Following along the dashi theme a moment, some vegetarians might not be so keen on the bonito in the more common dashi - have no fear, shitake mushrooms to the rescue. The common way to do this one is to buy dried shitakes and rehydrate them. The rehydrating process flavours the water, and there's your stock - easy - too easy. Why not take the wheel in the whole process and dry the shitakes yourself? If traditionalists will forgive me, I started doing this at work when someone forgot to order the dried shitakes and I was forced to dry them myself and found I liked my way better. First off, the dried shitakes usually come whole - I sliced mine, and once they were rehydrated, they still looked nice enough to remain in the soup as a garnish. Second, since I was drying them, I made the executive decision to not just dehydrate them, but turn up the heat and give them a tan. I found the resulting flavour was delicious and it gave the broth a nice colour as well. From there, a little miso is all the seasoning it needs - garnish with some firm tofu and scallions and you've got a brilliant vegan soup.
You will need:
15 shitake mushrooms
1L / 1qt cold water
to taste miso paste (1 or 2 Tbs)
1/4 brick firm tofu
2 scallions
Method:
- set the oven to 300F / 149C
- remove the stems of the mushrooms and slice thin
- spread the mushrooms on a sheet pan and put in the oven
- stir occasionally to dry evenly
- keep drying until mushrooms turn a nice golden brown colour
- cool
- combine the mushrooms with the water and rehydrate
- bring the mushrooms and water up to a simmer
- turn off the heat and mix in the miso paste
- drain the tofu and cut into cubes - add in
- garnish with sliced scallion
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