The Healing Bowl

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It seems like everyone is sick. I am too. I hate mucus. When I'm sick, I want hot soup with noodles. This dish will make you feel better. I had this dish in Mendocino at the Mendocino Cafe. When I got sick, I craved the rich broth and soft noodles. So I made it at home. Yes, it did make me feel better.

You'll need:

• 6 dry shiitake mushrooms
• 3 slices of fresh ginger
• 1 stalk of green onion, chopped into long segments
• 1 whole Thai chili pepper
• 6 cups water
• 2 servings of soba noodles
• 1 bunch kale, stem removed, thoroughly cleaned and sliced into strips
• 1 block firm tofu or bean curd, diced
• 6 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced
• 6 tablespoons miso (I used white miso, which is less salty. If you use darker, saltier miso, you will need less)
• 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

Begin by soaking dry shiitake mushrooms in hot water for 15 minutes. Drain. Bring 6 cups of water to boil. Add rehydrated shiitake mushrooms, fresh ginger slices, green onion, Thai chili pepper. Simmer for 30 minutes.

In the meantime, gently pan fry diced tofu in a non-stick frying pan until golden brown on 4 sides. Set aside.

Strain out and discard everything, leaving just the broth. Add miso, one tablespoon at a time. Make sure to taste the broth so it's not too salty. Whisk gently to dissolve the miso. Add rice wine vinegar. Just prior to serving, bring broth to boil. Add kale, fresh sliced shiitake mushroom and soba noodles. Boil until soba noodles are cooked. Add tofu prior to serving. Serve hot.

Soba Noodles with Soybeans, Tofu, Nori and Miso Sauce

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It's pretty rare that I come up with a recipe that doesn't require hours and hours of work. But I've done it this time -- simple and flavorful soba noodles with lots of protein in under 30 minutes!

You'll need:

• 2 servings (6 ounces) soba noodles (Japanese buckwheat noodles)
• 2 tablespoons dried nori, soaked in hot water for 5 minutes then drained
• 1 cup frozen soy beans, thawed
• 1 block (6 ounces) baked tofu curd, medium cubed
• 1 portion of miso sauce, recipe below
• sliced scallion for garnish (optional)
• toasted sesame seeds for garnish (optional)

For miso sauce, you'll need:

• 2 heaping tablespoons miso paste
• 1/3 cup water
• 2 teaspoons mirin (Japanese sweet rice wine)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (more or less, depending on your preference)
• 1 teaspoon tahini paste

Combine all the ingredients for the sauce. Whisk together until all ingredients are well integrated. Set aside.

Boil soba noodles according to package instructions. Combine with all the other ingredients. Toss together with miso sauce. Garnish with scallion and/or sesame seeds. Serve warm or cold.

The key to this simple dish is definitely the sauce. It brings all the flavors together with its savory, nutty, sweet and spicy goodness. And! This is actually something that is completely do-able after a long day at work (assuming that you have all the ingredients lying around like I do).

Soybean Carrot Salad with Ginger Sesame Dressing

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This is a culinary disaster with a happy ending. Since we're having leftover Udon from yesterday, I thought I'd stick with the Japanese theme. I consulted some cookbooks and picked a recipe that would incorporate some of my pantry items (namely soybeans, shiitake mushrooms, and seaweed). I came across one recipe that seemed perfect. Of course, not being detail-oriented, I didn't read all the way through the recipe. By the time I'm ready to make dinner, I realized that it was a recipe for a stew. But we're already having noodle soup for dinner. Um, what to do...?

I remembered a particular ginger sesame dressing that I used to get at Japanese supermarkets. I decided to make a home version of it and turn this stew into a salad.

For the dressing:

• 2 tablespoon of ginger, grated
  
• 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon of mustard
• 1 tablespoon of honey
• 2 tablespoons of sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 1 tablespoon each of the soaking liquid for the shiitake mushrooms and seaweed
  

The salad:

• 2 cups of soybeans, canned or cooked
• 3/4 cup of dried seaweed, soaked in cold water
• 6 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in hot water and chopped small
• 1 large carrot, grated

This would be better if I cooked the soybeans more and made more dressing. But otherwise, it's a good way to boost protein in a vegetarian diet.

Miso Udon Soup

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We've had a lot of Italian food recently. It's time to switch it up. Tonight, we are having miso udon soup with daikon, tofu, tofu skin, shiitake mushrooms, green onions, sea weed, and baby pea shoots.