Soup of the week - hu tieu (seafood noodle soup)

***Note: this blog post REEKS of laziness. It was a slow weekend, weather was too good to be productive, and hustling in the kitchen for a long period of time didn't seem so hot. Regardless of the effort required, the intent shined through!

The weather is finally cooling down, and it's a great time to make delicious soups to enjoy over a lazy weekend.

I went to visit family a couple weeks back and had my mom's yummy bun rieu and have been craving more soups lately.

MOH and I finally made the trek to our local asian grocery store, 99 ranch, and stocked up on a bunch of asian ingredients. We got more rice, fish sauce, sesame oil, beansprouts, and dried seafood. I was craving some hu tieu (seafood noodle soup) for a really long time (since seeing my family), but hadn't the chance to get the ingredients.

Hu tieu is my favorite noodle dish and probably within the top three of my favorite Vietnamese comfort foods. It is deep in flavor, and pretty healthy as well. The broth is very soup-y tasting in comparison to other noodle dishes in Vietnamese cuisine. Pho (beef noodle soup) for example, has a more sweet, anise flavor that you flavor with hoisin and sriracha, that isn't always the best to eat when you're feeling under the weather. Also, bun mam (Vietnamese seafood gumbo), though extremely flavorful, is naturally very salty, not to mention stinky (it's got high amount of garlic and fish). Hu tieu has the distinct advantage of just being a great soup base (dashi tasting) that you eat with noodles. Its soup is very versatile too, and can be made from the broth that you get after boiling a cut of pork meat, or conversely, leftover hu tieu broth can be used as a soup base for wintermelon or green leaf soup. 

I was pretty scared of trying to make this dish, but my mom consoled me and gave me the rough cut of how to make it. Most comfort foods don't rely on clear cut ingredients - my mom's cooking is no different. Never lacking in flavor, my mom cooks by pure intuition, often tasting in between trials, having spices on hand within immediate reach. The only downer to this is trying to figure out what goes into her delicious foods - I try following her around the kitchen and just see ingredients being thrown into large pots, stuff simmering in slurries of spice mixtures - with all the mental notes I'm taking, who knows if I caught the secret dash of five spice that goes into that sumptious beef curry?!?! Nonetheless, you keep watching, slowly taking in the environment happenings, stare into open pots and skillets trying to figure out what's inside and hopefully something sticks - HOPEFULLY. If not, you do a bunch of trials at home, trying to figure out what went into  that lemongrass mixture, and figure that the heat from the mixture wasn't from ginger, but turmeric and garlic... oh well, you live and learn right? 

Hu tieu is pretty simple to make in comparison with its more complex/time consuming sisters (pho and bun bo hue). While I haven't made my own batch of bun bo hue (vietnamese spicy beef noodle soup), pho traditionally is supposed to have a broth that's been slow simmered in beef chuck bones (my mom does overnight, though I've cheated and done a quick boil in 2 hours - gets the job done, but not nearly as flavorful or deep tasting as my mother's). Hu tieu can be done within 1 hour, which works great for anyone who doesn't want to sit around waiting for a broth to develop.

Ingredients:

- Garnishes: 

• Three green onion sprigs, chopped
• Small red onion, sliced longways, thin
• Bunch of cilantro, chopped
• Lime, sliced

- Soup base:

• Chicken, pork or vegetable broth (can be made from scratch or used from a can)
• Half a packet of dried shrimp
• 5 little dried cuttlefish (or can use 2 dried squids)

- Toppings/noodles:

• Shrimp with skin on, deveined (3 per person)
• Shrimp balls (or seafood balls)
• Sliced pork strips (optional - it's traditionally served with pork meat, but I prefer to not eat pork)
• Sliced squid (also optional, but for today's recipe, I only have shrimp materials)
• Bean sprouts
• Chives
• Green leaf lettuce
• 1 large yellow onion, sliced longways thinly
• Pho noodles (can also use the translucent hu tieu designated noodles - call me crazy, but I prefer the stringiness and texture of pho noodles)

Protocol:
First you want to make the broth. I was really lazy today, so I used two cans of chicken broth and filled my soup pot (a 50 quart size) halfway with water after adding in the chicken broth. You can make your broth from scratch or potentially use vegetable broth - just make sure it's seasoned enough. Then add in your dried shrimp and cuttlefish. (Note: if you go to the asian store, they sell dried squid, but it's 10 bucks for 4 dried squids - I was feeling adventurous and decided to go for the smaller cousin, the dried cuttlefish, which is half the price, and comes with way more. Cuttlefish looks exactly like squid, only smaller). Let the pot simmer for maybe 30 minutes at least and season the broth to make sure it's got this umami taste. The seafood flavor should come out after adding in the shrimp and cuttlefish.

While I waited for my broth, I made my caramelized onions - just simply  toss the onions into a hot skillet with some oil until the onions are browned/blackened. They should taste really sweet - this will go great as the topping. 

When your broth has been simmering a bit, add in the shrimp balls and shrimp - the shrimp will cook quickly - as soon as it floats, take out the shrimp and set aside. You also need to make the garnish that goes on top - simply combine green onions, red onion, and cilantro. This fresh mixture will add layers of flavor to your soup and can be made ahead of time and refrigerated until use.

When you're ready to eat, boil water in a small sauce pot to use for blanching your noodles. Once the water is boiling, take a bundle of the dried noodles and throw into the pot - the noodles will cook quickly, so remove the noodles with chopsticks or any utensil and throw in your bowl. Then add in your shrimp, meat toppings, and pour in your broth on top. Finish the soup with a generous layer of garnish and a sprinkle of your caramelized onions - simple. You can add in lime juice, and top with vegetables if you prefer, or eat it by itself - the broth should be flavored sufficiently to stand alone if necessary.

I always like to throw a huge topping of vegetables in my soup and throw in sliced thai chilis for heat.

Until next time, happy eating!