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Mushroom broth with buckwheat soba
Serves 4 Starters and mains
Ingredients
- 150g oyster mushrooms, roughly torn in half
- 130g shiitake mushrooms, roughly torn in half
- 2tsp sunflower oil
- 10g dried shiitake mushrooms
- 2 spring onions, trimmed and halved
- 1 garlic clove, sliced
- 3cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
- 2 star anise
- ½tsp coriander seeds
For the soba
- 200g buckwheat soba noodles
- 6 shiitake mushrooms, trimmed and sliced
- 1tbsp soy sauce or tamari, or to taste
- 1tsp mirin or rice vinegar, or to taste
- 3 baby pak choi, halved or quartered
To serve
- 2 spring onions, trimmed and finely shredded
- shichimi togarashi or toasted sesame seeds
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C/160C F/Gas 4. First make the broth. Toss the torn oyster and shiitake mushrooms in the sunflower oil and season. Tip on to a large baking tray in a single layer and roast for around 30 minutes, turning halfway through, until browned and starting to crisp at the edges.
Scoop the roasted mushrooms into a large pan and add the rest of the broth ingredients. Add 750ml water and bring slowly to the boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook over a low heat for around 30 minutes to extract as much flavour as possible from the mushrooms and aromatics. Remove from the heat and leave to cool to room temperature.
To make the soba, cook the buckwheat noodles according to the pack instructions, then drain and divide among 4 bowls. While the noodles are cooking, strain the cooled broth through a sieve into a clean pan, pressing down on the mushrooms to extract as much flavour as possible. Bring the stock to a simmer, add the sliced shiitake mushrooms and cook for 2–3 minutes until tender. Taste the broth and add soy sauce or tamari and mirin or rice vinegar to taste. Add the pak choi to the broth and cook for a further minute until tender.
Ladle the broth over the buckwheat noodles, dividing the mushrooms and pak choi evenly among the bowls, and scatter with spring onions and shichimi togarashi or sesame seeds to serve.
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