In anticipation of the weather turning cooler, it's time to talk soup!
Really, I just made this thread to harvest ideas for the coming months, but hey, why not make this just a general soup thread?
To start, what is your favorite soup? Do you have a recipe for it?
I'm super into pho, and now that I work from home most of the week, I'm excited to just have a pot simmering all day! No particular recipe I follow for it, but I can find a few good ones that serve as a general guide for me when I do it.
I absolutely adore pho too but my broth is never quite as good as restaurants and it's like the most important part. I have nailed shoyu ramen broth tho and miso broth is fairly easy. I actually tried out the French method of roasting the bones in the oven first and it was solid for ramen but I think I prefer the boil only method.
How do you do your ramen broth?
I essentially follow this recipe which was the best one I've tried. https://www.seriouseats.com/rich-and-creamy-tonkotsu-ramen-broth-from-scratch-recipe
Definitely need to wash the bones good. I also boil them for about 3-5 mins to really clean them and discard all the water and then start the full process.
Definitely use (dried) shitaki mushrooms, I actually noticed the difference compared using fresh supermarket stuff. Too much water in those.
Absolutely be diligent removing the scum that floats to the top every 30ish minutes. Usually takes a few hours or more for it to finally stop appearing. And at the very end do one last sweep. Don't stir the broth an hour before this so everything is separated properly.
Chicken feet work amazingly well, probably the best thing to use in terms of chicken bone. I remove the toe nails tho cause idk I just don't like the idea even if it is probably meaningless lol.
And for the tare I usually start the soak 2 days in advance, I actually like the stronger flavor. Some people boil all the stuff on the side if you didn't plan ahead, and I think that's fine but it's so easy to do if you plan ahead.
And serious eats has other types of ramen recipes. I actually love that site, and also follow Kenji on YouTube who has amazing POV cooking vids. He has never failed me. His lo mein recipe elevated my chow/lo mein cooks to another level.
If you have any questions of the process I can probably be more helpful. It's a lot work tbh for the entire process so I make a big batch of the stock and freeze in bags! Glass can break easily and it must always been chilled jn thr fridge for a day cause hot broth in a Mason jar in the freezer right away will probably explode! Lol learned the hard way on that one.
My friend has it down. Buy a rotisserie chicken pull the meat and put the bones in a crockpot with star anise, cinnamon, and cardamom. Reuse the meat for the soup.
and miss out on all that brown flavor??