Soba Noodles in Pork Ribs Miso Soup

When we were growing up, dinner always came with a big bowl of soup. Mama would start making the soup in the mid-afternoon, starting from the bones to make stock. It was usually pork ribs that were used as the base but the main ingredient would change daily: lotus roots with lotus seeds, winter melon, old cucumber, bitter gourd (yuck!!!), groundnut and all kinds of Chinese vegetables. My brothers hated it but I would sometimes go for seconds.

I love the subtle taste of Chinese broths, where the flavour is coaxed out from the ingredients after hours of simmering. Best of all, it is not heavy because there are no cream or flour or pureed vegetables... so I can have more!

I found some nice pork ribs over the weekend and decided to make some stock to keep. The ribs were scalded and then put into a pot of boiling water. When the water boiled again, I added in a diced onion and a clove of garlic to flavour the stock, and some Chinese cabbage to sweeten it. I left it simmering for about 2 hours. Fortunately these ribs were not too fatty and there wasn't much fat to skim off before popping the pot into the fridge.

With half of this stock base, I made soba noodles in pork ribs miso soup the following day.

Pork ribs soba in miso soup - serves 2

Ingredients

1 litre soup stock with 4 pork ribs already cooked

1 sachet of dashinomoto

4 or Chinese cabbage leaves, slided

2 packets of soft soba noodles

Handful of sweet peas, trimmed

Fresh white shimeji mushrooms

Miso soup base

1 tablespoon of red miso paste

30 ml of mirin

Red chili, finely sliced (optional)

Preparation time: 20 mins

Cooking time: 20 mins

Level of difficulty: Easy peasy

Bring the soup stock to a boil and add the sachet of dashinomoto and the Chinese cabbage leaves. Leave to simmer for about 10 minutes.

Add miso paste to the mirin, mixing to make sure that the paste is thoroughly dissolved. Set aside.

Remove the dashinomoto sachet, taking care not to break it. Increase the heat to the pot and the soba noodles to the soup. Cook for about 3 minutes before adding the sweet peas and the mushrooms. Continue cooking for another 3 minutes before removing from heat. Stir in the miso and mirin mixture.

Serve immediately in 2 bowls. Being a Singaporean who loves her soup served with fresh red chili, I garnished my noodles with some fiery slices.

*slurp*