I know its meant to be summer, (today felt like if for the first time and we went to the beach) but its been raining most days and I needed a warm spicy soup to help take the chill off. my brother really enjoyed it, he loves Asian food, and it has to be spicy so he was really happy when he got in from work and saw it on the stove, (yes he is still living with me). I was going to use a chicken stock but I decided to make it veggie friendly.

I made the platter and bowl at pottery class, they are hand formed then I imprinted the pattern with my fingers, I love making my own bowls and plates, the chop sticks belong to my grandma, I borrowed them from her, she got them from her travels in Asia and they are usually kept in a cabinet with all her souvenirs from her travels around the world with my Grandad, she keeps asking for them back oops… sorry grandma I will bring them with me next week.

for the broth

• vegetable stock cube
• 2 pints of water
• greens from a bunch of spring onion
• handful of dried porcini mushrooms about 1/2 cup
• 4 tbsp. soy sauce
• 1/4 tbsp. miso
• 1/4 cup mirin or white wine
• thumb sized piece of stem ginger chopped up
• 2 tsp. yuzu or lemon juice
• 1 tbsp. whole pepper corns
• 1 tsp palm sugar
• 1 tsp dried chilli flakes

for the soup

• 1 and a half cups of sliced wild mushrooms
• 1 bok choy
• 1/2 cup peas
• 1/3 cup bean sprouts
• 1 green chilli (optional)
• 2 spring onions

add all the broth ingredients into the pan and simmer for half an hour to infuse flavours, then strain through a sift to remove all the bits. cut up the mushrooms I used shiitake, king oyster, and normal oyster mushrooms. cut the boy choy so you have individual leaves. and add thinly slice the spring onions and cut up the chilli and remove the seeds. add all the veg into the broth and simmer until mushrooms and bok choy are tender. when the broth is boiling add the quails eggs and boil for 2 minutes, then remove them and peel off the shells.

to serve add some rice noodles (I quickly added some into some boiled water to cook them) then add the broth and veg, top with the quails egg and some more chopped spring onions and a sprinkle of black sesame seeds.