Hi ho, hi ho, its off to make soup I go.

[Denninmi]

Beef noodle with mushrooms. I expect it to be good! OK, at least, I hope it will be good.

The only issue -- I have some really tough round steak to use up -- came from a whole beef my sister and b-i-l bought. Good flavor but tough. It's frozen right now -- I think I'm going to only slightly thaw it, then literally almost "shave" it into super thin strips, mix with a little papaya based meat tenderizer, and let sit about 30 minutes before I brown it.

[HopeHoops]

1. What kind of mushrooms? Shitake would go well with that.

[Denninmi]

3. Crimini, actually.

Organic. They were on sale for $1 for 8 ounce container this week at Meijer.

[HopeHoops]

5. Not bad! Do you have a dehydrator? Back story below the fold...

Some years back, one of the local grocery stores (Ahold's "Giant&quot had a produce manager that didn't know shit. All of the mushrooms were under a cold-air blower. After pointing out the problem with this for several weeks, I finally said "fuck it" and just loaded BAGS full of mushrooms that didn't weigh anything because they were nearly completely dehydrated. I finished the job at home and they keep pretty much forever if you put them in mason jars or zipper bags. They rehydrate nicely in soups or a bowl of water and still taste great. Get some MORE!!!!

If you don't have a dehydrator, set the oven for 140, turn it off when it gets there, and put them in (sliced) about five minutes later. It may take two tries, but don't let the oven run while they're in there or they'll burn - no grease or anything, just a cookie tray.

[Lucinda]

2. That should do the trick. Bill has been grabbing beef on sale and we are getting

a lot of "great flavor but tough" stuff too. We've been doing a lot of fajitas with ours.

[Denninmi]

4. There was more in the package than it looked.

So, half went into the soup. The other half is in the 'fridge for tomorrow night's dinner. I have it and some onion sitting in a mixture of Hoisin sauce, sesame oil, and some Korean gochujang. I've never tried that before, but was inspired by watching Kim Chi Chronicles all fall. The Annie Chung's brand was on sale, so I picked one up. It's not bad. Spice level is just at about my limit as is, but fine as an ingredient. Mostly could taste the pepper, but I also detected garlic and ginger notes.

So, the meat is sitting there, and I cut up half of an orange pepper, some more criminis, some celery, some nappa, and some carrots. Tomorrow night's dinner over rice.

[HopeHoops]

6. Isn't gochujang the bright red shrimp and pepper paste?

I love kim chi, and it is one of the only foods I'll eat that contains seafood (or meat of any kind for that matter) mostly because I first ate it in a social setting where I didn't know enough Korean to say "no fish". I knew "anio kogie" (no meat), but apparently that didn't translate into "or fish". I make kim bap rather frequently, but always vegetarian.

[Denninmi]

7. Well, the kind I bought doesn't list any fish or shrimp on the label.

But I'm sure some kinds do.

This brand, Annie Chun's (I think I called it Annie Chung's in the above post), looks like it would be considered "vegetarian" or even perhaps "vegan". Seems to be only plant-based ingredients:

http://www.anniechun.com/our-food/sauces/gochujang

[HopeHoops]

8. Excellent! Thanks for posting that.