Egg Drop Chicken Noodle Soup

A quickish, lightish soup with Asian inspired flavor.

This isn't a food blog, but maybe it is now! I just improvise in the kitchen a lot, and need a way to remember the things I make when my family likes them. So I guess I'm going to occasionally post recipes.

Important caveat 1: when I'm improvising I go by smell, color, look, taste, mood, intuition—basically anything but set quantities. Also, I cook for a family of ten, so even when I know my quantities, they are not likely to be your quantities.

Important caveat 2: I'm not always trying to cook with the best ingredients, just with the ones I have at the time. I'm on a teacher's budget, so a lot of my ingredients are more like the cheapest or most easily available ones. So if I include something canned instead of fresh, for example, and you think it would be better fresh, I probably agree with you, but I didn't have any when I made this, and the point here is to remember what I did, not make the perfect recipe. I'll probably tweak it the next time I make it!

Less important caveat: the photography for these is going to be uninspiring. Yes, I'm a professional photography teacher. No, I'm not trying very hard here. These are just quick phone snapshots, often afterthoughts, so I can remember what things looked like, and therefore what they should look like next time.

Ok. Here it is:

Ingredients:

Chicken stock (1 box)

Water (12ish cups?)

Canned chicken (2 big cans)

Dried rice ramen noodles (6 portions from a bag of 10)

Eggs (8)

Red and yellow onions (one small yellow, half a red)

Soy sauce (Umm... until it looked right)

Fresh garlic (lots, like 8 or 9 cloves)

Fresh ginger (maybe a tablespoon? I just ground it straight into the pot)

Black pepper (a dusting)

Pink Himalayan salt (a couple sprinkles of the kind that goes in a grinder)

Garam masala (until it smelled and tasted right)

Turmeric (until it was nice and yellow and tasted right)

Sesame oil (a splash or two)

Makes enough for ten hungry people with perhaps a bit of leftovers.

Method:

1. Peel and dice onion and garlic. I used a garlic press, but I also like to use a mortar and pestle sometimes. Grinding or pressing the garlic makes it release its flavor much better than just cutting it.

2. Heat a bit of sesame oil in a large pot on medium heat. Add onion, garlic, pepper, ginger, and chicken, and sautee, stirring regularly, until onions are soft and things are slightly browned at the edges.

3. Add the chicken stock and water and bring to a boil. I normally would have used more chicken stock and less water, but I only had one box! My wife said she liked the ratio, so accidental win!

4. While waiting for the pot to boil, beat the eggs lightly in a separate bowl. It's important to not over-beat them, or you won't get those nice stringy eggs that define egg drop soup.

5. Add the soy sauce and the rest of the seasonings until you have a good tasting broth. I also added another splash of sesame oil.

6. Reduce the heat to a simmer. While swirling the soup in one direction, trickle the eggs into the pot. The swirling will stretch out the eggs into streamers and the heat will solidify them into those fun stringy shapes. But if it's still boiling it won't work as well.

7. Add the noodles and let the heat slowly cook them. You can turn the stove off after a minute or two and they'll just soften.

8. Feel free to continue tweaking the seasonings until you like it.

9. Let cool until it won't scald tongues, then serve.

That's it! Hope you enjoy!

Notes for next time:

Maybe add green onions or something to break up the yellow. Could thicken it with cornstarch. It would be interesting to try a bit more stock and less water. Could be made more substantial with celery, carrots, mushrooms, cabbage, or other veggies. As it is, it's a light but comforting soup that sits well in the stomach and tastes like entry level Indian food. Could substitute veggie stock and use cabbage instead of chicken to make it vegetarian. Could spice it up with dried or fresh peppers. Seaweed might be interesting!