Broth & Daikon Noodles

Let me push the mop aside and get up from my knees to tell you what has kept me from updating the blog.

I’ve come to think of our cottage as a lovely granny, who squeaks, leaks, and lapses. Like any 91 year old, she urges constant care. Although I nurse her, she’s prone to accidents and regularly falls apart. She is cozy, but also naughty, and it’s a full time job to tend her. Her mishaps keep me busy and make my life unpredictable.

For example, I was cleaning the woodstove in the kitchen a week ago. Suddenly carbon deposits blocked the ash vacuum, blowing the soot around the house. Goodbye white walls, ceilings and floors! And, good bye a new blog post! Since then I’ve been scrubbing every surface, furniture, and household item, and washing the textiles. By now, I’m only halfway through.

Before I'll climb on the ladder to sweep the walls, let me drop you a recipe I came up with in March while fasting on a festival day. Although I didn’t entertain my mind with anything fancier than a warm, clear broth while abstaining from food, I added spices, herbs, and vegetables to the soup when I cooked it later. Protein, like chickpeas or kidney beans, would make it more filling. Tofu or paneer would go very well with it, too.

BROTH WITH DAIKON NOODLES
(Serves 2-4 persons)

The broth:
2 Tbsp ghee or oil
2 ½ cm (1”) cinnamon stick
5 cloves 2 star anise
1 tej patta
1 tsp fennel seeds
½ tsp jeera seeds
¼ tsp hing powder
1 green chili (hot)
2 ½ cm (1”) ginger
1 l (4 cups) grated vegetables (sweet potatoes, cabbage, potatoes, carrots, kale etc)
2 l (8 cups) water

The eggplant:
1 eggplant
2 Tbsp ghee oil
1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
2-3 Tbsp Bragg soy sauce

Other ingredients:
7 ½ cm (3”) daikon
3-4 small grill peppers
250 ml (1 cup) broad beans
2 tsp Himalayan salt or to taste
1 tsp kala namak
1 ½ tsp amchoor powder
1 bunch of basil leaves and seedlings

Make the broth first. Heat up the ghee or oil in a pot. Add the cinnamon, cloves, anise, tej patta, fennel and jeera seeds, and fry them for 30 seconds. Sprinkle in the hing powder, and add immediately the chili and ginger. Fry the spices, tossing, for 30 seconds before adding the vegetables. Sauté the vegetables for a couple of minutes then pour in the water. Cover the pot and bring the water to boil. Then reduce the heat to moderately low and cook for 40 to 60 minutes.

Strain the liquid and keep it warm until all the components are ready. Save the vegetable fiber for pancakes or bread.

While the broth is cooking, dice the eggplant. Heat up the ghee on a frying pan. When it’s hot, add the black pepper. Toss once and add the eggplant pieces. Fry them over moderate heat until they are golden on all sides. Pour in the soy sauce. Place the eggplants into the broth. Spiralize the daikon into long noodles and cut the peppers into thin slices. Place them and the beans, along with the salt, kala namak and amchoor into the broth. Garnish with basil leaves and seedlings.

Alternatively, you can place the vegetables, basil leaves and seedlings on individual plates and pour the hot broth on the top of them.

Thank you.