Let’s be honest, it’s not just the kids who like Kung Fu Panda. And who hasn’t wondered what Mr Ping’s Secret Ingredient Noodle Soup actually tastes like?
So here’s our take on the soup that so impressed the furious five!
Recipe
Ingredients
For the Soup
2 cm2 piece of fresh ginger, chopped finely
Approx 4 Spring onion, chopped
(and shallots if you want)
2 - 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 tbsp chinese 5 spice
1 glass sherry
2 pints stock (see stock recipe below)
Good slug of Soy Sauce (1 fl oz at least)
Squirt of ketchup
1 carrot, sliced into thin sticks
1/4 head of brocoli, separated into small florets
Green leaves (cabbage, chard, chinese leaves, bok choi) shredded thinly
2 – 3 nests of noodles
For the stock
The best stock for this soup is a homemade chicken stock, using a chicken carcass and vegetables left over from a roast dinner.
Put the chicken carcass in a large pot, with any leftover carrots, brocoli, cabbage, swede, etc
Add 3 star anise
Add approx 4 cm piece of ginger in large slices
Cover with water and bring to the boil
Cook for approx 1 – 2 hours (adding water from time to time if you need to)
Strain ready for use
Preparation Method
- On a medium to high heat, fry the ginger, shallot (if using) and spring onions in a large pan
- Add the garlic and cook until sweated down, but not too brown
- Add some chinese 5 spice and coat the vegetables
- Add the glass of sherry
- Add the chicken stock, soy sauce and squirt of ketchup
- Throw in the star anise, bring to the boil and cook for about 10 – 15 minutes
- Add the carrots and brocoli and any other firm vegetables you want to use (e.g.mouli, courgette sticks) and cook for 5 minutes
- Add the noodle nests and shredded greens and cook for a few minutes until the noodles are cooked through.
- Serve!
We’ve also made this at the same time as making sticky ribs. You can use the stock that’s made from boiling a rack of ribs (having added ginger, star anise, onion and carrot to the water), but you’ll definitely need to use a couple of stock cubes to get good deep flavour.
If you’re tempted by the idea of sticky ribs – boil the rack(s) of ribs in water with ginger, star anise, chopped carrot, onion and celery for 1 hour
Remove from the pot and reserve the stock for soup if you want
Cover the rack of ribs in a mixture of honey, dark brown sugar, soy sauce, 5 spice powder, crushed garlic, minced ginger, oyster sauce, lemon juice, tomato ketchup, vinegar (George’s Marvellous Medicine stylee)
You can leave in the marinade for a while if you wish.
Bake in the oven on a rack for 15 minutes at approx 190c.