just as well. The important thing to remember here is that dashi—or for that matter any food—should not become an obsessive chore. If you start with great ingredients, your food will taste good.

1 (6-inch/15-cm) length of konbu
Handful of dried bonito shavings (katsuobushi)

Place the konbu in a medium saucepan containing 2 cups (500 cc) of cold water. Bring almost to a boil (you will see minute bubbles form on the edges of the konbu) and remove the konbu. Throw in the dried bonito shavings and simmer friskily, but not crazily, for 8 minutes. Remove from the heat and let stand 8 minutes. Set a small fine-mesh strainer over a 1-quart (1-liter) measuring cup and pour the dashi through the strainer to remove the dried bonito shavings. You should have 1 1/4 cups (300 cc) dashi. If you do not, add water (pouring through the strainer holding the strained katsuobushi) to make the amount of liquid needed. Use within a day or so, if kept chilled in the fridge.

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