I recently found some awesome looking rhubarb at a roadside farm in Concord, MA near my sister Elise’s house.  I bought it with the thought that I didn’t just want to settle and make the standard ’strawberry rhubarb’ desert that is delicious but oh so common.  ‘There has to me more uses for this stuff than just deserts’ I thought to myself.  So through the cookbooks I went for ideas and happened upon a Jamie Oliver recipe that combined the rhubarb in a Chinese sauce that went over pork and then got braised.  The pork is served over cold noodles with elements of a salad, in which I included watercress, cilantro, habanero, scallion and of course some of the reduced braising liquid.

If you aren’t familiar with rhubarb (as I wasn’t really) in its raw state, it’s very tart and a bit bitter, almost to the point of a lime flavor.

Rhubarb is in a family of plants that doesn’t include any other popular vegetable really, but lots of flowering plants.  Interestingly, the leaves of the rhubarb plant are poisonous, while the stalks are edible (so if you are growing rhubarb, don’t eat the leaves!  The plant itself is indigenous to Asia, but grows well in most all temperate climates (and any climate really), and is easy to grow.

This dish worked with the tartness of the rhubarb, but also combines many other flavor profiles into the super savory pork (the word umami came to mind).  I’ll start with the sauce and go from there – you can make this ahead of time if you want, and would probably be better.  Keep in mind that the pork has to cook for at least 90 minutes, but would be better left in for at least 2.5 hours.

Here’s the sauce for ya:

• 4 medium thin stalks of rhubarb (or 2 think stalks) – chopped into 1 inch segments
• 1 piece of ginger about the size of a silver dollar – peeled and chopped roughly
• 5 cloves garlic – peeled

• 4 Tbsp. Honey
• 4 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 tsp. Chinese 5-spice powder
• 2 medium Jalapeno peppers – seeded and chopped
• 1 small stalk lemongrass – end removed, halved and chopped finely

Here’s the ingredients you’ll need for the rest of the dish:

• 2-3 lb. piece of pork shoulder – cubed into 1-2 inch cubes (can also use pork belly here)
• 10 oz. Udon noodles
• 3-4 scallions
• 1 habanero pepper (or red jalapeno for milder flavor) – seeded and THINLY chopped
• 1 small bunch watercress – around a cup
• 1 small bunch cilantro – around a cup as well
• 1-2 limes

To make the sauce: toss all of the ingredients into the food processor (it’s fairly necessary for this) and blend for a couple minutes until the mixture becomes the consistency of thick salsa.  It will certainly smell strongly.

Preheat your oven to 350 F.  Now for the pork, the main event of this dish.  You want to use a sharp knife first of all.  Remove any bones out of the pork and cube it into 1-2 inch pieces.  Place the pork pieces into a roasting pan or dutch oven and dump the sauce all over the pork along with about a cup of water and mix all together.  Cover with a lid or tin foil and put the pan in the oven for around 1.5 hours, taking out and stirring the pieces every 30 minutes.  You can let this go for longer if you want (I recommend it!)

Next, start a pan of boiling water.  Taste the pork after it’s been cooking for a while, it should be really tender, but not totally falling apart.

When it’s to your liking, remove the pork from the sauce and set aside.  Get a pan going over medium high heat and add a bit of vegetable oil.  Put the pork in the pan and brown until it’s crispy.  When the water is boiling, salt it and add the noodles and stir a little.  You should also add the pan with the sauce still in it to a burner and reduce until it’s about the consistency of ketchup.

Chop up the rest of the vegetables listed in the ingredient list above.  Once the pork is nice and crispy and the noodles are done, strain them and get some plates or bowls out.  To assemble, add some noodles to the plate, then the pork and top with the sauce (about 2-3 Tbsp. per plate, but you can estimate of course).  Finish with the scallion, watercress, peppers, cilantro on top and serve with a half a lime to squeeze on top.  Enjoy!

I used to make these noodles at a market I worked at in Brookline, MA after graduating from school a few years ago.  They’re perhaps the perfect accompaniment to a roll of sushi, but of course are also great with some fish or protein of your choice.  I decided to refresh my memory on the recipe prior to making the dish and discovered that one of the best recipes I found was in the Barefoot Contessa cookbook, which my Sis Elise gave us a while back.

While I don’t always like what the ‘Contessa’ is up to, I do like this recipe, especially some of the elements she uses in her sauce for the noodles.  It emphasizes Tahini and peanut butter, which really add a great creaminess to the dish.  Liking my Szechuan noodles a little on the spicy side, I also added in a bit more Sriracha to the sauce, which really helped with the overall seasoning of the dish.

I would recommend serving these noodles cold, meaning let them rest for a while and cool before serving – they’ll (obviously) be hot after they’re cooked.  Cold noodles in Korean cuisine were served as a sort of after course when I was in Seoul, almost as a sort of refreshing after thought to the protein and vegetables served prior.  These turned out really well, here’s how it went down:

For the Sauce (I’m estimating the amounts here…I recommend you put the sauce together, then adjust from there…:

• 3 cloves garlic – peeled
• 1/4 cup fresh ginger – peeled and chopped (fine dice if not using a food processor)
• 1/4 cup sesame oil
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• 2 Tbsp. Sriracha sauce (adjust this to your own spice taste)
• 1/2 cup chunky peanut butter (sugar free kind preferred)
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/3 cup sesame tahini
• Black pepper

Before you start, put on a pot of water to boil for the noodles.  If you’re using a food processor, just put all of the sauce ingredients above in the machine and combine until the sauce is smooth.  If you’re not using one, just chop the garlic and ginger finely and whisk the rest of the ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.

For the Rest of the dish:

• 1 medium sized head of broccoli, plus stems (broccoli stems are awesome) – rough chop (see pic)
• 1 red bell pepper – sliced lengthwise very thin
• 1 yellow or orange bell pepper - sliced lengthwise very thin
• 1 large carrot – shredded in a box grater
• 3 scallions – cut small on the bias
• 3 medium/large shallots – sliced thin in half
• 1 lb. (standard box) vermicelli or thin spaghetti
• few tsp. white wine vinegar
• 1 Tbsp. salt
• 1 Tbsp. sugar (granulated)