Japanese Noodle Soup

[Squatchit]

It's a shame there isn't a 'Recipe' thread (which caters for meat-eaters) around...however I'll stick this here. Not sure how healthy it is...but it tastes healthy.

A friend put me onto this a while ago. It's a doddle to make, takes about 10 minutes and is truly scrumptious.

Serves 1

Ingredients

1 sachet of Miso soup (these tend to come in a little box of 5 sachets)

1 bundle of Ramen noodles (Udon or Subo are OK too). Again these come in packs of 3 bundles.

Spring onion finely chopped (it's up to you how much you add) - I tend to add 4.

100g spinach

Lemon

Chilli finely chopped (if you like it)

Bean sprouts

Cooked prawns

~~~ooo000ooo~~~

The above ingredients can be tailored to your taste. Sometimes I leave the bean sprouts out. I replace prawns with scallops. Or you can use strips of chicken/pork instead. Whatever takes your fancy. Just make sure that whatever you use, it has been cooked first.

~~~ooo000ooo~~~

In a large pan, boil plenty of salted water. When boiling add the noodles and boil for about 5 minutes.

In another pan, add enough water to fill the bowl you will be having the soup in 3/4 full. Don't boil this water, but when it is hot (and this should be the same time the noodles go in), add the ingredients to make the soup as follows:- mix in the miso, once mixed add black pepper, chilli, spring onion, squirt of lemon juice. Then when all that is blended, add bean sprouts and spinach.

Add the prawns to the soup pan as you are about to drain the noodles.

When drained, add noodles to the soup, stir round and serve.

If you do it as badly as I do, your bowl will be overflowing with goodness...

Yum yum in my tum.

[Silver]

Good lord, I love scallops (oh and shrimp too)...sounds really really yum.

Ok is miso a powder or liquid? Never made it before.

and is 100g spinach the frozen or fresh leaves of it?

[Squatchit]

Originally Posted by Silvergirl

Ok is miso a powder or liquid? Never made it before.

and is 100g spinach the frozen or fresh leaves of it?

The miso I get is a paste. It dissolves into the water within seconds if you give it a good stir. They are tiny sachets. It has a salty taste, so don't salt the water in the soup pan.

Fresh spinach.

It's a very watery soup, but because of the noodles is extremely filling. I always use chopsticks and drink the liquid straight from the bowl (which I picked up when I lived in HK).

[norseman]

Originally Posted by Squatchit

The miso I get is a paste. It dissolves into the water within seconds if you give it a good stir. They are tiny sachets. It has a salty taste, so don't salt the water in the soup pan.

Fresh spinach.

It's a very watery soup, but because of the noodles is extremely filling. I always use chopsticks and drink the liquid straight from the bowl (which I picked up when I lived in HK).

Add a sliced radish for an extra zip ! And for a genuine Japanese Miso, add a small piece of dried Wakame seaweed. This adds loads of essential minerals
I buy jars of miso paste from Clearspring [uk]

[norseman]

My favourite
Marinated Grilled Cod :
Piece of ginger root peeled and grated. 50/50 mix of spring water and good quality soy sauce. Squeeze grated ginger into diluted soy sauce and submerge fish in the fridge for as long as you can.
Peel and grate some Daikon [Chinese Radish] marinate in a separate bowl in ginger-soy mix [this is the garnish]
Grill the fish and serve with the garnish and Japanese pickles.

Japanese pickles :
Boil and cool spring water, add couple of table spoons of salt. Place solution in a clean bowl, cover with a clean tea cloth, place in fridge.
Prepare veg in small pieces – carrot, cauliflower, daikon, green beans, courgettes, anything you like really [ Cauliflower is fabulous this way, carrot not my favourite]
Blanch in boiling water for about 1 minute and cool rapidly. Place in bowl of prepared brine, replace in fridge with cover. Leave 5/7 days. Remove veg, rinse in clean water and bottle. Keep in fridge. If you’ve made a good batch, it wont last long enough for shelf-life to be an issue. Key to success is cleanliness.

[Squatchit]

Wow norsey. I like the sound of the cod (prefer haddock), and absolutely love ginger.

The pickles sound like a bit of a faff. Suppose I could put the fish on a bed of spinach instead. Yum yum.

[norseman]

You could use Sauerkraut [ good stuff in many supermarkets ] instead of pickle. Japanese say that rice and pickle should be part of every meal

Sounds absolutely yummy. Rice or Cellophane noodles would be a healthier substitute to ramen noodles. I love miso soup. I occasionally get the urge to make a pot of it from scratch, which is really easy. I used to follow the traditional recipe and use dehydrated tuna flakes and water, but now I just pop open a can of anchovies and put in a pot a water with some cut up dried wakeme and after it comes to a boil, cut back to a simmer and and a healthy dollop of miso. Tofu if you like. Ladle a bowl (be sure to get some yummy wakame) and garnish with chopped spring onion. Yum!!


Hey Norseman...

Do y'all have this version of a cod dinner across the Atlantic:
Take boiled potatoes, fried fatback with a good streak of meat(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatback) crumbled, reserve drippings, chopped onion and steamed or boiled salted cod (soaked in water 24hrs)

To plate, put a boiled potato on a plate, slightly mashed and place a piece of cod on top and some diced onion. Mash and mix potato, cod and onion together and garnish with the crumbled fat back. Drizzle some of drippings on top with some vinegar (we used apple cider). Now it's ready to eat. It is sooo good!! My mom would make this for us in the winter.

[norseman]

Sounds tasty, Iolite