A very tasty KoMex creation!
Way back in the 1980's and early 1990's, chefs were creating savory recipes with chocolate during a short lived trend of French New World cuisine. Many new savory chocolate recipes were created by southwestern chefs and California chefs. The idea for the theme of this old food trend was partially based on the use of chocolate in Mayan and Aztec cuisine. Ancient Aztec and Mayan recipes that were preserved by historical societies started to become taken seriously by chefs, during the French New World cuisine trend. Chefs that lived on the cutting edge and chefs that did not want to be part of classic european cuisine, noticed that the unheard of, exotic complex flavor combinations of Mayan and Aztec cuisine were truly remarkably great tasting. These chefs used combinations of modern ingredients, chocolate and native ingredients to create some nice tasting food. The problem was that most customers of cutting edge restaurants were not quite up to the speed of this new cuisine. The stigma of chocolate only being used for sweet desserts was hard for even cutting edge customers to overcome. It seemed like only well educated gourmet customers and daring customers wanted to try this trendy French New World cuisine. A few years later, the fusion cuisine trend started and the French New World cuisine trend became passe. I happen to be one of the few modern chefs that occasionally creates a French New World cuisine item. What I have found is that with the recent popularity of television food shows and creative chef shows, the the trendy restaurant clientele have become more daring and gourmet customers have increased in numbers. Chocolate is now known to be a savory option, as well as being a sweet option. With the increased food education on television (no matter how good or bad television food education is) people have now become interested in many of the older short lived exotic creative food trends. It is too bad that so much attention has been placed on the fusion cuisine trend. It is so easy to create a plate of food with pre-made bottled asian sauces that will sell, just because those flavors appeal to anybody that likes standard American Chinese food. To me, fusion cuisine is a cheap replacement for refined classic French cuisine. Fusion cuisine has sent many fine trendy cuisines into darkness. There is some good fusion food out there, but most fusion food is truly junk that is just a combination of asian and French ingredients with no good cooking techniques involved. Fusion cuisine is overrated, by popular demand! I found KoMex (Korean Mexican Fusion Cuisine) to be interesting, because I can incorporate not only the modern Mexican cuisine flavors with Korean cuisine, but I can also incorporate the flavors of the Mayan and Aztec cuisines. KoMex cuisine has opened a door for older wayside cuisines like French New World cuisine to get back in the game! The Korean ingredients in this KoMex recipe are the buckwheat noodles (Memil Guksu), rice wine, ginger, garlic and Korean chile powder. Korean chile powder is made from spicy hot chiles that were native to Mexico. The sweet bell peppers, onions, chocolate, allspice and chile ancho are all pre-colombian Mexican ingredients. Pink peppercorn bushes are native to Peru. Pink peppercorn was used as barter and trade for many centuries, so it is possible that pink peppercorns made their way into ancient Mexican cuisine at some point in history. All citrus is native to asia, but seville orange (bitter orange) varieties have been a traditional crop in the mediterranean region for many centuries. Seville oranges were introduced to the new world by Spanish sea going merchants that carried citrus on board for preventing scurvy.
Korean Buckwheat Noodles (Guksu Noodles or Japanese Soba): Boil a pot of water over high heat. Add 1 portion of fresh Korean buckwheat noodles. Stir the noodles occasionally, till they become fully cooked. Drain the hot water off of the noodles. Add cold water and a few handfuls of ice cubes to the hot noodles in the pot. Stir the noodles by hand, till they feel like they have a firm chewy texture. Drain the ice water off of the noodles. Set the noodles aside, till they are reheated.
Guksu Noodles with Seville Orange Chocolate Sweet Pepper Beef: The sweet bell peppers are added late in this recipe, so they have a crisp bite to them. Keep a pot of water boiling to reheat the buckwheat noodles with. Heat a saute pan over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil. Add 2 pats of unsalted butter. Add 6 ounces of lean beef that is cut into small bite size cube shapes. (Top round or sirloin is good for this recipe.) Saute the beef, till it becomes browned. Add 1 chopped garlic clove. Add 1 tiny handful of julienne sliced onion. Saute till the onions turn clear in color. Add 1/2 teaspoon of ginger paste. Saute for 10 seconds, so the ginger becomes aromatic. Add 3 ounces of dry rice wine. Deglace the brown suc that is stuck to the bottom of the pan from sauteing the beef. Add 3/4 cup of light beef broth. Add sea salt. Add 1 pinch of allspice. Add 1/4 teaspoon of Korean chile powder. Add 1/2 teaspoon of ancho chile powder. Bring the sauce to a gentle boil. Mix 1/2 tablespoon of cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of cold water to make a slurry. Add just enough of the slurry, while stirring, to form a thin sauce. Add 1 small handful each of: - red bell pepper strips - yellow bell pepper strips (Holland Pepper) - orange bell pepper strips Let the sauce boil for one minute. Reduce the temperature to low heat. Add 1 teaspoon of partially crushed pink peppercorn. Add 2 tablespoons of finely chopped bittersweet dark chocolate. Add 3 ounces of seville orange juice. (Bottled bitter orange juice is available at latin markets and most grocery stores.) Simmer and stir the sauce, till the chocolate melts and becomes part of the sauce. By now the sweet pepper strips should be al dente. Guksu Noodles with Seville Orange Chocolate Sweet Pepper Beef Presentation: Place the cooked Korean buckwheat noodles in the reserved pot of boiling water. Reheat the noodles for 20 seconds. Drain the water off of the noodles. Use chop sticks or a long tine carving fork to twist the noodles on a plate, so a high peak of mounded noodles stands on the center of the plate. Use tongs to place the solid ingredients from the sauce around the noodles. Spoon the sauce over the noodles. (Do not flood the plate with this sauce! A little of this rich sauce goes a long way.) Sprinkle 1" to 1 1/2" long bias sliced green onion pieces over the sauce and noodles.
This sauce has just enough chocolate to make it interesting. The ingredients combine to create an indescribably good tasting flavor that is kind of addictive! KoMex yum! ... Shawna
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