Soup for the Soul

It's wet and blustery here today - perfect for a hot bowl of chicken noodle soup.

When I started out making this I was thinking of this more traditional soup I read about earlier in the week, however it evolved slightly to a have a more Asian feel. 

Yesterday, a trawl of the Petone food shops turned up some black fungus at Davis Trading, the local Asian supermarket and I decided to try it out in my soup.  Black fungus comes dried like Shitake and needs to be re-hydrated before use.  I soaked it in warm water for half an hour before chopping and adding to the soup.  It had a surprising crunchy texture which was slightly disconcerting but not unpleasant.

Black Fungus, also known as wood ear - for obvious reasons!

The base of the soup is home-made chicken stock, which I simmered for around 30 minutes with fresh ginger, crushed garlic, chopped onion, carrot and leek and a few chicken drumsticks.  I then strained the stock and returned it to the pot, discarding the vegetables and removing the meat from the chicken bones to be added back to the soup.  To the broth I added the chopped black fungus, dark soy sauce, fish sauce, a small amount of chilli paste and seasoned with plenty of salt and pepper.  I served the broth over the chicken meat and Japanese Soba noodles and garnished with spring onion and a healthy slug of sesame oil.