quick soba soup

I have to say, I love shoulder. Beef or pork, seared and cooked low and slow always turns out flavorful and succulent meat. Whenever I see beef shoulder on sale at the store, I stock up and make beef bourguignon (beef stew, people), Korean moo (daikon) soup, beef barley... and then overwhelm my refrigerator with massive containers.


My favorite style of soup is Kitchen Sink Soup - anything and everything I can find. In this case, I had a few standards, as well as some soba =) To be more Japanese, you would use a kombu dashi, with some combination of kombu, katsuobushi, mirin and enoki mushrooms, but I beefed it up (pun intended) and skipped the ingredients you probably don't see in an everyday pantry. Here's Alton's recipe if you want to make it more Japanese and/or vegetarian.


beef soba soup

oil
1-1.5 lbs beef shoulder, cut into 1" cubes and trimmed of excess fat (or bone-in chicken thighs)
5 cups water
½ cup soy sauce
4-5 cloves garlic
3 large carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
3 yukon gold or red skinned potatoes, peeled and quartered
12 oz cremini or button mushrooms, halved

14 ounces dried soba noodles, cooked to al dente and rinsed in cold water to retain chewiness
1 bunch scallions, chopped finely

1. Dry the beef with paper towels. Heat oil in a pot, and brown the chunks of beef on all sides, being careful not to crowd the pan. It's best to do this in small batches (leave like 1/2" of space around each piece) - crowding will lead to steaming and you'll miss out on getting a lovely browned crust. Return all the beef to the pan, drain the oil out and add the water, soy sauce, and garlic.

2. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer for 1-1 1/2 hours, until the beef is falling apart tender. Taste the broth and add salt if needed. Add the mushrooms, carrots and potatoes and simmer until the carrots and potatoes are cooked through.

3. Place soba into bowls and ladle onto each.