This soup is different from a lot of my soups because not only are you making sure the ingredients that go into the broth are cooked and seasoned properly, the broth is what carries the dish. By fortifying and enriching chicken stock with ginger, dried mushrooms, soy sauce, and more you create the base flavor. The broth is a sweet sour base with 5 spice undertones throughout the dish. Additionally you want to use that flavorful base to poach off your pork, at a very low temperature to keep it tender.
The main ingredients that go into the broth are are pork, soba noodles, and cabbage. I used pork shoulder for this, though you can swap out the shoulder to any other cut. The main thing is to be able to have manageable strips so that you can get nice hard grill marks on them. Once chilled I sliced them and stored them separately from the soup. Additionally I cut the soba noodles in half after cooking them, and also stored them separately so that they don't absorb all the broth.
Ingredients
Pork Marinade
Pork Shoulder, cut into strips 6 lbs.
Orange, cut into segments 1 ea
Lime, cut into segments 1 ea
Black Bean Paste 1 T
Ponzu 2 T
Gochujang 1 T
5 Spice 1 T
Lightly squeeze the citrus and mix all ingredients together. Marinate pork overnight.
Soup
Chicken Stock 2 qts
Water 2 qts
Rice Wine Vinegar 1/2 cup
Mirin 1/2 cup
Ginger root, sliced 4 oz
Garlic Powder 2 T
Coriander Seed, whole 2 T
Hoisin 3 T
5 Spice 3 T
Dried Mushrooms 6 oz
Lime, zest and juice 2 ea
Salt and Pepper to taste
Gochujang 1 T
Onion, julienned 1 ea
Cabbage, savoy sliced thin 1 ea (depending on size)
Water chestnuts, sliced into strips 1 can
Bamboo shoots, cut into strips 1 can
Soba Noodles 1 pack
Oil 1 T
Garnish
Scallions
Method of Procedure
Put dried mushrooms, 5 spice, ginger root, garlic powder, coriander seed, chicken stock, mirin, and rice wine vinegar, hoisin, gochujang, and water into a soup pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 1-2 hours.
Strain broth while retaining mushrooms. Puree the mushrooms and add back into the broth. Reserve until later.
Preheat oven to 225 degrees. Turn you grill on high and wait until hot.
Hard grill the pork loin until the sugars have a nice char on it. Place the grilled pork into a baking dish and cover with your fortified broth. Cook for 45 minutes, covered, in the oven until the pork is cooked all the way through.
Remove pork from baking tray and chill. Once cooled, slice thinly and reserve.
Combine the pork jus and your soup base.
Heat oil in your large soup pot. Add cabbage, and onion and sweat.
Add your broth, water chestnuts, and bamboo shoots and bring to a simmer. Season to taste with salt and pepper and lime.
In a separate pot bring salted water to a boil and cook off the soba noodles.
To serve add pork slices to your soup and heat. Top with soba noodles and scallions.
Comments