Welcome to the launch of our first ever volume of Kitsby's Lunar New Year community cookbook featuring recipes from our AAPI foodie network! The themes we wanted to shine through this project are how incredibly diverse our AAPI community is, and community - none of what we do here at Kitsby would exist without the support of our friends, family, neighbors, and beyond.
Many of us, who help to actively build the growing AAPI network that we have today, share roots in points of common nostalgia, which is exactly why we wanted this project to feature the nostalgia dish (the dish that transports you back to your roots) of each partner in a cookbook-format!
Meet Kathy Chen of Wenwen:
Kathy is a Taiwanese American chef, born and raised in Maryland, and now based in Brooklyn. Currently, she is the head chef of Wenwen and hopes to be Taylor Swift’s personal chef in the future.
Mian Ge Da is a recipe my parents made a lot when I was growing up. They own a restaurant in Maryland, where I grew up, and I would often help out. Mian Ge Da was occasionally served for family meal and a bowl of it was always comforting after a busy service.
Mian Ge Da Tang (麵疙瘩)
- Servings
- 3 people
Ingredients
Broth- 1 thumb of ginger
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 3/4 cup of dry shiitake mushrooms (soaked overnight or at least 2 hours)
- 2 small tomatoes
- 1 cup of corn
- 1 qt of stock
- 2 tbsp Soy sauce
- A pinch of MSG (Adjust to taste)
- White pepper
- 1 Tbsp Corn starch + 1 Tbsp water (for cornstarch slurry)
- Scallions
Mian Ge Da
- 1 ½ cups AP flour
- 7-8 tbsp Water
Steps
To prepare the mian ge da (dough):
- Put 1 ½ cup of flour into a bowl.
- Slowly pour in water one tablespoon at a time while mixing until clumps start to form. You will want to add just enough water until there’s no dry flour left.
For the broth:
- Drain your mushrooms and squeeze out any excess water from them.
- Slice shiitake mushrooms.
- Julienne ginger.
- Mince Garlic.
- On medium heat, saute ginger and then add garlic after a minute.
- Add in large diced tomatoes.
- Cook tomatoes until softened.
- Add in stock, corn, sliced shiitake mushrooms and bring to a simmer. While you can use any stock, I like to use homemade pork stock to give it a very clean, meaty flavor.
- Season with soy sauce, MSG, and white pepper.
- Taste for seasoning and add salt if necessary. Depending on whether or not there’s salt in the stock you use, this may vary.
- Drop the mian ge da directly into the broth.
- Let the mian ge da cook for a few minutes. To check if it’s done, simply cut into the largest piece and see if it’s cooked all the way through.
- Thoroughly mix the cornstarch and water to form a cornstarch slurry. Mix this into your broth to thicken it.
- Serve and top with sliced scallions and optionally chili oil.
