If you have been craving slurp-able Japanese noodle soup, today is the day! Boy howdy, this was really good! I had no idea what I was doing, until I had done it. I believe it was the soaking liquid for the dried, maybe shimeji, mushrooms that was the rock on which this soup was built.
I woke up this morning with a vague idea about doing something with my Asian supplies I had purchased in Paris. I had some dried mushrooms, a variety of noodles, powdered dashi and some fried fish cake in the freezer. Really, I wasn’t very enthusiastic, I just knew I would cook something.
I looked at the dried mushrooms and for the first time asked myself, “What are these”? The languages on the package were Chinese and German; go figure. I looked up the German on the internet and it seems these might be dried shimeji but they didn’t quite look like the fresh. So, I’m still not sure.
Cute, though.
I managed to cook the soba noodles just right so that they were cooked but firm, thereby slurp-able.
Noodles and Soup Base
2 cups dried shimeji mushrooms
4 1/2 cups hot water
2 heaping tsp dashi powder
2 tbsp tamari soy sauce
1 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp sugar
2 bundles of dried soba noodles
Soak the mushrooms in the hot water for 30 minutes to 1 hour. Strain the mushrooms, reserving the liquid. Add the dashi powder, soy sauce, mirin and sugar to the reserved liquid. Bring the liquid to a boil and simmer for about 15 minutes. Keep warm.
Put the noodles in boiling water and boil for 4 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water.
Toppings
2 boil eggs, sliced in half
2 cups of cooked spinach
2 cups of soaked, dried shimeji mushrooms; tough stem bottoms cut off and mushrooms boiled for about 15 minutes.
Sliced fish cake
Sliced scallions
Pikliz http://atomic-temporary-17826715.wpcomstaging.com/2011/05/18/haitian-poulet-creole-with-pikliz/
Place the noodles equally in 4 bowls. Arrange toppings on the noodles and ladle the soup base over all.
Wow, that looks great. I’m not familiar with those type of mushrooms, but I want to be! Bet you can get anything in Paris.
You certainly can get a lot more in Paris than is available here in Sens. I’m not complaining; it’s nice here and friendly. And also Paris is only 55 minutes away by TGV train.
This looks great! I never think to make noodle soup but I do love it. I am glad I discovered your blog. I just went to France for the first time last month and totally fell in love with it. Look forward to following your cooking adventures.
This looks great!! I have never used those mushrooms before. Maybe I will search for them next week!
Get them fresh if you can find them.
This looks awesome! I believe these are the mushrooms: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:EnokitakeJapaneseMushroom.jpg
They’re Enokitake mushrooms, or straw mushrooms, as we usually call them in Asia.
Hi Deborah. You know, I looked at the Enokitake mushroom but I didn’t think about how they would look dried! Duh. Thank you for the information. I’ve eaten fresh enoki (straw) mushrooms in various restaurants. Either way, dried or fresh, they are good!
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Just googled Soba Noodles and your post was one of the first to come up! I was planning on just buying the normal base from the store…but your recipe looks so much better! Me = hungry right now!
Oh good! I’m glad you are going to try the mushroom broth. It is so worth it!