Umami Rich Shitake Mushroom and Noodle Broth

Umami Rich Shitake Mushroom and Noodle Broth (Serves two as a main course).

This Japanese inspired dish is really rich in Umami (the fifth taste) and makes a beautiful main course with incredible flavour. For more information on Umami check out my blog on the subject.

Ingredients-
50g Dried sliced Shitake Mushrooms
2 Cloves of garlic chopped
3 Shallots diced
1 red chilli - roughly chopped
1 thumb sized piece ginger – cut into matchsticks
3 tablespoons Toasted Sesame oil
4 tablespoons Dark soy sauce
2 tablespoons Lemon juice
2 teaspoons ‘Ume plum seasoning’ (or if you can’t get this use a little rice wine vinegar)
1 tablespoon Vegetable stock
Fresh coriander
One-bunch spring onions
2 servings of Noodles – either use fresh egg noodles or cook some dried noodles and set to one side.
Optional - One Piece dried Kombu. It will add an extra umami boost, but it will also give a suble seaweed flavour to the dish aswell.

First off for this dish put the dried shitake’s (along with the Kombu if using) in a bowl and cover with 1 litre of boiling water, let them soak and rehydrate for at least an hour. It’s really important that you remember to keep the water that you soaked the mushrooms in, as this will be the base for our Umami rich broth.

Heat the sesame oil in a pan or wok and stir-fry the ginger, shallots and chilli for about a minuit, then toss in the garlic and fry for another minuit. Roughly chop the shitake mushrooms and throw them into the pan to cook for two minuits.

Now pour the liquid you rehydrated the mushrooms in (a simple ‘Dashi’), over all the ingredients in the pan and bring the liquid to a simmer (if using kombu simmer the soaked piece of kombu in the liquid aswell) . Next in goes the soy sauce, veg stock, ume plum seasoning, lemon juice and just a very small pinch of salt and pepper. Check the seasoning, adding soy rather than salt if you desire it to be saltier, and lemon juice if you want more acidity.

Next pop you noodles into the broth (cooked them separately first if using dried noodles) and simmer for another minuit. Finally chop a few sprigs of fresh coriander and a bunch of spring onions and pop them in for the last minuit or so of cooking. Serve it up in some nice bowls with chopsticks, and garnish with fresh coriander, spring onion curls and a sprinkle of black sesame seeds (remove the kombu, if using, before serving).