Wood Witch Udon Soup

 If you are here, there's a good chance you came from my youtube video of the same name. If you watched that video, you should know that it was more complicated than any random internet recipe has a right to be. So unlike my usual, detailed recipe style, I will be giving a few tips for making broth and then doing recipes for my three favorite parts of the dish! If you REALLY wanna make the broth I made (which was good tbh) you can follow the video here. 

Tips for the Best Vegetable Broth Every Time:

1. Cut everything thin. Making more surface area for the flavor to escape into the vegetables means you don't miss a single bit of flavor you put in.
2. Add ingredients with umami. Mushrooms, seaweed, tomatoes, miso, and many fermented foods have the sought after flavor. Adding one or more of these things makes the broth have a deeper, more complex taste.
3. Double check your ingredients. This tip is really two. First, always use fresh and good quality ingredients because broth gives what it gets. The other meaning here is to look into each ingredient you plan to use and how it changes as it is cooked. For instance in this recipe, I intended to use mitsuba, a Japanese herb that tastes like celery and parsley had a baby, however when I researched the herb I found that the leaves become bitter when cooked for long periods (as does fresh ginger). Had I not checked, my broth could have become bitter and unpalatable. Instead, I used the stems and roots in the broth and saved the leaves for garnishes. 
4. Roast the vegetables before boiling. Caramelizing the vegetables releases their natural sweetness and makes far better flavor than boiling raw veggies. 
5. Toast any whole spices. Spices can lose their potency over time but toasting them revives the aromatic flavors making them pop in the soup.
6. Reduce by half! Only reducing by a third can be tempting. Pouring in a whole gallon of water just to watch it cook away seems wrong somehow but it's exactly what needs to happen. Think of it not as reducing but as concentrating. The water first pulls out the vegetables' flavors then as the water evaporates the flavor remains. The more it reduces, the more intense the broth will become. 

These tips may seem simple... because they are! Broth really can be that easy. You can check out my favorite broth recipe here.

Favorite parts:

First off, my favorite part was the braised lotus root. It is literally always my favorite part of a dish when it is present. I wish I could say it's my recipe but it's not. We all have Maangchi to thank for the blessing of homemade braised lotus root. 

Now my second favorite thing to come out of this recipe was the shimeji mushrooms and thankfully that is the easiest recipe in the whole process!

Sautéed Shimeji Mushrooms 

Ingredients:

• 1 package shimeji mushrooms
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
• olive oil for cooking

Directions:

1. Gently brush off any dirt on the mushrooms with a damp cloth and cut off the bottom/ separate them.
2. Mix the soy sauce, sugar, and mustard in a small bowl and set aside.
3. Heat a bit of oil on a skillet over medium heat. 
4. Add the mushrooms to the hot pan and cook for about 3-5 minutes. 
5. Flip when they begin to brown and add the sauce.
6. Stir quickly to prevent the sauce from burning. Cook until the mushrooms are all coated with sauce then remove from the heat and enjoy.

My third fav was also mushrooms 😅but king oyster mushrooms this time. I will say I strongly preferred the texture of the smaller king oyster mushrooms as the large ones could get tough. If you have the option, go with small over large.

Marinated King Oyster Mushrooms

Ingredients :

• king oyster mushrooms
• 2 cloves garlic
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• olive oil for cooking

Directions:

1. Mix together the garlic, soy sauce, brown sugar, and sesame oil.
2. Place the mushrooms into the marinade and let sit 20-60 minutes. Flip the mushrooms halfway through to make sure they are all getting marinated.
3. Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat and add the mushrooms. 
4. Flip about 3 minutes in or when they begin to brown. 
5. Cook until they are a dark brown on bottom then remove from heat and serve!

And that's pretty much it! I hope you enjoyed the video and if you try one of these recipes let me know! Comment here or on my youtube or tag me on instagram @_sexyraddish_