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Sup Kembang Tahu dan Jamur (Bean Curd Sheet and Shiitake Mushroom Soup) is delicious and has a lot of texture. The texture comes from shiitake mushrooms, black fungus, fish balls, and bean sheets. Many Asians like texture in their food. If you like texture in your food, this could become your favorite. This soup is 1 of my favorite soups growing up because of the texture and flavor. My mom used to make it all the time and learned it from my grandmother. Thus, I want to share her recipe with you so that you can make it at home. She sometimes served it as a soup by itself and other time, it was served as a main dish to be eaten with rice. Whenever she served it as a main dish, she would put a small plate of soy sauce on the side. That way, one could add soy sauce to the soup if they wanted. I think the additional soy sauce is necessary since rice tastes bland and thus, the additional saltiness from the soy sauce added to the soup before eating will complement the rice. If it is served as a soup, you don’t need to add soy sauce unless you like it saltier. If you like it hot, you can add sambal oelek, chili sauce, or chili paste to the soup. You can also drizzle a little bit of sesame oil just before serving if you prefer. Make sure you don’t drizzle too much because it has strong flavor and some people may not like it.

The soup is not vegetarian but you could easily make it vegetarian by skipping fish balls and replacing chicken bouillon with vegetable bouillon. You can also substitute fish balls with tofu, too.

To find some of the ingredients in this recipe (dried shiitake mushrooms, dried bean sheets or dried bean curd sheets, fish balls, and dried black fungus, you will need to make your way to Asian stores. Click the links on each of those ingredients to find out how they look like. I don’t have the picture for fish balls but you can find them without any problem at any Asian stores’ freezer section along with other meat balls, such as shrimp balls, beef balls, cuttlefish balls, pork balls, etc. They are sold inside a plastic bag. Instead of fish balls, you can use shrimp ball, beef balls, pork balls, etc. You could also substitute with shredded chicken or diced chicken breast. If you cannot find dried shiitake mushrooms, you could use fresh shiitake mushrooms. If using dried shiitake mushrooms, you will need to rehydrate them using boiling water. After an hour, they will become soft and could be sliced. The soaking water used to rehydrate the mushrooms is reserved since it is full of flavor and thus, it is used in the broth. So, don’t throw it away after you finish rehydrating the mushrooms. However, if you use fresh shiitake mushrooms, you won’t have this water since they don’t need to be rehydrated. In this case, use vegetable broth or just water. If you cannot find fresh shiitake mushrooms at all, you could use fresh white button mushrooms. In fact, any type of fresh mushrooms will work. The dried black fungus also needs to be rehydrated. You will need to rehydrate it in a boiling water for 30 min since it takes a shorter time to make it soft. The dried bean sheets also needs to be rehydrated but make sure cold water is used. If you use boiling water, it will become too soft to handle. If you couldn’t find dried bean sheets, you could use dried bean curd sticks. They are harder than the dried bean sheets, so it takes longer to rehydrate. However, you can use boiling water to speed up the process. As for the fish balls, you don’t need to defrost them. Just rinse them under the warm tap water and after that, you should be able to slice them.

The recipe serves for 4 people.

Ingredients:

• 6 dried dried shiitake mushrooms. If you cannot find dried shiitake mushrooms, use fresh shiitake mushrooms. If you cannot find fresh shiitake mushrooms, use white button mushrooms.
• 3 dried black fungus. If you cannot find dried black fungus, you can skip it.
• 3 sheets of dried bean sheets or dried bean curd sheets. If you cannot find dried bean sheets, you can use dried bean curd sticks. Dried bean curd sticks are harder, so it will take longer to rehydrate but you can use boiling water to speed up the process. If none of them can be found in your Asian stores, use tofu and dice it into cubes.
• 10 fish balls, cut into half. You don’t need to defrost them. Just rinse them under warm tap water. You could then easily cut them. You could use shrimp balls or beef balls if preferred. You could also use shredded chicken or diced chicken breast. If you want to make it vegetarian, skip fish ball or you can use tofu as a substitute.
• 1 carrot, sliced at an angle into about 1/6" thick. You can slice it thinner if you like the carrot to be softer. I like the carrot to be tender crisp, so I don’t slice it too thin.
• 2 bunches of baby bok choy, sliced
• 800 ml water
• 200 ml shiitake mushroom reserved soaking water, strained using a strainer so that the water will be clear from any grit. If using fresh shiitake mushrooms, you will not have shiitake mushroom reserved soaking water, so substitute with vegetable broth or just use water.
• 1 chicken bouillon. To make it vegetarian, use vegetable bouillon.
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper or to taste
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce or to taste
• pinch of salt or to taste
• drizzle of sesame oil
• Optional: 1 green onion, sliced
• Optional for serving: drizzle of sesame oil
• Optional for serving: drizzle of soy sauce
• Optional for serving: sambal oelek, chili paste, or chili sauce if you like it hot

Methods:

1. Rinse dried shiitake mushrooms under water to remove dirt. To rehydrate the dried shiitake mushrooms, place them in a bowl and pour boiling water into the bowl so that the mushrooms are fully covered in the water. Since mushrooms are light, they will float. I put them upside down, i.e. the stem is facing up. That way, the top of the mushrooms will completely be submerged in the water. Leave them in the water for an hour until they become soft. Once they are soft, take the mushrooms out of the water. Do not throw away the mushroom soaking water. Strain the mushroom soaking water to catch any grit and reserve 200 ml of that water since it will be used as soup broth. This reserved soaking water is very flavorful, so it is good as soup broth. Cut the stem of the mushroom and discard it since it is tough and really hard to eat. Slice the mushrooms. If using fresh shiitake mushrooms, rinse and slice them.
2. Rinse dried black fungus under the water to remove dirt. To rehydrate it, place it in a separate bowl than the one used for rehydrating the shiitake mushrooms. This is because we don’t want to mix the black fungus soaking water with shiitake mushroom soaking water since the shiitake mushroom soaking water will be used in cooking. Pour in boiling water into the bowl. Leave the black fungus in the water for at least 30 min until it becomes soft. Once it is soft, take the black fungus out of the water and discard the water. Slice the black fungus.
3. Rinse dried bean sheets under the water. To rehydrate them, place them into a deep baking dish. Pour cold water into the baking dish so that the sheets are fully covered in the water. Do not use hot water because it will be too soft to handle unless you are using dried bean curd sticks. Once they are soft and flexible, cut using scissors into 3”x2” size.
4. Place hydrated shiitake mushrooms, black fungus, and bean sheets in a pot. Add fish balls and chicken bouillon in the pot. Pour 800 ml water and 200 ml mushroom reserved soaking water (or vegetable broth if you are using fresh shitake mushrooms) into the pot. Heat the pot over high heat. Once the liquid starts boiling, add carrot, black pepper, soy sauce, and salt into the water. Cook until fish balls are fully cooked and carrot is tender crisp. If you like the carrot to be softer, you can cook it slightly longer. Once fish balls are fully cooked, add a drizzle of sesame oil. Taste the broth and add more seasoning if needed. Add bok choy and green onion into the pot. Cook until bok choy is tender crisp. Remove from the heat.
5. Divide the soup into several bowls. Serve it while it is still hot. If you serve it with rice, you can serve it with soy sauce and sesame oil on the side. If you like it hot, you can add sambal oelek, chili paste, or chili sauce to the soup.

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