Fall

Spinal Tap Noodle Shop Soup (Restored Version)

by:
February 27, 2013
0
0 Ratings
  • Serves 2 but can be expanded
Author Notes

Enter the Dragon. I love spicy ramen style soups with a hearty, meaty broth. And I love watching the noodles being cut and dipped in and out of boiling water before being plunged into your soup. But unless you are an expert at cutting your own ramen noodles I would suggest using chuka soba. This is inexpensive as ramen should be, but it does take time. This should serve two, but if you double the amount of oxtail and lo mein there will be enough for four. You might consider serving with steamed pork buns on the side. —pierino

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 2 pounds oxtail sections
  • 2 sweet onions such as Vidalia or Maui, quartered
  • 2 tablespoons gochugaru (Korean hot pepper powder)*
  • Tough green leek tops from one medium leek (yes, really) thoroughly washed. Save the tender whites for something else, like a vichysoisses or whatever…
  • 1 bunch curley parsley
  • 1 bunch collard greens
  • 2 whole star anise
  • 1 small piece fresh ginger
  • 1 small daikon root, sliced
  • 6 cups or 8 water to cover
  • 6-8 ounces chuka soba (ramen) noodles
Directions
  1. Rub the oxtail pieces with the gochugaru and place in an oiled roasting pan along with the quartered onions and roast at 400F until everything is browned nicely.
  2. Use the leek greens to make a bouquet garnie; tie in a bundle with the parsley.
  3. Heat the water. Salt it and add the tails, the bouquet, the ginger, the daikon and the star anise. How much water depends on the size of your pot. Enough water to cover. Bring that to a slow simmer on the stove top,skimming up rising foam. I would allow about four hours. The meat should separate easily from tail bone and cartilage. Refrigerate the meat and the stock in separate containers until the next day.
  4. Discard the bouquet and strain the stock through a cheese cloth lined chinois and refrigerate that in a separate container and hold it overnight as well. On the next day skim off that fat cap which will have formed. Underneath that cap you should have a nice jelly.
  5. Scrape as much meat as you can get from the oxtail spine. Set aside.
  6. Soak the arbol chiles in boiling water for about an hour and put those aside.
  7. Heat your jellied stock back up to a liquid state. You will need about 6 cups so add water if needed.
  8. Roll your stemmed collard leaves into a cigar shape and chiffonade into wide ribbons. Add those to your simmering stock along with the daikon and the reserved meat.
  9. Add in the arbol chiles and the lo mein noodles. Cook until al dente. Taste for salt.
  10. Finish with sliced scallions.
  11. *If you must, substitute a flavorful Spanish pimenton.

See what other Food52ers are saying.

  • Miles McAnulty
    Miles McAnulty
  • lapadia
    lapadia
  • pierino
    pierino
  • boulangere
    boulangere
Standup commis flâneur, and food historian. Pierino's background is in Italian and Spanish cooking but of late he's focused on frozen desserts. He is now finishing his cookbook, MALAVIDA! Can it get worse? Yes, it can. Visit the Malavida Brass Knuckle cooking page at Facebook and your posts are welcome there.

8 Reviews

Miles M. April 23, 2017
In step 3 what do I do with the roasted onions, use them or discard them?
 
lapadia March 5, 2013
Noodles with feast of a flavor!
 
rktrix March 4, 2013
One more little catch: what amount of lo mein noodles? Are all the packets the same size?
 
rktrix March 1, 2013
Is there a step missing at step 2... where do you put water on the oxtail pieces and put it on the stove? Or, what do you put the bouquet garnie into? Do you just make it, then discard it at step 4? Everything sounds fantastic!! I wanna make this work, but I need all the steps!
 
pierino March 1, 2013
Damn, rktrix you are right. I skipped a step. I'll fix it right away. But basically you heat about six cups of water. Salt it and add the tails and the bouquet. How much water depends on the size of your pot. Enough water to cover. Bring that to a simmer on the stove top,skimming up rising foam. I would allow about four hours. Refrigerate the meat and the stock in separate containers until then next day. I'm glad you noticed that as it's a really important step. Thanks.
 
pierino March 4, 2013
On the lo mein I would use four to six ounces. The package I have here is 10 ounces. I'll fix that too. Thanks for your patience.
 
pierino February 28, 2013
Thanks boulangere. I'd hoped to enter this in the "noodle" contest but the "two part" recipe format seems to be algorithmicaly criminal. Oh, well I just noticed that I left out an ingredient so that is restored as well.
 
boulangere February 27, 2013
Glad to see this again so soon.