Thai inspired soup with Chinese cabbage, baby corn, soba noodles and mushrooms and snowed in

The forecast on Friday was calling for a foot or more of snow from midnight all through Saturday. The kids are ecstatic, DD has already made several trips outside and as is her hobby of the moment taking pictures.Her unscientific measurement says we have got 7inches of snow already. People from the mid west and up north laugh at the way we deal with snow. We deal with snow by making a run of the grocery stores and stocking up on bread, milk and toilet paper. Why toilet paper have no idea. Am I well stocked up? Yes but not because of the weather.

Early in the morning, 6 inches of snow

I was getting into a funk earlier in the week with the overcast skies and the mercury dipping. It is this time of the year when I wonder what I am doing in a faraway cold country and then get into a deeper funk. The best medicine to treat this particular kind of funk is to get out and be active which is exactly what I did followed by a visit to the library where I caught sight of a glorious Thai soup on the cover of Vegetarian Times. Just the thing for the weather and the mood. I made a bee line to the international market and stocked up on some veggies. The Thai soup had green, Swiss Chard to be exact but I caught sight of some lovely fresh Chinese(Shanghai) cabbage and decided to make use of them. I did not have a paper to jot down the recipe from the magazine so this not the exact recipe that was on there but my own with the ingredients I had on hand. That is how I ended up with a well stocked refrigerator to wait out the snow storm. But being a Washingtonian we also made sure we have enough milk and bread. As for toilet paper we were already well stocked.

Few hours later, a foot of snow

DD just reported there is one foot of snow and we have another 6-12 hours to go before it finally stops. So that is an additional 4 inches from the time I started to write this post, in the meantime we had breakfast and made some kollu rasam. We have enough left overs from dinner last night when we had some relative/friends over.

still going strong

How is the weather in your neck of the woods?

Chinese cabbage

Clear soups are a favorite in our house. I rarely buy Tofu but it was perfect in this soup. There was no need to add salt because of the fish and soy sauce.

Soup with Chinese cabbage, mushroom, baby corn and soba noodles
Ingredients
1. 4 Cups of low sodium chicken stock
2. 1/2 of an onion sliced
3. 1 packet dried mushroom or fresh
4. 1 tin of baby corn drained and washed
5. 4 heads of Chinese cabbage washed thoroughly separated and sliced (regular cabbage cut into big slices would work as well)
6. 1 1/2 cups of cooked soba noodles
7. 4-6 garlic cloves mashed and cut
8. 2 tsp of freshly grated ginger
9. 1 tbsp of bruised lemon grass (optional)
10. 1 tbsp of Thai chili paste (I used Maesri brand)
11. 1 tsp fish sauce (optional)
12. 2 tsp of soy sauce (optional)
13. 8 shrimp (optional)
14. Extra firm Tofu cut into cubes
15. coriander leaves

Method
1. In a heavy bottomed pan heat oil and saute the onions till they are soft, add the garlic and saute for a few minutes. Meanwhile set a sauce pan with the chicken stock, add the lemon grass and let it come to a boil and separately cook the soba noodles.
2. Add the Chinese cabbage and chili paste and saute (I loved the smell of the sauteing Chinese cabbage like boiling peanuts) for about 5 minutes.
3.Add the mushrooms and baby corn and saute till the cabbage has wilted. If adding shrimp add it now and saute for a minute and fish it out.
4. Add the soy sauce and fish sauce if doing so.
5.Remove the lemon grass and add the stock to the vegetables and let it come to a boil.
6. Add the shrimp,sliced Tofu and coriander leaves a couple of minutes before turning off the heat.