generic shiitake soup [was SARs Pneumonia: Herbs, Homeopathy, Immune Sx etc]

[Guest guest]

If you are from the Americas new to Asian cultural things, shiitake

mushrooms might seem exotic.

Get over it. Be prepared to add sea weed to your diet also.

 

Though we don't have a salt sea for growing sea weed this far inland

in Chicago, there have been so many people growing shiitakes around

here that the spores have escaped and there are now shiitakes growing

in the Cook County Forest Preserves. (a very interesting phenomena I

am told by the mushroom experts at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural

History. Shiitake isn't a mushroom that is native to the Americas.

Perhaps their time has come ... they know we really need them now ;-)

 

For when my oak log in the back yard is empty and I can't find

shiitakes in the woods I keep dried ones in a jar in my pantry. I buy

them at an Asian food market.

They're a lot less expensive there than at the health food store. (so

is the dried sea weed.)

 

I normally use shiitakes in my daily soup.

 

At first I tried just adding them but they never seemed to soften up

so now I use a method suggested by a Korean friend.

After washing them off I soak them in some warmed water.

 

After a couple minutes they absorb the water like a sponge. Once

softened I cut them to size and use both them and the water they were

soaking in to start the soup.

This is the time I might add a chopped up piece of dried kombu,

especially if I'm going to open up a can of beans to add to the soup.

(Yes, dried beans would be less expensive but I'd have to start

planning for them the night before.)

 

I might add a couple bags of herbal tea like milk thistle (or any

other herb recommended for medicinal purposes) at this time so

they can take advantage of the long simmer to express their qualities.

 

It is not a bad idea to think of all your food as a medicine. This

concept has kept me from eating foolishness.

 

The rest of the soup can be any vegetables I have on hand. The longer

cooking ones, like carrots and onions, go in first. (In the Spring,

leeks are a nice substitute to the regular round onions.)

There can never be too much garlic.

Just before the harder vegetables are soft enough to eat I add the

quick to cook ones like cabbage, pea pods or sprouted beans.

If you eat fish, towards the end of the cooking time would be a good

time to add that.

 

If you can digest tofu without a problem, add this towards the end so

it doesn't have time to fall apart. Before I realized unfermented soy

products gave me a problem I would buy the extra firm tofu, drain it,

cut it up into bite size pieces and freeze them to use in soups. The

freezing changes its texture and it will hold together better.

 

When I deem the soup cooked long enough I turn the heat off and draw

out a small amount of the liquid into a separate container to mix the

miso with.

There are several forms of miso. Some are said to be better for a

season than others. I invest, however, in what tastes good to me.

 

Then I add the miso broth back to the soup pot.

Never cook the miso. Heat distroys its live enzymes.

 

If I feel the need for some additional oil in my diet I might add a

drop of flax oil to the soup once it is in my bowl. My husband prefers

olive oil in his soup.

 

And one more thing, if I find I've added far too many vegetables to

the soup and there isn't much both, when I mix the miso to the

reserved both I might add a couple tablespoons of nut butter as a

thickener and serve the whole thing as a stew with rice instead.

 

Penel