You Have to Cook Yakamein in Your Instant Pot
Yakamein is an interesting dish. Considered a mix of Chinese and/or Korean and Creole cuisine, beef noodle soup is often referred to as New Orleans’ “best kept secret”, at least until the late Anthony Bourdain introduced chef Linda Green to the episode No Reservations . I was born and partially raised in the neighboring state of Mississippi – in a Cajun family! — and until recently it somehow escaped my attention (and my mouth).
Yakamein is a soup of variations. It has many names such as yak mein, yakameat, yok a mein, and old sober (due to its medicinal properties), and can be cooked and served with a wide variety of meat and sea/marsh dishes (such as shrimp, pork, or alligator), with seasoning blends varying from chef to chef.
According to Food52 , the exact origin of yakamein is “obscure” and “hotly debated”:
While one theory claims that the dish was introduced by African-American soldiers who served in the Korean War and returned home wanting to eat the noodle soup they were used to overseas, another claims that the dish originated in the now-extinct Chinese quarter of New Orleans. (a product of Chinese immigrants who adapted their usual noodle soup to cater to the local Creole clientele).
The main components of yakamein are simple and filling: you will need a beef stew, most often tenderloin or brisket, wheat noodles (usually spaghetti), and Creole seasoning. The broth is often seasoned with ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce and/or soy sauce, usually to taste. Hard-boiled eggs and green onions are a non-negotiable garnish, although you can get it with parsley, onions, fried noodles, and pork knuckles.
These are the rules.
There is no one “correct” way to make yakamein, and many of the best recipes are closely guarded by those who develop them, making this a fun dish to experiment with. While it’s commonly sold as a takeaway hangover cure, there’s no reason you can’t make it at home, especially if you’re after an old sobriety and don’t live in New Orleans.
Simmering beef is a speed-determining step, but you can cut it down by a couple of hours by using your Instant Pot wisely. Instead of simmering for three or four hours, you can pressure simmer for one hour and still end up with sumptuous shredded beef and a full bodied broth with rich flavor.
As a white Mississippi lady with slightly Cajun roots, I’m hesitant to share a strict “recipe” but I’ll share my method and tell you the steps I took to make the yakamein you see in the bowl above (because it’s mine). Job). But I encourage you to find as many recipes and variations of this dish as you can and try them all, because yacamein is a dish that thrives on variation.
How to cook yacamein in a slow cooker
Gather the ingredients first. You will need:
- 2-3 pounds fried chicken
- 2 teaspoons Creole seasoning
- 1/2-1 pound spaghetti, depending on how many people you feed
- Soy sauce
- Worcestershire sauce
- Ketchup
- Louisiana hot sauce (I like the Louisiana or Crystal brand, not Tabasco).
- Hard boiled eggs (1 per plate)
- Chopped green onion
- Parsley (optional)
- Any other cooked meat or seafood you want (I’d love to try this with an alligator next time).
Take a roast, place it in the Instant Pot insert and add enough water to cover. Add two teaspoons of Creole seasoning. (I use Tony Chachere’s, but feel free to use your favorite brand or make your own.) If you want something meatier, you can add a teaspoon of Better Than Bouillon Roast Beef, but it’s salty, so don’t if you want. . Plan to use a lot of soy sauce.
Close the Instant Pot and cook on high pressure for an hour. Release the pressure and pull the beef with a pair of forks to see if it rips easily. If not, cook for another 15 minutes on high pressure and repeat until it separates easily.
Once you can shred the beef with a couple of forks and not too much, take it out of the broth, put it in a bowl and shred it. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, then cook the spaghetti according to package directions.
While the noodles are cooking, pay attention to the broth. Taste with a spoon, then add soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and ketchup to taste. The amount you add is very personal, but I ended up adding 1/4 cup soy sauce (tasting after each tablespoon to avoid overdoing the sodium), a tablespoon of W sauce, and a tablespoon of ketchup. I also added a lot of healthy dashes of Louisiana hot sauce ( not Tabasco).
Thin the broth until it suits you, then return the chopped beef to the pot. Divide spaghetti among soup bowls, top with beef and broth, top with any amount of meat or seafood you desire, and garnish with hard-boiled egg halves, scallions, and parsley. Serve with sauces on the table so that people can touch up the yacamein as they wish.