Hey boys!
I love your friends! You both have been so lucky to have some of the best friends a mom could ever hope for her sons to have.
I love how they know they are always welcome; that our front door is always open to them. I love that when they show up at dinner time, they just go grab a plate and shimmy up to the dinner table. Even better, if they show up after dinner, they would always rummage on their own in the refrigerator or the pantry to find the left-overs!
I think that one of my all-time favorite memories will be when 2 of your friends (Lochlan) called and asked me to help them develop a recipe for Japanese ramen. They wanted an A in their high school culinary class.
They came over after church one Sunday and we made up this soup. It made for a really fun Sunday afternoon!
Thanks for being the kind of boys who always ended up with the best of friends.
Love you!

Udon Noodle Soup
Ingredients
- 1 cup boiling water to reconstitute the mushrooms
- 1/4 cup dried shiitake mushrooms
- 1 cup Asian soup base you can buy this in any Asian market.
- 3 cups water
- 2 TBSP fish sauce once of my favorite "secret" ingredients
- 3 TBSP Tamari sauce AKA: Japanese soy sauce. It has a richer, "smokey-er" flavor and is less salty. It is also gluten free.
- 1 large carrot peeled and thinly sliced into rounds
- 1 jalapeno cut into thin rounds
- 1 cup Korean cabbage Bok Choy or Nappa cabbage also work
- 2 whole green onions sliced up
- 1 block fresh tofu either medium or firm will work
- 3 "cubes" frozen Udon noodles You buy this at the asian market, they come in pre-formed "cubes". I find one cube is enough for one person.
- 1 TBSP sesame oil just a little bit to drizzle on top before serving.
Instructions
- Boil water, you need to reconstitute the dried mushrooms. This should only take about 10 min. Save the mushroom water and use it in the soup.
- Prep all veggies and tofu. Peel, and slice the carrots, chunk up the cabbage, slice up the jalapeno and the green onion. Cube the tofu into bite size pieces. Once the mushrooms have reconstituted, pull them out of the water and mince up small.
- To a large pot add the soup base, 3 cups water, fish sauce and Tamari sauce and the mushroom water. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to maintain the broth at a grumpy simmer.
- Add frozen udon noodles, carrots, mushroom and the cabbage. Keep at a rolling or grumpy simmer for ten min.
- Add the green onions, tofu and the jalapeno slices and let it simmer 5 more min.
- Drizzle with sesame seed oil and top with dried roasted seaweed.
Congrats … I am gonna try this!
Sweet! Let me know how you like it!