Cures What Ails You

It's quite important to have a few things filed under the 'cures what ails you' tab. A running list:
- Hot toddies (my moms recipe to come)
- Late night bike rides
- Night swims
- Candy and a good book in bed (starting at 7 p.m.)
- Thai food delivered
- Soup

Here's a soup that exactly fits the bill:
Start with a good strong beef stock:
 - beef bones, gristle, trimmings, anything that you trim off the other stuff, in a big pot of cold water.  Add onions,peeled and halved, leeks, whole cloves of garlic, including the stems (peels ok, )a golf-ball sized piece of ginger cut into slices, black pepper corns....
- Bring to a boil, skim off scum as it boils for just a few minutes, then turn it down.  A good stock should boil just below the surface, the bubbles never breaking, the steam just visibly rising.  After it boils and you turn it down, it will be very responsive (on a gas stove).  Play with it, you'll find the right temperature.
- Let it simmer for hours, at least three, up to seven.
- Strain through a colander lined with cheesecloth.  Put in the fridge once it's cooled.

To make the soup from here takes just a few minutes.  You can add what ever you'd like, really, but here's what I did most recently.
I had eye-of-round steaks, and sliced one as thinly as possible.

Heat the broth slowly, to just under a boil.  Add thinly sliced leeks and sliced fresh shiitakes.  The goal is for everything in the soup to be fresh as possible, not over cooked and mushy at all.  Add a splash of fish sauce and a splash of tamari to the broth.  

While the broth is heating, boil water for noodles.  I love the Chinese style wheat noodles for their silkiness.  Soba noodles work, as do others you might have around.  

When the noodles are cooked, drained and rinsed, put them in the bottom of the bowls, one for each serving of soup.  Add a pile of winter greens on top.  I used baby tat soi and torn leaves of komatsuna.  

Turn off the broth, add the finely sliced meat strips and let sit for just a minute, then ladle the broth over the noodles and greens.  Add a juice from a lime slice or two, a shot of sriracha and salt to taste.  

Eat with a spoon and chopsticks.  It'll do ya.