Vegetable and Fried Bean Curd Soup (Noppei – Jiru)

serves 4

4 dried Japanese mushrooms (shiitake)

1/2 medium carrot, using thick end, scraped

250 g (8 oz) Japanese white radish (daikon), peeled

250 g (8 oz) taro, peeled

125 g (4 oz) salsify or scorzonera, scraped and dropped into cold water

2 pieces froed bean curd (aburaage)

125 g (4 oz) cooked, packaged fernbrake, bracken (warabi), optional

175 g (6 oz) devil’s-tongue noodles (shirataki)

800 ml (1 1/3 paints) first soup stock

1 teaspoon salt, or to taste

1 teaspoon salt, or to taste

pinch MSG

1 teaspoon arrowroot

1 tablespoon flat parsley, finely chopped

preparation

Soak the mushrooms in warm water for 30 minutes. drain, squeeze out, remove the hard stems and cut into quarters. Thinly slice the carrot and radish. Stack the slices and cut into quarters. Thinly Slice the taro. If the slices and cut into quarters. Chop the salsify ot scorzonera and return it to the cold water as it discolours very quickly. Rinse the fried bean curd in hot water, halve and cut into 1cm (1/2 in) slices. If using the fernbrake or bracken, rinse it and cut into 2.5 cm (1 in) slice.

Combine all the vegetable in a saucepan of boiling water, and simmer for 2 minutes. Drain and set aside. Drop the noodles into boiling water and cook for 2 minutes. Drain and cut into 2.5cm (2 in ) pieces.

Pour the stock into a saucepan, add the vegetables, bean curd and noodles and simmer, covered, until all the vegetables are soft, 10 or 15 minutes. Season to taste with salt, add the soy sauce and pinch of MSG, and the arrowroot mixed with a teaspoon of cold water. Stir to mix and cook until lightly thickened, about 1 to 2 minutes. Pour the soup into 4 bowls and sprinkle with the parsley.

If fern brake, bracken (warabi) is not available use 250g (8 oz) spinach, cooked in boiling salted water for 4 minutes, drained, squeezed dry, formed into a roll and cut into 2.5 cm (1 in) slices. Put the spinach into the soup bowls just before adding the hot soup.