A Japanese Inspired Soba Recipe

April is one of those months that teases. After cold winter nights and endless amounts of snow and frost, April is that month that whispers sweet nothings and tells you, soon, soon it'll all be over. She takes your hand and shows you the deep blue hyacinths and vibrant yellow crocuses, her sweet, blossom scented breath caresses your cheek.

And then, as you turn to meet her lavender eyes, she knees you in the crotch and punches you in the stomach with wild, blisteringly cold rain storms.

Heck, as I write this, sleet is bashing against our windows. Earlier this week, some of my students were wearing shorts.

This recipe is that warm blanket used on shock victims. Sink into its warmth and stay out of April's mood swings.

Soba with Beef and Onions in Shiitake Broth

(inspired by The Japanese Food Report)

Ingredients

3 cups water, divided
6 dried shiitake mushrooms
½ package (4g) dashi powder
4 tbsp soy sauce, divided
2 tbsp mirin
½ lb thinly sliced beef
1 medium onion, thinly sliced vertically
3 tbsp sake
2 tbsp sugar
4 oz dried soba noodles
shichimi spice powder to taste (Japanese 7 spice chili powder)
1 green onion, finely sliced

Directions

1. Bring 1 cup water to a boil in a small saucepan. Soak dried mushrooms in water for 30 minutes. Remove mushrooms from liquid and set aside. Stir in 1½ cups water, dashi powder, 2 tbsp soy sauce and mirin. Bring to a simmer and keep warm on back burner while you prepare the rest of the recipe.

2. Cut rehydrated shittake mushrooms into 5-6 slices each.

2. Place beef, onion, mushrooms remaining soy sauce, ½ cup water, sugar and sake in a frying pan, and bring to a simmer. Let cook until beef is cooked, onion is meltingly tender and liquid is almost completely evaporated, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

3. Cook soba noodles in a large pot of boiling water until al dente, between 6-8 minutes. Divide between two large bowl. Top noodles with beef mixture. Gently ladle broth over noodles. Garnish with shichimi and green onions.

A Quick, Loaded-with-Vitamins, Miso Soup

It's amazing how quickly one can move from feeling perfectly healthy to feeling like death. That transition period, when you're just beginning to get sick, always feels like a crucial moment when you can control whether you're actually going to go through the illness or if you're going to be able to avoid it.

Whether that's true or not, I have no idea. What I do know is that, upon waking up with sore lungs and a cough, I needed something warming and easy to make that would, at the very least, make me believe that I was getting tons of vitamins and minerals.

Miso soup, loaded with wakame, seemed like the best option.

Because I was feeling lazy, I didn't bother with making my own dashi broth; I just reached for a package of the powdered stuff.

If you're going to get powdered dashi, be sure to get the stuff that's MSG free. You don't need that gunking up your system.

I'm not going to bother with a full on recipe here, because one of the great things about miso soup is that you can make it as minimalist as you like. I will say though, that I used 3 cups of water to a ½ package of the dashi powder.

Here's what I opted to put in:

Clockwise from bottom left: wakame (seaweed, one green onion, a dollop of miso, dried shiitake mushroom, 3 sliced, fresh mushrooms

Because I had opted to go with powder, I wanted to bump up the flavour of the broth. That's where the dried shiitake came in. I threw it into the broth to simmer for 10 minutes while I was boiling the water for the wakame. This both infused the broth with a mushroomy undertone and softened the mushroom up so I could slice and add it to the soup at the end.

Wakame is usually sold dried and looks a lot like big tea leaves. You must reconstitute it. DO NOT eat it dry. I remember hearing a story about a woman who once ate dried wakame and her stomach exploded because it swelled up in side her.

True story.

Okay, maybe not, but the stuff does expand like crazy. So, to avoid death by seaweed, pour boiling water over it, and let it sit for 3-4 minutes. It'll quadruple in bulk.

See?

Before reconstitution

And then (mind the steam)...

After reconstitution

Once the shiitake are tender, remove and slice. Return it to the pot along with all the other ingredients except the miso.

Ready to add

Remove a little of the dashi to a separate bowl and whisk in the miso until smooth. Add to pot and stir. Serve immediately.

We ate our with a couple of rice balls (salmon wakame and green onion wakame) and an umeboshi (pickled plum).

Here's hoping that's enough to fight off illness!