Miso Coconut Curry Soup - Creamy Zen Tropical Masterpiece - cooking recipe

Ingredients

8 cups water
2 tablespoons sea salt (Pink Himalayan)
3 teaspoons powdered bonito
3 green onions, sliced
16 ounces white miso (mellow white miso paste organic)
2 (14 ounce) cans coconut milk
1 tablespoon panang curry paste (red panang curry paste)
2 Thai red chili peppers (whole, do NOT cut)
1 inch fresh galangal root (finely grated)
8 kaffir lime leaves (small)
1 stalk lemongrass (fine minced)
7 ounces shiitake mushrooms (fresh)
1 (15 ounce) can straw mushrooms (only if you cant find fresh)
1/2 fresh lime juice (half of one juicy lime)
1 teaspoon raw brown sugar
1 tablespoon butter (to poach the quail eggs in)
2 (8 ounce) packages fresh udon noodles
1 cup fresh cilantro (de-stemmed, leaves only)
12 quail eggs

Preparation

Boil 8 Cups Water with 2 tbs Pink Himalayan Sea Salt on high heat. Use a nice stainless steel soup pot that has a good lid with a little hole in it. (preferably see through) You will need at least 3-4 inches of room on top, so a deep pot is ok.
When it boils, turn the heat off (let it go below the bubbling point).
Just as the bubbles settle down add 3 teaspoons Bonito Fish Powder soup stock.
Stir gently, cover and wait 2-3 minutes, taste a sip.
Add 1 bunch of thinly sliced fresh Scallion Green Onions.
This is your basic stock.
Stir gently, cover and wait 2-3 minutes, taste a sip.
Turn back on heat and slowly raise heat just below medium *never let soup bubble from this point on. Watch it closely, you can burn this soup if you are not slow and easy. Do not go above medium heat from this point forward.
Add 3-4 tablespoons of mellow white miso paste. (organic) Slowly mash the miso into the soup with a large ladle and wooden spoon. Ease it into the hot soup, you cream it just under the soup near the surface. Now you have your basic creamy miso soup.
Stir gently, cover and wait 2-3 minutes, taste a sip. you'll already love it.
Keep the heat below the bubbling point, this soup is a delicate one.
Add 2 cans of Coconut Milk, shake them vigorously before you open them.
Stir gently, cover and wait 2-3 minutes, taste a sip. yep, that was a mouthgasm you just had.
Add 1 large tablespoons of Red Panang Curry Paste. Slowly mash the curry paste into the water in a large ladle ease it into the hot soup, you cream it just under the soup near the surface.
Stir gently, cover and wait 2-3 minutes, taste a sip. I know! how could it get any better?!?!
*never let soup bubble at this point. Low or just below medium heat*.
Now throw in two little thai red hot peppers, whole, stem and all, do not cut them, so that they barely spice the soup.
Stir gently, cover and wait 2-3 minutes, taste a sip. this is like a zen meditation of patience, it will pay off!
Add in the fresh finely grated galangal root (fine grate about an inch).
Add the 8 small kaffir limes leaves (whole).
Stir gently, cover and wait 2-3 minutes, taste a sip. you taste the soup evolve at each step.
Now we will prep the lemon grass stalk. Chop off the white root looking bottom part about an inch going up. Only chop off the bottom part, leave some white. Then chop it again at the top green part where it begins to split the whole usable part should be about 4 inches long from the bottom going upwards. Then unwrap a layer or two until you have only the middle part. Smash it with a coffee cup or the flat part of the knife. Finely chop it a few times until it is thinly minced.
Add in the prepped minced lemongrass stalk to the soup.
Stir gently, cover and wait 2-3 minutes, taste a sip. do you love me yet? :-).
Then add the fresh shiitake mushrooms. Cut them into little strips. (no stems, only the flat caps).
Add the can of straw mushrooms. Don't cut these, put them in whole. (drain the water from the can) Use fresh straw mushrooms if you can find them. Wait until the mushrooms fuse totally into the soup.
Stir gently, cover and wait 2-3 minutes, taste a sip.
Add in 1 teaspoon coarse brown sugar.
Add in 1/2 of a lime juiced (squeeze it in the soup) don't put the whole lime in, just its juice.
Stir gently, cover and wait 2-3 minutes, taste a sip. you taste that? it's tropical love!
Then add the thick long udon noodles, freshly frozen. You can put the whole frozen udon square into the soup. I use one or two squares of the frozen 5 packs.
Stir gently, cover and wait 2-3 minutes, taste a sip.
Lightly poach some quail eggs, you can find them in an asian market. They are hard to crack so you must be carful or you will break the yellow part and it won't look as good. I use a very sharp chef knife and give them a little chop on the side near the fattest part. Use an egg poacher the kind that has little non-stick bowls that float above hot water. Put a tiny dab of butter in each bowl and then the egg on top once the butter is melted. Once again use low to medium heat, quail eggs can be done in about 30 seconds, if you like the sunny look.
You are now ready to serve your soup.
Serve with fresh (de-stemmed) cilantro leaves on top, and gently place a few lightly poached quail eggs on top. I like them barely poached, sunny and a bit runny.
Enjoy!