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For this and other intoxicating recipes, see The Mushroom Lover's Mushroom Cookbook and Primer, our new wild mushroom cookbook, available through the Shopping Cart.

HONSHIMEJI UDON BROTH

Here is our take on those steaming, tangy soups served in Asian restaurants the world over.    Lurking in the intensely-flavored broth are juicy surprises – honshimeji for snap, and shiitake for soft.  Feel free to substitute other mushrooms, such as hen of the woods, bluefoot, oyster, and trumpet royale, for equally delicious texture and flavor.

Serves 2

• 5 cups meat stock  or good quality canned beef broth

• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

• 4 ounces cooked pork, sliced into 1-inch pieces

• 1/4 pound honshimeji mushrooms, stem ends trimmed off

• 8 fresh shiitake mushroom caps, sliced 1/4-inch

• 1 tablespoon fish sauce

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon sugar

• 4 ounces udon noodles (see NOTE)

• 2 oz. fresh enoki

• 8 leaves fresh arugula or spinach, washed

• 2 scallions, sliced on the diagonal

• 3 tablespoons fresh cilantro leaves, washed

1.  In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, bring stock, red pepper flakes, and pork to a slow boil.  Skim any scum from the surface. 

2.  Add the mushrooms, fish sauce, salt, and sugar to the broth.  Simmer about 20 minutes, until the flavors have melded. 

3.  Bring the soup to a gentle boil, add the noodles, and reduce heat to just under boiling.  The noodles will be cooked when firm but no longer crunchy, in about 8 minutes. 

4.  Gently place enoki, arugula and scallions in the pot, and simmer until the arugula wilts. 

5.  Ladle soup into two bowls and top with cilantro. 

NOTE:  Udon noodles are one of the many varieties available at Asian grocers, specialty gourmet stores, and some supermarkets.  These are the thick white noodles that slip maddeningly through plastic chopsticks.  I use round noodles, but a flat or even the squarish kind work too.  Soba noodles are made with buckwheat, and they do just as well in this recipe.  

© Copyright Amy Farges, The Mushroom Lover's Mushroom Cookbook and Primer, Workman (2000).