Mushroom Soup

 Mushroom soup is one of my favourite things to make after a day of mushroom picking. Bolete, aka porcini, aka cepe, is probably the best mushroom you can use to make a very flavourful broth. Add in some chanterelles and you've got yourself a piece of heaven. However, we do not always have access to wild mushrooms and have to make do with what is available. Consequently, this recipe is for an alternative mushroom soup. I promise, I will post up my wild mushroom soup recipe soon enough.

Serves 2 as a meal soup:
- 3 cups of mushrooms of choice, chopped (chanterelle, crimini, and oyster mushrooms were used for this soup) *Chanterelle and oyster mushrooms are both mild and delicate in taste; you cannot make a broth out of these mushrooms.
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- pinch of salt and pepper
- 6 bay leaves
- 1 glove of garlic, finely chopped
- 5 cups broth (I will be posting broth recipes soon. You can also use organic store-bought vegetable, mushroom, or chicken broth.)
- 3/4 cup noodles of choice (I will also be posting a noodle recipe soon.)
- 1/2 cup of fresh dill and coriander, chopped

1. In a pot, on medium-high heat, throw in butter.
2. When butter begins to bubble, throw in onions. Cook for about 4 min while stirring.
3. Add in mushrooms, garlic, bay leaves, salt, and pepper. Cook for 2 min, covered.
4. Add in broth. *Do not use salt if your store-bought broth is not low-sodium.
5. When the broth reaches its boiling point, uncover and throw in noodles. *Never recover a pot once you have thrown in noodles or pasta.
6. Cook noodles according to instructed time (it is best to check the noodles after a few minutes since time instructions tend to be off more than not).
7. Remove off heat. Add herbs. Serve.

This is tasty. However, wild mushroom soup is mind-blowing. Coming soon.

Pho

The secret to Pho is in the broth. A nice, well spiced and carefully thought out broth differentiates a Pho from any other broth. The main thing to remember about broth making is that the longer you simmer it, the more intense its flavours become. Pho broth takes a minimum of two hours to prepare. However, the majority of the process is a simmer. So, there's no need to be alarmed; this is a simple and easy recipe. Also, a broth's flavour matures over the days; so, you can keep it for a while.
 I will break this recipe down into two parts: the broth making and the actual soup making.

Broth:
Serves however many you want (2 cups of water per person)
- 1 beef shank
- 1/2 fennel
- 1 yellow onion, cut in two
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp of black and/ or green pepper (you can replace this with fresh peppercorns)
- 1 tbsp laurel leaves (aka bay leaves)
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- 2 to 4 (depending on how spicy you want the broth) bird's eye chillies (these are chillies native to South-East Asia)
- 2 tbsp of galangal and/ or ginger (these are roots of the same family; however, galangal has a more tea-like taste to it)
- 2 tsp honey
 - up to 4 L of water (depending on how much broth you want to make) *The more water you have, the longer you have to simmer your broth for in order to obtain the same flavour. However, 2 L shouldn't take longer than 2 hours.

1. In an appropriate pot (big enough and with a lid), at medium heat, put in all of the ingredients.
2. When the liquid reaches its boil point, bring the heat down to low or simmer (stick to low if your pot and/or stove isn't that great).
3. Wait 2 hours. Taste the broth to see if it is to your liking. If you want it to be more flavourful, keep it on for a little while longer up to 2 hours longer.
4. When done, strain the broth. Also, try that meat that's left over on the shank. Sweet sweet tasty meat. You can throw it into the soup later or just eat it. Oh, don't forget the marrow. Spread that on a toast; it'll be delightful. Fun facts about marrow: it's high in nutrients (especially in vitamin K, which prevents things like Cancer) and is a fat soluble fat (it'll help you burn calories).

Soup:
Serves 2
- 1 L of the lovely Pho broth you just made
- 2 hand-fulls of thicker rice noodles
- a few slivers of paper-thin sliced yellow onion
- 6 sprigs of coriander
- 2 sprigs of Thai basil (change it up to a sprig of mint and a spring of regular basil if you cannot find Thai basil)
- 1 cup of raw paper-thin sliced beef filet (or contre-filet or bavette) *You can change this to pieces of grilled chicken, grilled shrimp, etc.).
- lime wedges
- (optional) thinly sliced bird's eye pepper if you want the soup even hotter (be careful, this pepper is bloody hot) *Remember to wash your hands with alcohol when dealing with hot peppers.
- (optional) 1 cup of chop suey (aka bean sprouts) if you like them (I don't.)

1. In a smaller pot, throw in the warm broth. Heat it up until its boil point.
2. Add noodles. Leave broth on heat for about 2 minutes or as directed on the back of your noodle pack. However, I never ever trust directions in the back of noodle packs since they always ask you to leave in the noodles until the point of soggy nastiness. Simply, try a noodle after 2 minutes and gauge its cooking time.
3. Remove off heat. Serve into bowls.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients to the bowls. I recommend adding the beef last minute since it cooks really quickly in the broth.

You can always flavour your broth with hoison sauce. It's easy to make too. So, here we go:
-1/2  tbsp of peanut butter
- 1 tbsp soy sauce (or tamari sauce)
- 1 to 2 gloves of finely chopped garlic
- 1 tsp of rice vinegar
- 1/2 tsp of sesame oil
- 1/2 tsp chili paste or hot chillies
- 1 tsp honey
- 1 tsp of black and green pepper

Simply, mix the ingredient in a bowl.
However, the Pho is lovely without it.