By Lemony レモン
Serves 4
Ingredients
For the stock:
- 1 strip kombu seaweed
- 1 cinnamon stick, about 2 inches
- 2 dried arbol chiles (I didn't have any Asian chiles, but this worked. You can skip them if you want to, or maybe use a dash of smoked paprika.)
- handful of dried mushrooms (I picked all the stems out of a package of mixed dried gourmet mushrooms)
- small handful (about .17 oz) shaved bonito flakes
- 1 liter water
(For a vegan version, omit bonito flakes and increase the kombu by another half a piece, and the mushrooms by a bit too. Also, the original recipe used sliced bonito in addition to the flakes, but I couldn't locate any.)
Soup ingredients:
- big pinch wakame seaweed (this expands a lot, so don't use more than 1 Tbs.)
- 1 package (about 1/4 lb?) fresh beech mushrooms (straw mushrooms would be nice, too)
- 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1 scallion, trimmed and sliced thin
- 2 sprigs cilantro, just the leaves
- 1/2 block silken tofu, diced
- 1 heaping Tbs. red miso (I used Hikari organic)
Method
Make stock:
1.) Place kombu, cinnamon, dried mushrooms, and chiles in 1 liter water, bring to a simmer. Do not boil! Simmer gently about 20 minutes.
2.) Remove all items from the liquid. When mushrooms are cool enough to handle, pick them up and squeeze their liquid back into the stock. Discard mushrooms.
3.) Add bonito flakes, gently simmer uncovered for about 10 minutes. DO NOT BOIL!
4.) Strain bonito flakes from stock. (I used a mesh soup skimmer.)
Stock can be made ahead to this point, then cooled and refrigerated overnight. Before proceeding to the next step, slowly bring the stock to a delicate simmer over medium-low heat. Never let this soup come to a boil.
Make soup:
5.) Quickly rinse and then trim the mushrooms. Dust with ground cinnamon. Add mushrooms to stock.
6.) Place wakame in cold water in a separate bowl for about 5 minutes while the mushrooms are cooking, then drain wakame and add to the pot.
7.) Add tofu and scallions to soup.
8.) Place miso in a separate bowl. Ladle some broth from the soup into this bowl, then whisk the miso into the broth, and add it all back to the soup pot.
9.) Add cilantro. Serve immediately. Slurp, smile, and say, "Oishii!"
