The Impatient Chef Presents: Rethinking Breakfast

 Breakfast Kills!

Breakfast kills?  Really?  It is to this pedantic start The Impatient Chef embarks on a journey into the heart  of an Asian grocery store in Portland, Oregon, to uncover the noodle of his dreams, and reinvent breakfast that has no bacon (gasp!), eggs, hash browns, or toast, but is full of scallions, garlic, tofu, peppers, and, yes, noodles.  Did I mention dashi?

I heard a talk by John Robbins, a vegetarian and animal rights evangelist, in the 1990's.  One of his topics was breakfast.  The line that I found memorable was about an older woman in the hospital after barely surviving a massive heart attack "happily eating the exact same bacon and eggs breakfast that put her there in the first place."  I think about that every time I have a bacon and eggs breakfast.

Around the same time, I read that a greater percentage of patients survived the aftermath of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima, and Nagasaki if the hospitals served miso soup.  Does that claim have a grain of truth in it?  The Impatient Chef will not venture a guess, but miso, which is a fermented bean paste, has a stellar reputation for its healthy benefits.  Whether it can stave off radiation sickness is a long shot, but the seedling was planted, and without any clue of how to do it, The Impatient Chef made soup that everyone but him disliked, and made that soup often for 15 years.  

That is the soup you will NOT be reading about herein.  

The soup technique was improved about four years ago after an episode of "Good Eats" with Alton Brown where he discussed Asian cuisine, and the specifically art of making dashi.  Later, Chef David Chang spoke on a Netflix special called "Mind of a Chef" of his soup for breakfast routine.  The Impatient Chef snatched those ideas and ran with them out of the building, down the street (tripping over the curb), and to the store for ingredients.  

The Impatient Chef (being very impatient) tried making dashi at home, but when a granulated version showed up at a restaurant supply store in The Dalles, Oregon, that seemed to be the way to go.

Dashi, simply, is a fish broth made up of soaked seaweed (kombu), and dried and fermented fish called bonito flakes, which are boiled after the seaweed is removed.  

As foretold in the first paragraph, The Impatient Chef visited the Asian grocery store to find some more of the granulated Dashi, and some noodles.  I finally read the label.  The ingredients:  Salt, salt, salt, more salt, bonito, kombu.  Approaching 60, The Impatient Chef would also like to approach 70, or maybe even 80 someday, so the blood pressure cuff frowns mightily upon the overly salted.

Salt is a joyful sin.  

Sigh...

The Asian grocery was a larger one, nestled in Southeast Portland just off of SE 82nd Ave.  It was hard to stop pulling things from the shelves, and throwing them into the cart, but I managed to get our for under $200.00.  I bought a few different sauces and some ingredients to make dashi.  I also bought some pre-made potstickers, some Thai peppers, lotus root, and lemongrass.  

The noodle aisle was of particular joy.  I like the thin Somen noodles best, and they had them aplenty.  I picked up about 4 large packs of them, along with other assorted egg and rice noodles. 

The Haul

The amount of salt in many of the canned sauces was astounding.  I bought only those that could be used in small amounts.  In a move that is bound to test the limits of The Impatient Chef's infamously limited patience, I started formulating a plan to make homemade broths to use instead of bouillon, again to limit salt.  The trick will be to boil the bones and meat scraps from other meals, rather than boiling down a whole chicken, or the like.  Beef bones, smoked ham hocks, or oxtail may be another route.  

The Broth.  

Perfecting a broth that tastes good with or without miso was a challenge.  Why without miso?  Because The Impatient Chef's wife does not like it.  Also, dashi is a strong taste.  The question was:  How to make it palatable to western taste buds.  There are a few methods, all of which were tried.  

1. Spicy:  Hot peppers, hot sauces, hot chili oil, garlic-chili paste, sriracha, 
2. Overpower it:  aromatics, various vinegars, Worcestershire Sauce, fish sauce, oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, various bouillons.
3. Sweet:  Tomatoes, honey, sugar, mirin.
4. Salty:  Soy sauce, yuzu ponzu, MSG, kosher salt.

In the end, it took a little of all of them in moderation, and, obviously, not all of the above at the same time.  

The method.

My breakfast soup is more of a method than a recipe.  It tastes different, either slightly or wildly, each time.  This keeps it from getting boring, and it makes cooking it more interesting.  

1. Make dashi ahead of time.  For 1 quart, I soak a 1" x 8" strip of kombu for a half an hour in a quart of water, and then bring it slowly to a boil over medium heat.  Once boiling, I remove the kombu, lower the heat, and add 1/4 cup of loosely packed bonito flakes, and simmer for 10 minutes.  It then gets poured through a fine mesh strainer into a canning jar.  Keep it refrigerated until use.   
   
   

   

   Bonito Flakes

   

   Dashi

   
   
2. Cook noodles.  Can be ahead of time.  I keep them covered with water in containers in the refrigerator. 
3. Prepare aromatics.  I like scallions, celery, garlic, some kind of of hot chili (I remove the seeds and membrane so that it's not too spicy for others in the household), and mushrooms - usually crimini and shiitake, and maybe some lemongrass if I have some.
4. Sauté them in sesame oil.
5. Add one to two of:  Cabbage, snow peas, zucchini.  Sauté a little more.
6. Add dashi.  Taste.  The flavor should not be too strong.  Adjust liquid level if necessary by adding water.  I will usually use half a quart, and use water to make the difference.  You can use less for a lighter taste.
7. Bring to a boil.  Taste
8. Add soy sauce, and bouillon (usually chicken, beef, mushroom, vegetable, or pork).  Taste.  Add more if necessary.  
9. Add cubed tofu, ground black or white pepper.  
10. Fill in the holes in the broth flavor.  Different ingredients make different changes to the broth.  It takes practice, but learn which sauces work with different bouillons, or with plain dashi.  Try fish sauce, mirin, chili pastes, etc.  Find what taste floats your boat.  The Impatient Chef like big flavor - massive flavor - the kind of flavor that slams you in the face like it's a jilted wife wielding a cast iron frying pan.  TONG!  Thud. 
11. Boil until the veggies are done.  
12. The noodles should be done and drained by this time.  Fill your bowl about 1/4 full with noodles.  Ladle the soup over them.  
13. At the table: Add a tablespoon of miso, and mix.  It tends to not stir in easily, so it's best to mush it against the side of the bowl, and then stir it in.  Add Chili oil if you dare.  
14. Optional additions: egg drop; 1/2 half of a warm, hard boiled egg in each bowl; corn starch to thicken; a few drops of toasted sesame oil in each bowl.  
15. Enjoy.

Thanks for reading.

Gary L. Quay

--The Impatient Chef