Aromatic Shrimp and Noodle Medicine Soup

Another one for the journal: Link

Pretty weird name for the dish but was quite good for a quick and soupy meal. 

We used bokchoy, cilantro, mint, and jalapenos as toppings. Worked well generally. 

4 cups of broth is enough for 2 servings! I don't know why it called for 12 cups of soup for 4 servings?? That's A LOT of soup... Can you imagine drinking 4 cups of water with lunch? No, right??

Generally the rule of thumb for me is 1.5-2 cups broth per serving of soup. I like to veer towards 1.5 cups, no leftovers this way. The soup is the soul of most soupy noodle dishes - takes a lot of time and ingredients to build a bowl of soup that has good flavor and body. So throwing away leftover soup in the bowl when you are done with the noodles is crazy wasteful for me. (Like think about it, you can order extra noodles at a ramen shop for $2 but you can't get more broth without paying for a fresh bowl!!)

However, given I made my paste in the mortar and pestle (with 2 servings its impossible to use a blender or food processor... to little material to go around the machine) my paste was on the 'rough' side. So with 2 cups/bowl, I can let the bigger pieces of herbs/aromatics sink to the bottom and skip dishing that into the bowl. The other way is to make 3 cups and then sieve it before serving.  

Also, there's a direction on website that said: Add 2 Tbsp. paste to each and ladle broth over; stir to incorporate paste. Omg this so silly too!!! Just add the paste into the big pot of broth (add some, taste, add more; or just add it all and go for it hahaha), keep it at a simmer, and mix till well incorporated. This way its a well mixed bowl of HOT soup that you are ladling over your noodles! Imagine, a bowl filled with noodles, filled with paste, filled with soup and then you are mixing that around? 

1. Your noodles will be 'cooked' further by the soup resulting in less al dente noodles before the first bite. 
2. Your first bite won't even be hot!!!! wtf...
3. U might slosh soup out of the bowl by accident and make a mess.
4. Also what if you are making more than 1 bowl?? By the time you're done with the 4th serving the 1st bowl will be ice cold... come on.

The flavor profile of this is good but lol those directions...