Easy Korean-Chinese soup noodles with vegetables, seafood and pork (champong)
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Directions
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Easy Korean-Chinese soup noodles with vegetables, seafood and pork (champong)

20
mins
20 mins
to hydrate the mushrooms
2
people

Susan says

Champong is a Korean-Chinese dish that, in the United States, is known as chow ma mian. Champon, the Japanese version, uses little to no spice and the broth is milky, but it has a lot more cabbage, as well as beansprouts (which you can add to this recipe, if you like). Restaurants often make this with only seafood (which you can do), but I prefer a mixture of seafood and pork belly.

This dish gets its spice from gochugaru - Korean chilli flakes. The amount I give in this recipe is about medium spicy, so use more or less, according to your heat tolerance.

Ingredients
4-6
dried wood ear mushrooms, depending on size (they expand a lot)
½
medium-sized onion, peeled
2
large garlic cloves, peeled
100g (3½oz)
carrot, peeled
1
Japanese or Chinese cucumber
1
baby napa cabbage, about 250g (9oz)
1
each of red and green banana chillies, or another type of long, mild chilli
2
spring onions
4-6
Chinese flat chives
180g (6⅓oz)
pork belly (with or without skin, as you prefer)
4-6
fresh shrimp, with bodies about 6cm (2⅜ inch) long (with or without the shells and heads, as you prefer)
2-4
fresh squid, with bodies about 6cm (2⅜ inch) long (or use 4-6 clams or mussels)
30ml (2tbsp)
cooking oil
2tbsp, or to taste
gochugaru (Korean chilli flakes)
2
dried red bird’s-eye chillies, or another type of hot dried chilli
750ml (3 cup)
unsalted chicken stock, preferably home-made
15ml (1tbsp)
Korean fish sauce (or use Thai or Vietnamese fish sauce)
fine sea salt
enough for two
fresh Chinese wheat noodles
Directions

Rinse the wood ear mushrooms then put them in a bowl, cover with warm water and leave until fully hydrated, about 20 minutes. Cut the mushrooms into thin strips.

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While the mushrooms are soaking, prepare the other ingredients. Thinly slice the onion and garlic. Cut the carrot and cucumber into thin matchsticks. Halve the napa cabbage lengthwise and remove the core, then cut the vegetable into bite-sized pieces. Thinly slice the banana chillies on the diagonal, and cut the spring onions and garlic chives into 5cm (2in) lengths.

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Thinly slice the pork belly into bite-sized pieces. Pull the tentacles from the squid bodies, then trim off and discard the beak and eyes. Clean the squid bodies, removing the quill and guts, then peel off and discard the skin. Cut the bodies into rings or strips.

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Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil and boil the noodles until almost done, then drain, rinse and drain again.

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Place a wok (or the large pot) over a high flame and when it’s hot, pour in the oil. Add the pork, sprinkle it with a little salt and stir-fry until lightly browned. Add the onion and garlic, then sprinkle with the gochugaru and stir-fry for about 30 seconds. Add the mushrooms, carrot, cucumber, cabbage, banana chillies and dried chillies and mix, then stir in the spring onions and chives. Pour in the chicken stock and fish sauce and bring to the boil. Season to taste with salt and add more chilli flakes, if necessary, then simmer until the pork is tender, about three minutes. Stir in the shrimp and the squid pieces and simmer for about a minute.

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Rinse the noodles with hot water until they are no longer sticky then drain, add them to the wok and simmer for about 30 seconds. Divide the noodles between two large bowls. Ladle the soup and other ingredients over the noodles and serve immediately.

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