Soba Noodles with Tinned Cockles & Miso Broth
One of my fave grey-day comfort foods, miso soup with clams is stupendously delicious and seaprisingly easy to cook at home. The best part is: you don’t need the fresh shells to make it happen. Tinned cockles in brine, like these ones from @matiz_foods are a quick and fool-proof way to create this dish whenever those cravings arise.
To form the base of the soup, that umami-rich brine I mentioned is mixed with a quick dashi, the tea made from rehydrated shiitake, and white miso paste (I used the brand #Namikura, generously gifted by @artisanalfoods).
The broth then gets poured over springy buckwheat soba noodles, charred bok choy, fresh shiso and scallion, and a molluscious pile of those sweet and meaty clam bombs 💥
Tingredients:
· 1 tin @matiz_foods cockles in brine
· 1 bundle dry soba noodles (about 100g)
· 2 dashi stock packs (or 1 ½ cups dashi)
· 1 ½ cups water
· 2 tbs white miso paste
· 6 large, sliced, dry shiitake (+ water for rehydrating)
· 1 small bok choy cabbage
· 4 choice shiso leaves
· green part of one spring onion, sliced on bias
Get a small pot of water going on boil for the soba and cook the noodles to package directions. While soba is working, put 1 ½ cups water in a sauce pan on high heat. Once boiling, add the dashi bags, stir once, turn heat off and cover, letting steep for 3 minutes.
While steeping, put the dried shiitake in a small bowl and pour over just enough boiling water for them to be completely covered (I like to use an electric kettle for this part). Cover bowl with a plate and set aside.
After the 3-minute steep on the dashi, remove the packets and give them a gentle squeeze to get out most of liquid. Turn pot back on to medium-low heat. Crack the cockle tin just enough for liquid to flow and pour the brine into the dashi. Add the miso paste and gently whisk it until any noticeable bits of paste have dissolved and it all looks the consistency of soup. Add the “tea” from the rehydrated shiitake. This is your broth. Taste it. Try not to keel over in fishbelief.
Split a bok choy down its line of symmetry and pressure cook it for 1 minute or blanch for 5 stovetop. Once cooked, sear on both sides in hot pan with neutral oil. Once seared, remove from heat and keep to the side. (I like to do these ahead of time and have them ready to go in the fridge for rice bowls and other recipes).
If at any point the noodles are done cooking, stop what you are doing and strain them in a colander, giving them a gentle rinse with cool water to stop them from cooking. Try to keep them warm, though, we don’t want the noodles to make our soup cold.
To plate: place half the noodles in each of two bowls, then atop each place shiitake, bok choy, clams, shiso and spring onion. Give the broth a stir in the pot and carefully ladle half into each of the bowls. Serve immediately.
Canjoy!
Serves 2
