Green garlic and baby bok choy play with noodles in Chinese 5-Flavor poaching broth. Visit Why Did the Chicken Cross the Globe? for more about this dish.

Serves 4

Ingredients

For the sauce:

3 cups unsalted chicken broth

1/3 cup soy sauce

3 Tablespoons white sugar

3 Tablespoons dry white wine

1 Tablespoon fish sauce

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

1/4 teaspoon whole cloves

1/8 teaspoon whole cumin

Pinch ground cinnamon

Pinch ground ginger

1 green garlic stalk (bulb and long green top intact), or one clove garlic plus one scallion

For the noodle bowls:

4 bundles of dried flat Chinese noodles

1 1/2 cups sliced oyster or cremini mushrooms

4 red Thai chiles (also known as "bird's eye" chiles)

4 cups lightly packed baby bok choy that has been cut into 1-inch slices (from about 12-14 baby bok choy, or equivalent full-grown bok choy)

Instructions

1. Start the sauce:

Combine all the sauce ingredients except the green garlic in a medium saucepan. Stir to combine and set over medium-high heat, partially covered.

2. Add the green garlic:

As the sauce warms, separate the green stalk from the bulb of green garlic. Cut the bulb in half vertically and smash each half with the flat side of your knife or a heavy object such as a small saucepan or skillet, then drop the smashed halves into the warming broth. Slice the green stalk into thin diagonal rounds and set aside. Simmer the broth for 20 minutes, then strain out the solids except the garlic bulbs.

3. Cook the noodles:

Return the broth to the saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, partially covered. Drop the dried noodles into the broth and use tongs to stir and break up the bundles (but don't break the noodles; long noodles are good luck for a long life!). Adjust the heat to maintain a simmer and cook with the lid off, following timing on package (medium-sized noodles like those in the picture will be done in about 3 minutes). When done, use tongs to divide the noodles among the four bowls, leaving the broth and garlic bulbs in the pan.

4. Finish and serve:

Drop the mushrooms and chiles into the broth to simmer for 3 minutes. Then add the bok choy and simmer for another 2 minutes. Taste the broth. If it is not spicy enough for your taste, fish one of the red chiles out, smash it with a knife to slightly break the skin and drop it back in the pot. Swirl it around and taste again. Repeat if more heat is desired; stop when the broth is spicy enough for you.

Use a slotted spoon to divide the vegetables among the four bowls, putting one red chile on top of each bowl (whoever likes spicy food can have the smashed chile). Ladle 1/4 cup of broth over each bowl and sprinkle the reserved sliced green garlic on top. Serve hot.

Notes:

I originally created this recipe to use the sauce left over after making Chinese 5-Flavor Chicken. If you made that dish, reheat that sauce instead of making your own in Step 1 of this recipe.

If you don’t have red “birds eye” Thai chiles, you can use any hot chile you like for this, of course. And if you don’t have bok choy, you can substitute other greens such as Swiss chard, beet greens or spinach,