Cooks' Books by Lisa Messinger

"Momofuku" by David Chang and Peter Meehan (Clarkson Potter, $40).

You know you're good when you can turn plain old ramen into a signature dish. That's what David Chang did.

He created his own broth filled with shiitakes, chicken, pork bones, smoky bacon and vegetables and populated it with his fresh ramen noodles, pork belly, pork shoulder, fish cake and lots more vegetables, all reaching a delectable peak. Restaurant critics and customers loved it.

But, these days, the chef doesn't have to look to his ramen — which became a sensation at his New York City hotspot Momofuku Noodle Bar — to know how respected he is. He needs to go no further than a bit out the door of that restaurant in the East Village to catch a glimpse of his additional three locales, including Ko, which many cite as the hardest restaurant in the country in which to secure a reservation.

Some would say it's about time the acclaimed chef (winner of multiple prestigious James Beard awards, including Rising Star Chef, Best Chef New York City and Best New Restaurant) published his first cookbook. Those who have endured the wait won't be disappointed with "Momofuku."

All of his customers' favorite Asian-inspired dishes are here, as well as essays on his life and culinary challenges and many photographs of the chef and restaurant.

Meals this innovative and genius are challenging for the home cook, but full of cooking lessons and offer huge flavor payoffs.

Shrimp and grits are bursting with varying textures and flavors and served with slow-poached eggs. You'll get to know baby octopus very well after you prepare a court bouillon of mirin, sake and vinegar in which to dip its tentacles. You'll make pickled carrot and daikon julienne and fish sauce vinaigrette flavored with hot chilies to accompany your homemade lemon grass pork sausage.

In fact, a great way to dip your own tentacles into the water with this book is to possibly prepare some of the condiments first for flavor explosions before moving onto the more difficult assignments. A wonderful start is the fish sauce vinaigrette, which Chang quotes a friend as saying is "like the ketchup and mustard and mayonnaise of Vietnam all in one. If you go into a Vietnamese family's house and there's not a jar of it in the fridge or out on the table, there's something wrong. There is nothing it doesn't go with, there is no possibility of overusing it and there's no chance anyone ever gets tired of it."

FISH SAUCE VINAIGRETTE

1/2 cup fish sauce

1/4 cup water

2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

Juice of 1 lime

1/4 cup sugar

1 garlic clove, minced

1 to 3 red bird's-eye chiles, thinly sliced, seeds intact (see Note)

Yields about 1 cup.

Combine fish sauce, water, vinegar, lime juice, sugar, garlic and chiles in a jar.

This vinaigrette will keep for up to a week in the refrigerator.

Note: Experts recommend wearing rubber gloves when handling chiles and not touching your eyes during or afterward.

GOURMET CHERRY TOMATO SALAD

1 (12-ounce) block silken tofu, drained

2 pints (1 1/4 to 1 1/2 pounds) mixed cherry tomatoes

1/4 cup sherry vinegar

1 tablespoon usukuchi (light soy sauce)

1 teaspoon Asian sesame oil

1/2 cup grapeseed or other neutral oil

Kosher salt, to taste

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

6 shiso leaves, stacked atop one another, rolled into a tight cigar, and thinly sliced crosswise

Yields 4 servings.

With your knife blade parallel to the cutting board, cut the block of tofu in half. Using a 2- to 2 1/2-inch ring mold (or a narrow straight-sided glass), cut cylinders of tofu out of each slab. Carefully turn each cylinder on its side and slice it in half, yielding 8 rounds of tofu. (Save the tofu scraps for another use.)

Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil. Prepare an ice bath in a large mixing bowl. Cut a tiny "X" or slash into the bottom of about two-thirds of the tomatoes. Carefully drop them, in batches, into the boiling water, and after 10 seconds, remove them with a slotted spoon and transfer them to the ice bath to cool. Slip the skins off the blanched tomatoes, put them in a bowl and refrigerate for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, cut the remaining cherry tomatoes in half.

Stir together the vinegar, soy sauce and sesame and grapeseed oils in a large mixing bowl. Add all the tomatoes and toss to coat.

To serve: Place 2 slices of tofu in each of 4 shallow serving bowls, and sprinkle with a pinch of salt. Top each portion with about a cup of dressed tomatoes, season with a pinch of salt and a few turns of freshly ground black pepper, and garnish, generously, with the shiso chiffonade.

Lisa Messinger is a first-place winner in food writing from the Association of Food Journalists and the author of seven food books, including "Mrs. Cubbison's Best Stuffing Cookbook" and "The Sourdough Bread Bowl Cookbook." She also writes the Creators News Service "After-Work Gourmet" column. To find out more about Lisa Messinger and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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