This was my delicious dinner last night! you may scoff and say that the egg on the left looks a little strange. Well you may be right, but it was so delicious that when i ate it i actually went to the future. Don't ask me to explain. Anyway, i was obsessing yesterday about making an asian noodle soup dish, yada yada... and therrrre it is. I call it Jade-anese cuisine, as i take my favourite elements of Japanese recipes and add what i think will make it even more awesome and enjoyable for meeeee! I didn't follow a recipe as i have made similar dishes a few times, so i cant help you with quantities. BUT i can tell you what i used... ahem:
Ingredients:
- udon noodles (the pre-cooked ones in the packet)
- gai lan (Chinese broccoli) and Bok Choy
- Broccoli and carrots
- garlic and ginger paste
- vegetable oil and sesame oil
- soy sauce
- chili oil (or chili sauce)
- puffed tofu squares
- 1 egg per person
- thin pork slices
- spring onions
- beef stock (a vegan brand)
- water
- dark miso paste
- sesame seeds
i think that's all... I made sure all of my sauces and stocks and noodles were vegan, so by leaving out the pork and eggs you have yourself a yum vegan meal! also i used a big wok to cook it in if that's relevant...?
Basically I wanted to make the soup with a miso base, as it is the best thing in the world, so this is where the miso paste comes in. I used a dark miso paste which coincedentally gives the dish its lovely dark brown colour. In miso based soups, the procedure on dishing up is as follows: miso paste mix in the bottom of the serving bowl, soup stock added, mix up with a fork (my way), then add the noodles and other soup ingredients, pour more liquid over it to almost cover, then garnish with whatever you want (spring onions, beanshoots, eggs, pork, ginger....the list goes on)
You can make the miso paste mix first. Add a dollop of miso paste to a frypan which has a bit of vegetable oil and sesame oil in it, then add some soy sauce, garlic and ginger. cook it so it becomes a little more runny. There should be enough for roughly a big tablespoon of miso in each person's bowl. Keep adding more paste and soy sauce to get the right amount. Set aside.
I cooked the pork slices (for garnish) in the wok in a teeny bit of vegtable and sesame oil, and once they were cooked i removed them to a plate. The residual pork juices and oil can be used for flavour in the next bit (however if you are cooking this dish vegan you wont be cooking pork...obviously...)
Traditionally for these soups, the broth is meant to be cooked for hours and hours with pork bones in it, and green vegies and stuff for maximum flavour - and i promise the true thing is worth the wait, but there is no way i can wait that long to eat after i get home from work! The quick way is to make some beef or vegie stock (enough for 2 bowls of soup) and add some sliced spring onions and a little bit of miso paste for good measure. I put this into the wok with the left over pork juices and oil, and set it to *SiMmEr*. I then added the eggs so that they would hard boil. Unfortunately they were straight from the fridge and cracked almost straight away due to the difference in temp. Some little bits of egg escaped (boo!) but the good thing is that the stock got into the egg and gave it more flavour!!
I then added the broccoli and carrot to soften a little bit. Next i had to seperate the noodles in a seperate bowl of boiling water. Once they were ready i tipped them into the soup and added the tofu and greens. I let it all simmer for a little bit, so the greens cooked down. If you find there isn't much liquid add some more water. I also flavoured the soup a bit here with some soy sauce, chili sauce, and a little bit of garlic. The miso base is pretty strong in flavour so you don't necessarily have to season more.
Then serve as I mentioned above.
Bowl - miso paste - stock - stir - noodles/veg/tofu - more stock - pork - spring onions - egg - sesame seeds.
I ate mine with some spicy Kim Chi on the side, and it was SO GOOOOOOD!
Also, to keep up with the creepy cat lady theme i have been using of late, I will leave you with an image that confirms that i am really losing my mind and am becoming a cat lady. Here is Chester enjoying his new chair. Yes, his chair. He has claimed it for good...
Oh he is so cute. I wonder what he is doing now...? I bet he is asleep. On his chair. Yep... BYE
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