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Binging with Babish: Secret Ingredient Soup from Kung Fu Panda

Feb 27, 2020
- Order. I hope you like it. (bowls sliding across table) (slurping

soup

) - This is really good. - No, come on, you should try my dad's

secret

ingredient

soup

, he actually knows the

secret

ingredient

. - What are you talking about? This is incredible. - Wow, you are a very good cook. - I wish my mouth was bigger. - Tigress, you have to try this. - Hey, what's up guys? Welcome back to Binging with Babish, where this week we'll look at the secret ingredient in "Kung Fu Panda" noodle soup. The only known ingredients are noodles and soup, and perhaps what looks like a daikon radish.
binging with babish secret ingredient soup from kung fu panda
All we know is that there is no real secret ingredient, so we have to do everything we can to make each element as special as possible. Let's start with the soup. I opt for a broth based on pork bones inspired by the flavors of the Guangxi province. The most important ingredient is bones. As you can see, I'm hesitating because these bones smell like they've been frozen for a long time. And when you put this amount of time and energy into a recipe, you need to source some ingredients that you completely trust. I got these bones very cheap at Pino's Prime Meats and they just smell like pork.
binging with babish secret ingredient soup from kung fu panda

More Interesting Facts About,

binging with babish secret ingredient soup from kung fu panda...

Now we could make this broth strictly with bones, but I'm going to add some ribs and this pork tail to provide a little more meat and collagen to give more body to the broth. They are placed in a very tall and narrow pot. At first just the bones and meat. And are we sure it's a pig's tail, guys? We will cover them with cold water and bring them to a simmer on the stove. This will draw blood, foam, and impurities from the bones and meat, forming a gray foamy layer on top of the water. Take it out, drain it and rub the bones and meat until they look like this.
binging with babish secret ingredient soup from kung fu panda
And now they return to the empty, clean pot. Along with a handful of aromatics, which you can mix and match as you see fit or as they become available. I'm going to start with a handful of licorice root, a healthy-sized piece of cassia bark, or Chinese cinnamon, or just cinnamon really. Mix it together with some pieces of dried tangerine peel. You can probably use fresh orange peel as well. I'm almost going to add a handful of dried longan fruits, a handful of dried star anise pods, a whole onion cut into quarters, and a handful of fresh ginger, roughly peeled.
binging with babish secret ingredient soup from kung fu panda
And this may not be traditional, but I'll add a couple carrots just to round out the flavors. Then I have something special here, some dried Chinese scallops. These are very expensive. This little handful was like $18 and it smells pretty, really, really bad. But they are a great umami booster for soups, stews and broths. So let's add maybe four, seems like a good amount I guess, I don't know. And then we cover everything again with cold water and bring it to a simmer. We will take one more opportunity at the beginning of the boil to remove the foam.
And then we'll let this guy go slow and slow for at least four hours, and up to 12. Now, unlike, say, a tonkotsu ramen broth, we want it to barely bubble so it stays nice and clear. Once the flavors and colors are nice and deep, and your whole house smells like warm spicy pork water, strain, chill in an ice bath, refrigerate overnight, and enjoy a restful night's sleep. Especially if you're about to do what I'm about to do. No, don't hit your head on the table. I only do that because I'm a food YouTuber and I've come to the indisputable conclusion that it's time for me to fulfill my destiny and try making handmade noodles.
A skill that supposedly takes 10 years to master. I have two days, so go ahead and lower your expectations. Basically, there are four elements in any hand pulled noodle. Flour, water, salt and an alkaline solution. I am using this commercially available mixture of potassium carbonate and baking soda. You can find it in many Asian stores. If you can't, go ahead and watch my ramen video in the top right corner right now to see how to make baked baking soda. The next thing to specify is the proportion of these ingredients. There is conflicting information on the Internet and apparently the recipe can be affected by factors such as altitude or air humidity.
So take this recipe with a grain of potassium carbonate, so to speak, because everyone seems to have a recipe for the perfect handmade noodles. And everyone else seems to think everyone else is wrong. I tried a litany of different hydration ratios and kneading tactics, and these are the ones that worked best for me. Did you hear the best air quotes? I hope you did because this, no matter what you do, is going to be a very difficult process. I have here a dough of 500 grams of bread flour, 306 grams of water, five grams of salt and four grams of potassium carbonate.
I mixed it until combined in a stand mixer and now I'm going to knead it until it's ready for 40 minutes, here we go. The goal here is to develop the gluten, or rather overdevelop it until the dough is more like chewed gum than dough. If, like me, you're not an expert at hand-pulling noodles, you may not even come close to that consistency in this time frame. So give it your best for 40 minutes straight, then cover it with plastic wrap and let it sit for 15 to 20 minutes. Which will allow your gluten to rise and relax a little.
As you can see, I have my other experiments here in the foreground. And as you can see, our gluten has developed very well. But we have to take it several orders of magnitude beyond that. And if you're a newbie to handmade noodles like me, old-fashioned kneading will only get you so far. Now we're going to get into something I'll call pull kneading, or the act of gently pulling the dough until it elongates, folding it back on itself, and repeating the process. Not only is this going to continue to develop, but apparently it will also help align our gluten, which I understand for some reason needs to align.
Now, this process may take you 20 minutes, it may take you 45 minutes, or it may take you two hours. The only indicators that you're close to being done are the right texture and perhaps a shirt more appropriate for the sporty style. The only advice I can offer you at this time is to not give up. I mean, sure, anyone can go to their local Asian store and buy fresh noodles that are possibly better than the ones you can make yourself. And it would be cheap, it would be easy, it would be convenient, and it wouldn't exhaust you physically.
But I don't quite remember what my point was here. And as you can see, our dough is starting to get closer to the right texture. So let's move on. And something important to keep in mind is the hydration of your dough. During all these long pulling sessions you are likely to lose some moisture. So, every four to six turns, you may want to pat it down and brush it with water before folding it in half once again. It should be somewhere between a very hydrated bread dough and a pasta dough. Hitting it against the table while you stretch also helps.
I'm not entirely sure why, but I see it in every video. Anyway, go ahead and take a break once you've sweated your brains out and are so delirious from all the dough you've kneaded over the last 14 hours that you forget to put your apron back on. But finally all that effort is paying off. Finally, my dough finally looks like chewed gum. That means we can finally work on the only remaining ingredient in our soup, some daikon radish. Or at least that's what it seemed like Po was putting in the soup. So I'll just peel and cut a bunch of slices and put them in the broth while I heat it up.
Maybe let them simmer for about 20 minutes until they're nice and soft. Just enough time to finally do homework and make some noodles. Here I have half the dough that I'm also going to divide in half to make it a little easier to work with. Keep the other pieces covered and let's give our boy a push. Give it a few pats on the table, this seems to prevent it from breaking too much. Roll it out nice and long, give it a little roll to make sure it's even, and then since we don't want the noodles to stick to themselves, we'll sprinkle it with flour.
Once everything is sprinkled evenly it is time to fold it, stretch it and repeat until you have noodles. Now, the 10 years of training it takes to become a noodle master covers not only your ability to develop a glutenous dough in about 20 minutes, instead of the three hours it took me, but it also covers your ability to stretch. the noodles because they are extraordinarily hard. And after two failed attempts I decided to give up before ruining all my dough. Opting instead to stretch each noodle one at a time. This makes for a somewhat flat and quite uneven noodle, but it's better than kneading several batches of dough for hours on end with no noodles showing.
And there you have it, a handful of my best attempt at making hand pulled noodles. Do I recommend trying this at home? Absolutely not. Unless you need a new hobby for life. Regardless, we treat them as we would any fresh noodle, cooking them quickly and gently for no more than 90 seconds. During this time we are going to check our broth for seasoning, mine needs a lot of salt. Make sure it tastes as good as it smells and then it's time to serve it. First, we will take out the noodles with a strainer and pour them into an empty container.
And then we pour our broth on top, uniting flavor and texture. Make sure you don't forget a couple of slices of daikon radish and then it's time to eat. These may not be the prettiest noodles in the world, but they are mine. And don't let anyone tell you otherwise. I'm pleased to report that they are deliciously light, chewy and springy, and that the broth is deep, rich, warm, spicy and complex. It's served very simply in the movie, but I'm going to add a handful of Chinese scallions and a tablespoon of chili oil, two things I simply won't enjoy the noodle soup without.
Although this was delicious, the pain of failure prevented me from entering the clean plate club. I have an idea on how to cut the noodles, but if we're going to do it, we might as well make our own chili oil from scratch. Because believe it or not, it's miles ahead of store-bought stuff. In a small saucepan place a handful of Szechuan pepper, star anise pods, cassia bark, a peeled ginger nut and three lightly crushed cloves of garlic. Then, over that, we'll pour two or three cups of a neutral-flavored oil, I use canola. We'll stir it gently over medium heat on the stove until the oil reaches about 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
At that point we will strain it and pour it over a cup of Szechuan chili flakes. Make sure you do this in a very heat-resistant container; Otherwise, you could be looking at a disaster for both your countertop and the skin on your feet. Mix it up a bit, make sure those flavors have come together before letting it sit for about 30 minutes to cool. Just enough time to negotiate our noodles. Here I have some of the dough after its initial 45 minute kneading. As you can see, it got off to an ugly start, but as we roll it and roll it over and over, rolling it out like pasta dough, it becomes pliable, pliable, and perfect for running through a spaghetti cutter.
The result is almost more reminiscent of ramen noodles. So while they are perhaps less impressive, at least in my opinion they are perfectly adequate for the task at hand. Same thing: Boil water for no more than 90 seconds until tender but chewy. Drain in a warm container while waiting. Maybe don't use a spider like this unless you want a dangerous noodle situation. And serve with the boiling broth gently poured over the top. And there you have it, a much more doable but still clearly homemade secret ingredient noodle soup. Guys, excuse me for a second, I'm a mess.
Give my apron a little bachelor party here. And of course, we garnished it with Chinese chives and our homemade chili oil. And although these noodles could have been much prettier and at the same time as delicate and springy as the handmade ones, I almost preferred my first batch. Sometimes imperfection is what makes something unique, distinctive, or familiar. And if I hadn't learned anything from Mr. Ping, there's no secret ingredient, there's no secret way to make perfect noodles. The only perfect noodles can be found in one place, in your heart. And oh my goodness, never mind, it was delicious, I ate the whole plate. (quiet music)

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