Knife-cut noodle soup with perilla seeds

How about making delicious and nutritious knife-cut noodle soup with perilla seeds (deulkkae-kalguksu: 들깨칼국수) today?

What makes for a delicious noodle soup? I think there needs to be good noodles and a nice broth, and when it comes to these 2 points today’s noodle soup is a perfect example. The noodles are made from scratch and have an amazing, chewy texture and an irregular thickness because they are created by hand-cutting them. These noodles really stand out for taste and visual presentation.

But it’s the broth that I want to emphasize, made from anchovy kelp stock and then real perilla seeds, ground and filtered. Adding perilla seeds to the broth makes it milky thick and gives it a nutty, flavorful, and its own unique kind-of-herb aroma.

I always have frozen anchovy kelp stock on hand so whenever I want this soup I can pull some out, thaw it out, grind the seeds, squeeze them through a filter bag and make a nutty broth. I always feel healthier afterwards and get some energy, but the most important thing is that it’s delicious! I use anchovy kelp stock but you could use vegetable stock if you are a vegetarian or any of your favorite stock.

Some of you may be asking: “What if I don’t have perilla seeds?” You could make this with toasted sesame seeds, too. It won’t taste the same but it will work. In that case you’ll have made kkae-kalguksu instead of deulkkae-kalguksu!

Enjoy the recipe!

Ingredients

Makes 2 to 3 servings

For the noodles:

• 2½ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• ½ cup potato starch
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 cup water

For the soup:

• 8 cups anchovy-kelp stock or vegetable stock
• 1 cup toasted perilla seeds (or perilla seeds powder)
• 2 teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ of medium onion, sliced
• carrot
• zucchini, sliced thinly into bite size pieces
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil

Directions

Make the noodles:

1. Combine the flour, potato starch, salt, oil, and 1 cup water in a large bowl. Mix with a wooden spoon until the ingredients come together into a lump. Put it in a plastic bag and set aside at least 10 minutes.
2. Knead the dough by hand until it forms a smooth ball, 10 to 15 minutes. Put the dough back in the plastic bag and seal it tightly until you are ready to use it.
3. When ready, remove the dough ball from the bag. Knead for 1 minute.
4. Roll the dough ball out into a rectangle, about 20 by 14 inches, flipping it over occasionally to make it even and flat. If you need to, sprinkle some flour on it when you flip, to keep it from sticking. Sprinkle the dough with flour and fold up into thirds or quarters, sprinkling the folded surface with flour each time you fold it over to prevent it from sticking together.
5. Cut into thin noodles. Sprinkle more flour over all the noodles.
6. Unfold the noodles by gently tossing them into the air and letting them fall down softly onto the cutting board. Repeat until all the noodles are unfolded and separated.

Make the soup:

1. Pour 6 cups of stock into a large pot.
2. Add 1 cup toasted perilla seeds and 2 cups stock (or water) to a blender. Blend at high speed for 1 to 2 minutes, until everything is smooth and creamy.
3. Pour the perilla mixture into a straining sack sitting in the stock pot. Press the sides of the sack with a wooden spoon so the perilla mixture seeps through, into the stock.
4. Lift the sack over the stock pot and squeeze the mixture through the sack with both hands. Get as much of the mixture strained through sack as you can, until all that is left is dry dregs. Discard the solids.
   
5. Add onion, carrot, and zucchini to the stock pot and bring it to a boil.

Alternatively, make the soup with perilla seeds powder (instead of seeds):

1. Add 1 cup perilla seeds powder to 8 cups stock and mix well
2. Add onion, carrot, and zucchini (or squash) and bring it to a boil.

Put it all together:

1. Shake off some flour from the noodles and add to the boiling soup. Stir the soup with a wooden spoon so that the noodles don’t stick to each other.
2. Cover and cook over high heat for about 5 minutes until the noodles are cooked through and floating.
3. Stir in garlic, salt, and sesame oil.

Serve:

Serve right away. Ladle the soup into large, shallow soup bowls. Serve with kimchi and more side dishes, it really goes with quick, freshly-made kimchi (Geotjeori).

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