Spicy Cold Buckwheat Noodles with Pickled Radish and Jammy Egg

By Sprig Originals ✓ · cooked up in Sprig

Chewy Korean buckwheat noodles rinsed under ice water until they squeak, then tossed in a sweet-tart gochujang sauce with grated Asian pear. Topped with cold sliced simmered beef, quick-pickled radish, matchstick cucumber and a jammy soft-boiled egg — the noodle bowl that makes summer heat bearable.

Ingredients

• 8 oz beef brisket or beef eye of round, in one piece
• 3 slices fresh ginger
• 2 garlic cloves, smashed
• 3 scallions, white parts only
• 1 tsp kosher salt

• 6 oz Korean radish or daikon, peeled and sliced into thin rounds
• 1/3 cup rice vinegar
• 1/3 cup water
• 3 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 tsp kosher salt

• 3 tbsp gochujang
• 1 tbsp gochugaru (Korean chile flakes)
• 2 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 1/2 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 tbsp honey or Korean plum syrup
• 1/3 cup grated Asian pear (about 1/4 pear, with juice)
• 2 tsp grated garlic
• 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
• 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

• 7 oz dried naengmyeon (Korean buckwheat) noodles
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 English cucumber, cut into thin matchsticks
• 1/4 Asian pear, cut into thin matchsticks
• 4 cups ice cubes, for rinsing and serving
• extra rice vinegar and Korean mustard (yeongyeoja), for the table

Instructions

1. Simmer the beef first so it has time to chill. Put the brisket in a small saucepan with the ginger, smashed garlic, scallion whites, 1 tsp salt and enough water to cover by 1 inch. Bring to a boil, skim the gray foam, then reduce to a bare simmer and cook uncovered 45 minutes for brisket (25 minutes for eye of round), until a skewer slides in with light resistance.
2. Transfer the beef to a plate, brush it with a spoonful of its cooking liquid so it doesn't dry out, and refrigerate at least 30 minutes (up to overnight). Save the broth: strain it, chill it, and skim the fat — you can spoon 2 tablespoons of the cold broth over each finished bowl.
3. Make the pickled radish while the beef simmers. Stack the radish rounds and cut them into 1/8-inch half-moons or 1-inch squares. Whisk the rice vinegar, water, sugar and salt until dissolved, pour over the radish in a jar or bowl, and refrigerate at least 30 minutes. It only gets better after a few hours.
4. Cook the eggs for jammy yolks. Lower the eggs into boiling water and cook exactly 7 minutes at a steady simmer, then move them straight into ice water for 5 minutes. Peel under a trickle of cold water and halve just before serving.
5. Whisk the sauce: gochujang, gochugaru, 2 tbsp rice vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, honey, grated Asian pear with its juice, grated garlic, sesame oil and sesame seeds. It should taste aggressively sweet-tart and a little too strong on its own — the noodles will mute it. Chill until serving.
6. Set up for the rinse before the noodles hit the water: fill a large bowl with cold water and half your ice, and have the colander in the sink. Naengmyeon noodles go from perfect to gummy in under a minute, so nothing can be improvised here.
7. Bring 4 quarts of unsalted water to a hard rolling boil. Add the dried noodles, stir immediately to separate them, and boil 3 to 4 minutes (check the package — some brands need only 2), until chewy-tender with no chalky core.
8. Dump the noodles into the colander and rinse under cold running water, lifting and rubbing the strands with your hands for a full 60 to 90 seconds to strip off the surface starch. Then plunge them into the ice water bath and swish until the noodles feel cold and literally squeaky between your fingers. Drain hard, shaking the colander several times.
9. Slice the chilled beef across the grain as thinly as you can, ideally 1/8 inch. Divide the drained noodles into two wide, deep chilled bowls and coil each portion into a neat nest.
10. Spoon the cold sauce over the noodle nests. Arrange the beef, drained pickled radish, cucumber matchsticks and pear matchsticks around the rim, and set half a jammy egg on top of each. Add a few of the remaining ice cubes and 2 tablespoons of the skimmed cold beef broth per bowl if using.
11. Serve immediately with extra vinegar and Korean mustard on the side. Tell everyone to toss hard with chopsticks and a spoon until every strand is red before taking the first bite.
12. Optional but authentic: snip the noodles once or twice with kitchen shears in the bowl after tossing — naengmyeon is genuinely tough to bite through.

Chef's tips

Nutrition (per serving, estimated)

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