The Cooking Coach

 

Every time I make this broth, I always feel quite smug about how good I am being because its just so healthy.  It took me quite a while to start cooking in this style, just because I assumed it was really difficult and needed loads of ingredients and time.  Even so, I bit the bullet and realised that after I had bought a couple of new store cupboard ingredients that I could make it any time in a few minutes.  So, if you want to feel as smug as I do, here is the recipe:-

Ingredients for 4 portions

4 x Salmon Filets approx. 125 to 150 gr per person chopped into large-ish bite sized chunks

5gr dried dashi powder (Japanese fish stock)

3gr sachet of dried seaweed (Fueruwakame)

2 x litres of water from a recently boiled kettle

2 x cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 x red chili, de-seeded and chopped finely

4 x shallots chopped thinly lengthways

Juice of a lime

Piece of fresh ginger chopped into small thin strips

2 x handfuls of bean sprouts

4 x spring onions chopped in 3cm lengths and then chopped finely lengthways

1 x tbsp of light soy sauce (be careful as it can get a bit salty as the dashi powder is also salty)

2 x tbsp of Mirin (from Japanese store)

200gr of rice noodles (dry weight) – optional

Bunch of fresh coriander leaves chopped roughly

To Dress – use all or some of the following

Finely chopped cucumber

2 x hard boiled eggs chopped finely

Finely chopped red chili

Finely chopped spring onions

Method

1. Place the dashi powder, chili, garlic, ginger and shallot in a large heavy bottomed pan.
2. Add the water and simmer gently for about 10 minutes to allow the flavours to blend and infuse.  I do this while I am preparing the rest of the ingredients.
3. If you would like to use noodles, you can prepare them also at this stage.  Once they are ready place equal amounts in each bowl in which you will serve the soup.  Then place equal amounts of the bean sprouts in each bowl.
4. Add the mirin, light soy sauce, lime juice, seaweed, and the salmon.  Simmer gently for about 7 minutes and or until the salmon is cooked.
5. Add the spring onions and simmer for a couple of minutes.  Check the flavour before serving and if you feel it needs salt, add a dash of light soy sauce.
6. Serve the soup, add a dash of sesame oil and some coriander to each bowl, then dress how you wish.

Tips

• For a more luxurious version add some prawns (langoustine).
• The idea of seaweed can be a bit daunting, but the flavour is really subtle and compliments the fish flavour.  Don’t worry if you can’t get it though, just leave is out.
• You can easily adapt this for chicken. Use good chicken stock instead of dashi and, seaweed.