Asian Chicken Noodle Soup

One of my little joys in life is trying new things, whether it be food, music, an obscure craft, or the flying trapeze.  As a consequence, my tastes tend to be on the eclectic side, and I like inflicting sharing those tastes with everyone around me.  My veggie boxes the last few weeks have had more than a handful of oddballs in them, so I decided to have some friends try something new.  After clarifying with them that brussel sprouts are not the same sprouts you get on a sandwich from the deli (though I do want to try these some time very, very soon), we settled on burdock root.  I've only had burdock a handful of times, but love the slight nuttiness and crunch it lends to a stir fry.  We've had so much fog and gloom here in Seattle of late, I've been craving soups and all manner of warm drinks, so this Asian-inspired chicken noodle soup was born:

Asian Chicken Noodle Soup

For the chicken:
2 chicken breasts
pinch each of salt, pepper, celery salt, cloves, and cayenne
2 t olive oil

For the soup:
1 T olive oil
1/2 white onion, diced
1 'thumb' ginger, peeled and diced
1 clove garlic, diced
1/4 lb oyster mushrooms (sliced if large, left whole if smaller)
5 shiitake mushrooms, sliced
2 carrots, thinly sliced
6 C vegetable stock
1 bunch collard greens, rinsed, deveined, and cut in 1" wide strips
1/2 t sesame oil
2 t tamari (or soy sauce if you aren't GF)
3 t rice wine vinegar
2 bundles rice noodles
1 burdock root

Garnish:
2 scallions, chopped

Thoroughly scrub the burdock root and peel off the outer dark brown layer.  Using vegetable peeler, cut the remaining root into 3-4" long strips and place in a bowl with cold water to keep from discolouring while the soup cooks.

Sprinkle chicken breasts with spices and rest for 10 minutes.  Heat 2 t olive oil in a frying pan and cook chicken until no pink remains in the center and the outside is golden brown. Remove from heat and let rest 10 minutes.  Just before soup is finished, slice into 1/2" wide strips.

Meanwhile, heat 1 T olive oil in soup pot and sauté onion and garlic until slightly browned.  Add ginger, mushrooms and carrot.  Cook 1-2 minutes until mushrooms have started to release juices, then add stock. Simmer 10 minutes, then add tamari, rice wine vinegar, and sesame oil.  Stir well to combine. Add collard greens and rice noodles and simmer until almost cooked (~3 minutes).  Drain water off burdock root and add root to the pot.  Cook an additional 2-3 minutes and remove from heat.

To serve, ladle soup into individual soup bowls (larger sizes seem to work better), top with sliced chicken breast and sprinkle with scallions.  Eat while hot!

Gluten Free Pan-Fried Chinese Pancakes

3/4 C warm water
1/4 t salt
1/3 C Bob's Red Mill Pizza Crust Mix
1-2/3 C Bob's All-Purpose Baking Mix
2 t sesame oil
6-8 green onions, thinly sliced
1/2-1 t sesame seeds
vegetable oil for frying

Mix water  & salt in a medium mixing bowl until dissolved and add flour.  You could use a mixer or a spoon for this - the dough is pretty easy to work.  Sprinkle counter with either of the flour mixes and knead until smooth and firm (3-4 minutes).  Add additional flour as necessary to keep from sticking.  Rest, covered, for 15-20 minutes.  On floured surface, roll out to 1/2" thickness.  Sprinkle with half of the sesame seeds, onions, and sesame oil.  Roll the dough up like a jelly roll and keep folding in itself until the onions are fully incorporated (you could just knead them in, but the constant folding produces a more layered and flaky dough).  Repeat with remaining half of the sesame oil, seeds, and onion.  Divide dough into 8 balls.  Pat flat into 1/4" thick rounds and fry over medium heat in a deep frying pan coated with a thin coating of vegetable oil.  You don't want to deep fry them, you just need enough oil to brown them and keep them from sticking.  Pancakes should be golden brown and firm when done.  Serve with gyoza or hoisin sauce for dipping.

Here's the dough before going in the frying pan:

And here's the fully cooked pancakes, served alongside the soup:

One more, because it makes me ridiculously happy:

(Doesn't it look like the food is staring at you?? Creepy!)