When, in the spring of 2019, Juan Arbelaez chose 20 minutes to announce that he was stopping cooking octopus, he couldn’t imagine the explosion that this announcement would cause. “This octopus story, people still talk to me about it today”, underlines the chef who felt, at the time, that it was necessary to give this species a break, at least during its reproduction. which was beginning to be threatened by overfishing. “Some have congratulated me on imposing seasonality on seafood products,” he recalls. But others blamed me too because with global warming, octopuses now go all the way to Brittany and Normandy to attack scallops and lobsters…”
Noodles in broth all week at Vida
Eco-responsibility is not an empty word in the mouth of chef Juan Arbelaez who, on the contrary, delights in it by offering anti-waste dishes capable of delighting for sure. Like this dish of udon noodles soaked in a steaming broth that he imagined this week to celebrate 20 years of 20 minutes. With Tania Cadeddu, the Italian chef (recently eliminated from Top chef) who runs the furnaces of the Vida Restaurant, his “healthy canteen” located in Paris in the 10th arrondissement, “we first thought of making a shrimp broth, to stay in the marine world of octopus substitutes, says Juan Arbelaez. And then no, we said to ourselves that crunchy seasonal vegetables would also taste good and be much better for the planet”. In the broth the peelings and the best cooked quickly, to keep the crunchiness, or simply seasoned with olive oil, salt and Espelette pepper. “I love this kind of broth at a time when it’s still a bit cold,” he explains.
As for the udon noodles, “it’s a dish I’ve never cooked before,” says the chef, “but I’ve always loved venturing into new, new culinary horizons.” And it must have been fun making Japanese noodles with an Italian. “But it’s not pasta,” shouts Tania Cadeddu in the video. “But if it’s pasta!” “, assures him Juan Arbelaez. Baptized Vida-don, the dish is offered on the Vida menu (Paris 10th) from March 15 to 22: a week or more, if customers like it.
Ingredients for two people:
2 soft-boiled eggs
4 asparagus
100g of shiitake
100g kale
100g romanesco cabbage
100g cabbage
100g of radishes
100g of beets
10g of ginger
1/2 bunch coriander
2 carrots
250g udon noodles
1 pinch of Espelette pepper
20g green curry paste
50g of spring onions
Prepare your soft-boiled eggs: boil water in a saucepan. Take them out after 6 minutes. Drop them into ice water to stop the cooking.
Collect the peelings of all your vegetables.
Cook them in boiling water with the green curry paste and the Espelette pepper.
While your broth is simmering, cut up all your vegetables. Filter the broth.
Cook the shiitakes, carrots, cabbage, and asparagus in the broth for 5 minutes. Season the beets, a few slices of carrots, the radish, and the spring onions with olive oil, salt and Espelette pepper.
Peel your eggs. Place the udon noodles in the vegetable broth to cook for 3 minutes.
Dress your plate: Arrange the noodles, the cooked and raw vegetables, the egg cut in half and add the broth. All that’s left to do is taste.