Last week my crazy kitchen manager insisted that I take a large pack of soba wheat noodles home. I hardly ever use them so I tried to not take them. He told me he brought them to work after purchasing to take home and he didn't want to bother with them anymore. I had no choice. He seemed disappointed that I didn't want them. Finally I said "okay, sure, I'll take them".
When I decided to make a Tom yum kind of spicy sour soup, I ended up putting these noodles it in. This is not the usual Tom yum which usually doesn't have noodles in it, especially soba noodles. I also added black fungus which is usually added to Chinese hot and sour soup. So now I had a pot of Asian fusion. Or confusion. Either way, I was in the mood for something spicy and tangy with a little sweetness. Marc would have wanted more to eat if I hadn't added the noodles so I guess it worked out.
I usually have some vegetable broth handy so for this soup I boiled it with a few kombu seaweed sheets and a cup full of dried shitake. I simmered it for around fourty minutes then removed the kombu and the mushrooms. This added a little bit of a fish sauce replacement. Tom yum traditionally has fish sauce in it.
Soup ingredients after the broth is finished
2 or 3 kaffir lime leaves
1 tablespoon minced lemongrass
1/2 inch minced galangal root
1 shallot
3 cloves garlic
1 onion
1 cup dried black fungus
1 carrot sliced
2 large king oyster mushrooms sliced
1 cup broccoli stem sliced after peeling
2 hot chilies or more
1/4 cup braggs liquid amino or soy sauce
2 tablespoons agave or sugar
juice of a lime
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 brick tofu (I used firm this time)
1 tomato crushed and 2 cups broccoli florets
Noodles (optional)
I put the lime leaves lemongrass and galangal in the food processor and ground it up a bit.
Sautee the onion ginger and garlic in cooking oil. Add the other ingredients to the hot oil except for the broccoli.
After transfer everything to the soup broth pot and add the black mushrooms. You can presoak them but I just added them like that. The first time I used black fungus I found that they expanded like crazy. So in my experience, a little goes a long way.
Meanwhile I precooked the noodles. These noodles get soft really fast so after I drained them I cooled them off with cold water. When the soup was ready I put noodles in the bottom of the bowl and put the soup on top.
I precooked the broccoli as well until it was just cooked through but still nice and green. This was just a garnish for the soup. I hate overcooked broccoli.
At the end I added a little bit of this and that to get what I desired. It pretty much was like Tom Yum more than anything. The lemongrass, galangal and kaffir is what does it. If those were omitted it may have been more like Chinese hot and sour if you were to add some white pepper and thicken with cornstarch a bit.
For me soup is a comfort food. I could pretty much live on soup but I would probably eat these words if that's all I had.
