For my late breakfast/early lunch today, my mother and I made a soba noodle soup with ginger broth, fresh vegetables, and a bit of fish:
1 oz ginger, skinned and shredded
1/4 oz wakame (dried seaweed)
1/4 dry shitake mushroom
1 carrot, cut into 1/4" circles
1 broccoli crown
1/4 - 1/2 lb dried soba noodles (don't skimp on the noodles!)
1/4 lb hake (the fish i tried today) cut into four or five pieces
shoyu to taste
just a drop of toasted sesame oil
Boil 4 to 6 cups water for the noodles. Add the noodles when the water has reached a rolling boil. Stir the noodles a bit with your chopsticks, and taste them every minute or so. Soba are hard to undercook but nasty when overcooked, so give them about 4 minutes. Once tender, strain them and quench with cold water.
In a separate pot, boil 3 1/2 cups water for your broth, adding the shredded ginger and dried mushroom at any time. Let it boil together for a few minutes, 'til the water has turned a pale golden yellow, then fish out the ginger (if you have a little screen with a handle for making tea, that works well). Cut the stems from the mushrooms and discard, then cut the caps into four pieces, lengthwise. Put the mushrooms back in the soup, adding the wakame and carrots. Give them a couple of minutes, and once the wakame is tender to the bite, add the fish and broccoli to the soup. Give the hake a couple of minutes on high heat (cooks quickly) then turn the heat low and add a touch of sesame, and carefully add the shoyu. Depending on your brand and taste, you will need a little more or a little less! Make sure you turn the heat down before adding the salt, or you won't be able to taste it and will feel compelled to add too much!
This recipe makes enough for two people, with perhaps a few leftover noodles. This is quite possibly my favorite meal; alas, my mother and I are the only ones around here who make it. I ordered soba noodles in a Japanese joint around here just last week and got served egg noodle ramen! What is the world coming to! |
