miso, egg

Bell pepper and onion singed with olive oil in a large cast-iron stew-pot (Not pictured). Tofu and garlic added at the end. Removed to a separate bowl.  Separately, chicken thighs seared in the same pot and removed to the same holding bowl. 

The pot was deglazed with sake, and water was added to the pot before the sake completely evaporated. Honey added to the liquid in lieu of mirin. I have plenty of mirin but I felt like switching out today with something else that is sweet. Pepper flakes were added, my own combination of various broken up dried chiles. Then Italian style semolina wheat spaghetti. This is perfectly legal. The miso police will not come swooping in and cite you for improper noodle usage. 

[Asians use wheat noodles too. You will see in the noodle aisle of Asian markets a good deal of buckwheat noodles which are tri-corner grains similar to wheat but not the same thing. Pure buckwheat contains no gluten. However buckwheat flour intended for baked goods usually contains some measure of regular wheat. ]

I decided I wanted the noodles to soak up the flavored water as they cooked and to impart the water with surplus surface starch thickening it. A cleanup savings of one pot. Notice the bits of fond floating around the water. Très frais. 

Time to start building up flavors.

I didn't have any cabbage but I did have kimchi. Kimchi is both tart and hot, and I already had chile flakes in the water. Fine. Double the intended heat. I also didn't have fresh mushrooms, although there are plenty of dried shitaki mushrooms in the pantry, I didn't think of it soon enough, but honestly, I didn't feel like bothering. 

Flavor check: 

1) sake

2) honey

3) chile flakes + kimchi

4) fish sauce (one teaspoon, basically, fermented anchovy water)

5) sesame oil (a few drops, that stuff goes a long way)

6) soy sauce (one tablespoon) 

Miso added at the very end and hardly boiled at all, the heat turned off immediately.  (one rounded tablespoon).

An egg was pulled from the refrigerator and warmed in a cup of hot water to room temperature. This took about 5 minutes while everything else was going on. 

I don't know what happened to the egg when  I was eating the bowl of soup. I avoided it while I picked at the edges and before I knew it, the darn thing just disappeared. I think I might have caught a glimpse of one tiny bit of gently cooked yolk but it was so tiny I couldn't be sure.