Korean Chicken Noodle Soup (Dahk Kahl Gooksoo 닭칼국수): On practicing the hard things

Recently the book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua, has been getting a lot of press from the media.  She has appeared on a number of morning talk shows, been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, been on NPR, and been a topic of discussion among many people.  If you haven't read the book, or haven't even heard of Amy Chua, she is a professor at Yale Law School, and the book she writes is really her own life story of the way she was parented by her own mother and how she has chosen to parent her own children.  Her choice has been to go very much against the Western ways and focus very much on the Asian strict mentality - no holds barred, she is the quintessential gunner mom.  (A gunner mom is a term coined by friend KSG - basically pushy, demanding, competitive mom - who wants SUCCESS from her children.)

The book intrigues me (haven't read it yet, waiting for it to be at my local library) mainly because I know I'm in some ways a gunner mom as well.  Amy Chua in one of the interviews shares that she was relentless during her kids' music lessons and demanding perfection.  I'm not as bad as that (yet) but I have been known to be incredibly frustrated at Daughter #1 during her piano practice, when she did not achieve what I thought she should be doing.  But the line that struck me the most during one of her Amy Chua's numerous interviews was this - when you learn something new, it's never fun.  It's not fun because you're not good at it.  You suck, it's frustrating and it's just not easy and natural.   And her point was this - letting your child QUIT just because it isn't fun is doing a disservice to the child because you need to keep PUSHING them so that it does become fun.  Through practice and hard work, that awkward, unnatural, difficult thing that you are trying will suddenly become fun.

I know that this is true when I watch Daughter #1 play piano.  The first two days after she gets her new songs at her lesson are extremely frustrating for me.  The Wednesdays and Thursday practices are the most excruciating and make me want to lose my mind.  I do sometimes.  I yell, I get upset, I count out beats and go over to the piano and point to individual notes that are wrong and I demand more practice.  Bear in mind, please that I also play the piano so I do know what I'm talking about.  (just a little.)  And it isn't until those first two practice days are over that Daughter #1 begins to relax and enjoy playing the song - because she's practiced, learned it and now feels confident.  She can play through the song, enjoy it and make it fun for herself.  It becomes fun for me, because I no longer have to stress over each individual note and it is more free.

This same principle applies for many things that I do.  I am learning the drums.  I am way in the early stages.  I fancied myself a competent drummer then I heard other people playing and I'm back at square one.  And it isn't fun because it is still unnatural for me.  I need much more practice, much more discipline and a lot of basics skills to get good.  It's all the not so fun stuff that needs to be put into place before I can expand and grow.

Sewing is also very much the same.  For Son's birthday, I had LOTS of practice with cutting shapes and making straight lines.  Initially it was incredibly frustrating and not fun, mostly because I didn't know how to cut in a straight line and I kept on cutting diagonally. But at the end of the project, after having cut multiple pieces of fabric, suddenly it starting becoming a bit more fun.  I tasted that fun that comes from becoming good at something.

And of course this absolutely applies to cooking.  Each skill, each small separate individual skill, in the early stages when you are learning HOW to do it, is not fun.  You might cut yourself, it doesn't look like the picture or it's all just not the way you want it to be.  But it is with practice, continual practice that it becomes fun.  You get good at a few dishes.  You master a few things.  You can make things without recipes and slowly but surely, it is much more effortless and a lot more fun.

This Korean soup uses a couple of skills that are good to master.  One is making a suitable soup stock and the other is how to saute some vegetables.  The rest is just construction and everyone can do that.  It is my mom's and my take on Kahl Gook Soo ( 칼국수).  The Kahlgooksoo in Korea tends to be very very starchy and it is really about the homemade knife-cut noodles. The broth is the second major player in the dish and the rest is more for decoration or garnish.  I'm not such a huge fan of eating a massive amount of boiled starch and neither is my  mom, so we tend to add a more protein and a lot more vegetables to bring the dish into a more balanced state of nutrition.  I like a good flavored broth to go under the noodles and then really nicely seasoned vegetables to go on top.  The finishing touch is a sauce that flavors the entire dish and makes it YUMMY!

Korean Chicken Noodle Soup 닭칼국수
Serves 4-5

Chicken Broth
5 quarts of water
1 or 2 chicken breasts, still on the bone, but skin off (bones add flavor, skin only adds fat)
1/2 of an onion
3-5 cloves of garlic
1 inch knob of ginger root, peeled and sliced

Rinse chicken breasts under cold running water. Place into a large stock pot with the water, onion, garlic and ginger root.

Place covered pot over high heat and bring to a hard boil. Once soup is boiling, reduce heat so that the broth continues to simmer. Skim any scum or fat off the top of the soup. Total cooking time 1 hour. Remove garlic, onion and ginger from broth and discard. Remove chicken from broth and set aside.

Vegetable Saute Topping
2 zucchini, cut julienne (or if you can find it, 1 nice Korean zucchini with the light skin)
2 carrots, cut julienne
1/2 onion, sliced thinly
1 package of enoki mushrooms
3-4 tablespoons of oil
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
salt and pepper to taste

Heat a fry pan over medium high heat, and then add one tablespoon of oil. Add zucchini and quickly saute. Add a pinch of salt and pepper, and cook, until zucchini is slightly wilted, but still with texture, about 2 minutes. Remove zucchini from pan.
In the same fry pan, over medium high heat, add one tablespoon of oil, and carrots and saute. Add a pinch of salt and pepper and cook, until carrots are cooked, but wilted, about 3 minutes.
In the same fry pan, add one tablespoon of oil, onions, salt and pepper and saute. Cook until onions are translucent and golden brown, about 3-4 minutes.
In the same fry pan, add a dash of oil and the enoki mushrooms and quickly saute for 30 seconds. Add all the cooked vegetables and mix together, checking seasoning (add more salt and pepper if necessary) and then finish off with toasted sesame seeds. Remove from heat and set aside until needed.

Chili Scallion Soy Sauce
1/4 cup finely chopped scallions
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon Korean chili powder (gochugaru 고추가루) (2 tablespoons if you like it spicy.)
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Set aside.

Assembly
Shred cooked chicken into bite sized pieces.

1 to 1.5 lbs of noodles - I use fresh knife noodles, which I can find at my Chinese supermarket, but you can use whatever dried Asian wheat noodle you have on hand.

Set aside about 3 cups of the chicken stock. I do this in case I need to thin out the broth later, as cooking the noodles in the broth often makes the soup really thick (which I personally don't like...others do.)

Bring remaining stock to a rapid boil and add noodles and cook according to package directions. (Fresh noodles cook in about 4-5 minutes.) When noodles are fully cooked, then prepare to serve. Portion out noodles into each bowl, the broth (using the reserved broth if necessary) and top with mixed vegetables and shredded chicken. Serve and pass the scallion sauce separately, allowing people to serve themselves.

Printable recipe

If it is cold where you are, this will warm you right up.