Asian style shiitake mushroom soup with matza balls

The inspiration for this soup was a soup I ate in a Buddhist vegan restaurant in Taiwan. The soup was (spicy) hot, had slices of ginger, slices of shiitake mushroom, and cubes of tofu about 2 cm on a side. The tofu had something done to it to make it spongy (frozen and defrosted maybe). I ate the tofu cubes and thought, "just like matza balls".

On the subject of matza balls, the world divides into those who love them light and airy, and those who love them heavy and dense, mostly depending on whether their Grandmother knew what she was doing. I am going to divulge the secret of making them one way or the other, depending on your preference.
The secret is... cooking time. You can use any recipe you like (mine is below). It is a good idea to let the mix chill for at least an hour before cooking, but that isn't the main thing:
- If you like them dense, turn off the burner after seeing them all float to the top briefly.
- If you like them light, keep the pot simmering and covered for at least 40 minutes, if not twice that.

I couldn't find any recipes for vegan asian soups, so I had to go with my memory and palate. So far this soup has turned into a family favorite, displacing our regular corn soup / lentil soup for all but one member.

Soup

Equipment: large soup pot (4 or 5 litre), wooden spoon.

Ingredients:

1 Kg onions, sliced (see note on onions and crying below*)

1 T chili pepper flakes

3 T olive oil (I didn't say it was authentic)

3 cm fresh ginger sliced thin (fresh ginger is widely available and pretty cheap, but I never ended up using it all before it goes bad. So now I slice the whole thing paper thin, and roll the 'extra' slices into a sheet of cling film, which I stick in the freezer door. The frozen slices work just fine for all recipes that need fresh ginger).

A few cloves of garlic, chopped

Mirin or sweet white kiddush wine

1 or 2 T of 5 spice powder (for Jerusalemites; get it at 'Tavlinei Tevel' on Agrippas across from the shuk).

50 grams dried shiitake mushrooms 

water

soy sauce to taste

salt

Instructions:

While slicing onions, splash the olive oil in the pot on a high flame and dump the pepper flakes on top.

Saute onions and ginger in the oil until quite candied. This takes quite a while, and the onions will cook down to about 1/4 of their original volume. Here's the trick: you want to get very close to burning them, but not burn them. Let the onions sizzle, and occasionally peek at the bottom of the pot. When you start seeing a nice layer of 'almost burnt' stuff, start vigorously stirring with your spoon, using the onions to 'scrub' the burnt stuff off the bottom. After about 15/20 minutes of these 'scrubbing' sessions, you will have nice brown sweet candied onion; the base for a classic french onion soup. If you think they are dark enough, give them a few more minutes; if they are not dark enough the soup will be insipid.

Next dump the garlic in, and saute for a minute or two more. 

Add the Mirin or sweet white wine, it will reduce quickly, but you can use it to finish cleaning the rest of your 'fond' from the bottom of the pot.

Fill pot with water or stock. Remember to leave enough room for your matza balls.

Dump in your shiitake mushrooms.

To keep from ending up with a grainy 5 spice mixture residue, I carefully empty a tea bag, taking off the paper tag but retaining the string, put the spice in the bag and then tie it up with the string.

Cover and bring to a boil, lower to a covered simmer. After 10 minutes taste and add soy sauce and/or salt (keep it on the under-salted side, the shiitake will continue to add flavor). Continue to simmer for at least 20 minutes and then turn off. Meanwhile make matza ball mix.

Matza Balls

1 C matza meal

4 Eggs

1 t. salt

1/4 - 1/2 t. black pepper.

1/2 t. dried ginger powder (optional)

1/3 C olive oil

1/2 C boiling soup

Mix all ingredients but the soup together until well combined. Mix in boiling soup (if you were to add it at the beginning with all the rest you would end up with some poached egg...) until all smooth. Chill for at least 1 hour.

Before bringing the soup back to a boil for the matza balls, fish out the shiitake mushrooms and the 5 spice teabag. If the mushrooms have very thick woody stems, cut the stems off. Slice mushrooms into thin strips and return to soup.

If you are into 'matza clouds' just drop spoonfulls of the mix into the boiling soup. If you want them to be 'balls', roll spoonfuls of the mix in damp hands into balls, then drop into the boiling soup. 

Keep soups simmering according to your preference for heavy or light matza balls. Adjust salt/soy sauce before serving. 

*Onions and crying: I don't freeze the onions, I don't avoid slicing the root. After reading an article testing several methods, the one that worked in article (and mostly works for me too) is to breath through your nose while you puff up your cheeks like a squirrel or blowfish; yes, I would laugh if I wasn't so busy not crying. Apparently this raises the pressure in your eyes and keeps them from starting the irritation/reaction. Actually the article I read recommended keeping a mouthful of water, but I found that simply puffing your cheeks has the same effect.