Hibachi Soup

OH DEAR GOODNESS THIS IS GOOD!

Alright, now that I have that out of my system I can tell you about the soup.  Ever been to a Japanese steak restaurant and sat at the tepanyaki tables?  You know how they bring you a little bowl of salad with wonderfully yummy ginger dressing (which we will tackle in another post seeing I have a few recipes for that as well) and that oh so yummy soup?  Calling it soup might be a bit of a stretch.  It is normally a nice small bowl of broth with some mushrooms, scallions and french fried onions.  It has both beefy and chicken flavorings that is all underscored with just the right amount of ginger.

Now some restaurants do this soup to perfection (Sakura Tokyo in Worcester, MA) and some have a just OK recipe (Osaka falls into this category for me).  I have been trying to perfect this recipe since the very first time Brian brought me to Sakura; and I realized that I spent 18 years of my life saying I didn't like a food genre that I, in fact, LOVE.  I have tried mixes (I know, I know), I have tried cans from specialty stores, heck I have even gone so far as to order it different places in the hopes of getting something CLOSE to Sakura's.

THE SEARCH IS OVER.
Today I made Hibachi Soup - a recipe that I of course found on Pinterest.  (Perhaps one of these days I should blog about my horrible horrible Pinterest obsession.)  Right from the very beginning I knew this one would be different.  Not only does it have been and chicken bouillon, but it also has celery, carrots and garlic - all of which are flavors that I could pick out in the soup even if they weren't present.  (I always chalked that up to a veggie broth but I was wrong.)  This is the easiest recipe ever.  Throw everything into a pot and basically walk away.  I am thinking that I will experiment with making it in the crockpot - I will keep you posted.  Let me tell you it is a dead ringer for Sakura's soup - I am thrilled!

Hibachi Soup

• 1 stalk Celery
• 2 medium Carrots
• 1 small Onion
• 4 oz sliced Mushrooms (I didn't have fresh on hand so I used canned)
• 3 cloves Garlic
• 5 Beef Bouillon Cubes*
• 4 Chicken Bouillon Cubes*
• 9 cups Water
• Ginger per discretion  (I didn't have fresh so I used powdered.  I used 3/4 of a teaspoon)
• French's Fried Onions 
• Scallions
• Salt and Pepper

These are instructions based on how I prepared the soup, the recipe calls for different veggie preparation.  I will explain after.  (* The original recipe called for 2.5 tablespoons of chicken bouillon granules and 3 tablespoons of beef bouillon granules.  That was just TOO MUCH for me to handle - I am thinking it would have been WAY to salty.  Therefore I scaled back to the 4 and 5 cubes respectively.  1 bouillon cube = 1 teaspoon of granules   3 bouillon cubes = 1 tablespoon of granules)

1. Wash, peel, slice (onion), and chop all the veggies and garlic.  Place in pot.
2. Add ginger.
3. Add 9 cups of water.
4. Bring the soup to a rolling boil
5. Reduce heat and simmer for at least 45 minutes.  You can let it sit longer, just be sure to replenish evaporating water of the soup will be very salty.
6. When ready to serve, garnish each bowl with a tablespoon of French's Fried Onions and some scallions.  

The recipe makes about 8-9 cups of soup.  Each serving is 1.5 cups.  That is a total of 37 calories per serving of soup!  Let me say that again - THIRTY-SEVEN calories per ONE AND A HALF CUPS of YUMMINESS!  (It is a good thing you guys know I am crazy or this probably would have tipped the scales :-D)

Now earlier I had explained that those were my instructions and not the recipe's.  The recipe calls for all the same ingredients (save the scallions) and a very similar process.  The main exception is that the original recipe does not want you to chop all veggies into nice small pieces.  As a matter of fact, it says to cut the celery and carrots in half as well as the onion.  It does this because you are supposed to strain the vegetables out of the soup prior to serving - and just garnish with fried onions.  As I read the recipe I said to myself: What a waste.  All those wonderful vegetables gave the soup it's great taste - plus if I keep them in it will be more filling.  So I broke from the recipe and made my hibachi soup into hibachi VEGGIE FILLED soup.  

If you like the soup served at Sakura (or your choice of Japanese Steak House) then please try this.  It is wonderfully delicious, smells great while cooking and is EASY!  Plus, like all the recipes I tend to favor, it is made with kitchen staples.  No weird ingredients here.   If you try it, let me know what you think.