In autumn, forest smells like mushrooms. This specific, wonderful aroma fuses with wet, lively green moss, floats on raindrops, slowly lays down on the last, slightly dried berries and golden leaves. You can find it the strongest after the rain, when you can almost feel those tiny mushrooms hat emerging from the ground. It’s like an invitation to taste the forest, take a deep breath and step in.
Autumn is also the umami time. We seek it in intensive broths, roasted roots, smoked paprika. Fresh, wild mushrooms are so full of umami. It seems that you need just slightly fried them with salt and pepper and eat with good bread. The taste will be incredible. But you can also serve them with roasted pumpkin, kale in a deep, aromatic broth made of knobu and miso, to create a kind of umami feast on the plate. And I strongly recommend you to try both options.
Wild mushroom ramen
with pumpkin and kale
Ingredients:
3-4 servings
about 1500ml vegan dashi*
1,5 tbsp ume vinegar
3 tbsp light miso
3/4 tbsp dark miso
300g wild mushrooms
1 tbsp canola oil
1 tbsp tamarin or light soy sauce
500g hokkaido
2-3 tsp chili flakes**
pinch of cinnamon
light soy sauce
1-2 tbsp sesame oil
4 cloves garlic
1 fresh chili (optional)
3 stalks kale
2 tsp canola oil
1 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp light soy sauce
ground sweet paprika
200-300g udon noodles
fresh lemon balm
fresh chili (optional)
* you can prepare the broth according to this recipe. To this ramen I soaked shiitake and konbu overnight. Konbu can be easily replaced by wakame.
** you can add more, if you like more spicy. You can also use ground chili.
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Pell and cut the pumpkin into cubes. Mix withe sesame oil, thinly sliced chili and whole, unpeeled garlic cloves. Season with soy sauce, pinch of cinnamon, chili flakes and mix again. Roast for 20-25 minutes, stirring 1-2 times.
2. Clean the mushrooms. The bigger cut into pieces, the smaller ones leave whole. Fry the mushroom on the dry pan for about 6 minutes, stirring often. Add the oil and soy sauce and fry for 4 minutes more.
3. Removes stalks and tear kale into bite size pieces. Mix with the oil, rice vinegar, soy sauce and ground paprika. Roast in 150C with circulation for 7-9 minutes, until become crunchy.
4. Heat the dashi. Take the 1/2 cup of hot broth and mix it with miso. Pour the mixture back in. Add ume vinegar and season with soy sauce if needed.
5. Prepare udon noodle.
6. In a bowl put the udon noodles, pumpkin, kale, mushrooms and squeeze one garlic clove out of its skin. Pour the hot broth. Sprinkle with fresh lemon balm and thinly sliced fresh chili (optional).
