Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Another soup recipe...

I apologize for my lack of blog participation lately, but i couldn't help but contribute one of my favorite "under the weather" soup recipes, or techniques really.

I started making this soup for myself when i was working at a vegetarian restaurant. I was really into (and still am) very simple japanese food at the time, and this was just something i came up with out of necessity. A small piece of kombu seaweed, a knob of ginger, some dried mushrooms, scallion whites, a little water, tamari or shoyu, makes an excellent broth for soba or udon noodles, or is great just poured over some brown or steamed rice, with fresh scallions and togarashi chili powder on top. you could make a basic dashi and add bonito flakes to the kombu broth, but i almost prefer this vegetarian version when im not feeling well.

Kombu Broth with Soba

1 2 inch piece of kombu seaweed, scored with a sharp knife once or twice.
1 1 inch knob of ginger, smashed with the flat of your knife
2 - 3 scallion whites (greens reserved for garnish) smashed with the flat of your knife
5 good quality dried shitake mushrooms, or fresh shitake stems (if using fresh shitakes, gently cook in the finished broth while the noodles cook.)
3 cups of cold water
tamari or shoyu soy sauce to taste


For garnish:
Cooked dried soba noodles
Thinly sliced fresh or reconstituted dry shitake mushrooms (from making the broth)
Scallion greens, thinly sliced on the bias.
Sesame oil
Very finely julienned fresh ginger
schichimi togarashi (japanese 7 spice chili powder)


Method:
in a small sauce pan combine the kombu, ginger, scallion whites, mushrooms and water.

Slowly bring to a simmer, and remove and discard the kombu before the water starts to boil, otherwise it will give off a funky odor. Simmer for 15 minutes, until the dried shitakes are soft and the broth tastes like it has fully extracted the flavor of the aromatics. remove from heat, strain through a fine mesh sieve, reserving the reconstituted shitake caps (remove and discard the woody stems), and discarding the rest of the spent ingredients. Thinly slice and return the mushrooms to the broth, and season to taste with the shoyu or tamari. keep warm on the stove while you prepare the garnishes and cook the noodles.

Serve in warmed bowls garnished to your liking.

Hope you feel better!!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks Matt, this looks delicious! I'm not feeling great either lately, so I will definitely be trying this soon!

Anonymous said...

Matt, I tried this, but it came out kind of flat and weak. I didn't use dried shitakes, which I'm sure would have improved the flavor of the broth, but I did use kombu. Can you give me an idea of how much tamari you usually add and whether you add any other ingredients to the broth? I'd like to try it again sometime soon - I don't have much experience cooking Japanese food. Thanks!!

mattwick said...

B,

It is a very subtle broth, the mushrooms definitely add body and depth of flavor, so i would try to seek those out. Also, you end up using more shoyu than you think you'd need. Sometimes ill add a little shoyu or tamari to the broth as it cooks down, but its alot easier to control the salt level when you add it towards the end. you run the risk of making sea water if you add too much before you cook the broth.

Im going to say that for 3 cups of broth, you need about a tablespoon and a half of tamari, maybe more. i will try and measure it the next time i make this. i just kind of wing it.

sorry about my poor recipe writing skills

Anonymous said...

Thanks a lot, Matt! I will definitely be more patient and keep the proportions in mind next time - I think maybe I just wasn't expecting to have to add so much. Also, I'll try to track down the dried shitakes - for some reason, I've had trouble finding them, even at Whole Foods where they have about 5 other kinds of dried mushrooms... but no shitakes! Thanks again for the info!