Mr Noodle Soup

This receipe is a home version of Mr. Noodle Soup, a dish proposed by the asian take away YOI, at K25 in Stockholm. It’s also the favourite dish of Kamran who so completely obsessed about it, he eats is every day when he visits in Stockholm. This receipe is therefore dedicated to him. It’s also a bastard version of Pho, this wonderfully fragrant Vietnamese soup. But I wouldn’t call it Pho, since there are so many shortcuts. The good thing with this soup is that it’s almost like the legend of the soup stone: as long as you have the secret spice mix, you can pretty much make it with whatever you have in the fridge (or at least I do!).

Ingredients

the underlined ingredients are those that I would not recomment substituting, but you can always try

• Noodles. Ideally rice sticks but if you have nothing else chinese egg noodles will do.
• Broth. Ideally you’ll want to make your own broth by cooking meat and vegetable in water, but since you have a life, you can use a stock cube or Knorr’s fond du chef (better). Beef flavour works best.
• Meat or fish: ideally beef, roasted and thinly sliced like at YOI, but shredded or sliced cooked chicken, peeled shrimp or thinly sliced raw salmon can work as well (or even tofu for a vegetarian option)
• Star anise (1-2 stars)
• Cinnamon (1 small stick)
• Szechuan pepper (if you don’t have any you can skip, it’s nice but not essential)
• Black pepper
• Ginger (a 3-5cm knob)
• Onions (ideally red, but yellow will do)
• Spring onions (you can skip, but they are pretty essential)
• Thai sweet basil (ideally you’d want that, but if you are desperate, regular Italian will do)
• Coriander leaves (ideally fresh, frozen if you are desperate, dried doesn’t work)
• Bean sprouts
• Hoi Sin sauce (take a good chinese brand if possible)
• Shiracha (unless you want it more bland)
• Red chile (you can skip if you don’t want that zing)
• Lime (fresh lime does add an extra flavour but if you are desperate, lemon might do)

What to do

1. Soak the rice sticks. They take a while to soften (read instructions on the package if they are in a language you can comprehend, otherwise, try and soak them for 45-60 minutes).
2. Infuse the broth: boil some water and dilute the cube or knorr’s fond du chef (or warm up your own broth), put in, whole, the spices: star anise, cinnamon, szechuan pepper, black pepper (both slighly crushed).
3. Add a few of the fresh ingredients: some slices of ginger, a few slices of red onion, the stalks of the basil and coriander. If you like, you can cut off some of the lime zest and add to the infusion.
4. Boil for a few minutes. Taste and see if there is enough broth for what you need (you need about 4-5dl per person) otherwise, add water with the right amount of cube broth…
5. Grate some ginger (ideally on a ginger grater, otherwise you can chop it finely)
6. Rince the bean sprouts, the herbs (basil and coriander), slice the remaining red onions, rince and slice the spring onions, the red chile, the lime (cut in wedges).
7. Slice the meat or salmon, or shred the chicken if needed
8. Once all the ingredients are ready, put all the ingredients in bowls in the following order
   1. noodles
   2. meat/fish/chicken
   3. red onions
   4. bean sprouts
   5. grated ginger (on one side)
   6. 1 tbsp shiracha + 1 tbsp hoi sin sauce (in one place, don’t mix)
   7. herbs, spring onion and a few slices of chile + 1 wedge of lime
9. Pour the broth through a fine sieve (to leave out the spices that you have infused the broth with) over the ingredients as hot as possible when you are ready to eat. You can also sieve the broth earlier and then leave it to simmer on gentle heat, so that you are ready to poor directly in the bowls without having to worry about the sieve when you serve.