Title: Dinner At Shukos
Categories: Japanese, Vegetarian
Yield: 4 Servings
100 g Salted peanuts
1/2 tb Red miso
1/2 tb White miso
2 1/2 tb Oat or rice syrup
6 Dried shiitake mushrooms
1 Kombu piece (10x15 cm)
1 Ginger piece (4x5 cm, 40
-g); peeled and grated
600 g "Straight to wok" udon
-noodles (4 bags)
150 g Fresh shiitake mushrooms;
-sliced, or left whole if
-very small
1/3 Sweetheart cabbage (150 g);
-cut into wedges of 2 cm at
-the widest point
2 tb Light soy sauce
2 tb Mirin
1/2 ts Salt
To make the salted peanut miso, put the peanuts in a blender and
pulverise to a powder, taking care not to turn them into peanut
butter. Pour into a small bowl, add both the misos and the syrup, and
mix really well. Roll the mix into four balls and put to one side.
To make the broth, put the dried mushrooms in a large pot. Make cuts
in the kombu at 4 cm intervals, but don't slice it up entirely (this
is to make it easy to remove later). Pour over a litre and a half of
boiling water and leave to soak for 15 minutes. Add the ginger to the
pot, bring to a rolling boil, then strain through a sieve. Discard
the mushrooms, ginger and kombu, and set the broth aside.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil, then add the udon noodles and
boil for two minutes. Drain, rinse under cold water until cold, then
put to one side.
Put the broth back on the heat, add the fresh mushrooms, cabbage, soy,
mirin, and salt, bring back to a boil and take off the heat.
To serve, divide the noodles and peanut miso balls between 4 plates
and ladle the broth into 4 bowls. To eat, sip a little of the broth,
dip a noodle or two in the broth and chase it down with a piece of
salted peanut miso, using chopsticks to cut off a little at a time.
