Once or twice a week at least, I have this lunch routine in which I simmer a random assortment of interesting mostly-Asian ingredients together in broth for a kind of pan-Asian fusion soup. From reading various blogs and on-line forums frequented by cooks from various Asian countries, I get the impression that many of them keep it a lot simpler than I do, and might find my soup a bit of a random hodge-podge--but hey, I (usually!) like what I come up with, and I'm a bit of a hodgepodge cook anyway so I guess it suits me. Although I do note that the beloved Japanese winter stew known as oden is also a bit of a hodgepodge--so I'm going to go ahead and claim that as one of my inspirations.
Anyway, today's hodgepodge contains:
- Leftover chicken broth from my freezer;
- Konnyaku noodle knots
- Shiitake mushrooms, broken into pieces
- Black ear fungus, broken into pieces
- Daikon, sliced and quartered
- Kombu, snipped into slices
- Fresh ginger root, three little slices
- Garlic, a couple of big cloves sliced
Simmer that all together for about an hour and voila--yummy filling soup! And incidentally, very low in calories yet full of nutrition, flavor, and interesting texture contrasts. And very warming on a relatively cool day here in slightly-overcast coastal Southern California. Soup is good food!
Mizducky. Thank you so much for this post. It prompted me to go back and read the konnyaku threads on egullet. I tried the fettucine like tofu ones recently in a mushroom spinach stir fry thing, but they were so chewy and slippery it was not a good fit. After reading all the egullet stuff, and using your soup model, I picked up the white almost clear thin shiratake noodles today and had them in a soup with lots of gai-lan, little carrot, ginger, cubed tofu and chicken stock. I cooked them for a decent while as well. Wonderful result. Now I am ready to tackle the block stuff again. My last attempt resulted in me picking the pieces out of the food. I think I need a longer cooking time. Did you ever try the pressure cooker, or a crockpot? Also glad I looked at your list of "Diet Foods that don't taste yucky". I saw gigantor king oyster mushroom s at the Korean market today but was unsure how to use them. Going to try them grilled. I am on a food plan that has tons of veggies, a little fruit, lean protein and very minimal unprocessed whole grains so this is a great low low cal item that I like cuz it is not "fake food".
Posted by: Heidi | November 05, 2007 at 03:32 PM
You're very welcome, Heidi!
I have tried stewing the block konnyaku for a lengthy period of time--sometimes it softens up a bit, sometimes not so much. I eventually decided that some brands and styles are just firmer in texture than others, and you just have to try different ones until you find some with a texture you like. It helps to slice the block konnyaku a bit thinly--like thin dominos rather than cubes. And I also think I just eventually got used to the texture--it is rather different from anything I'm used to from Euro-American cookery.
About the king oyster mushrooms: I've since discovered that some of them are a bit tougher than others, and thus don't work quite so well with a quick-cooking technique like broiling--I must have unknowingly lucked out with more tender ones the first several times I bought them! If they're a little tough, just cook them a bit longer--or maybe parboil them before broiling. Good luck, and enjoy!
Posted by: mizducky | November 05, 2007 at 04:09 PM