It's been pretty mild for July, so I've had a chance to cook things not exactly for hot season. Although I do love eating refreshing salads and chilled noodles at the height of summer, the diet of chilled food does get dull after a few weeks. So I was happy to opt for a homey Chinese-inspired soup when the temperature came down to the 70's. It's a very simple soup with daikon, shrimps and tofu, but somehow very comforting and satisfying.

One crucial ingredient for this soup is shrimp shells, which make the soup base. Shrimp shells have an awesome flavor--it can work in almost any cuisine, from Chinese soups to Italian pasta sauces to American bisques. For this reason, I never buy pre-peeled or pre-cooked shrimps; I want the shells, raw. (Every once in a blue moon, I find a little ziploc bag of shrimp shells and legs from god-knows-when hiding in a back corner of my freezer.) Another crucial ingredient is the tofu. The tofu really should be extra soft. Most tofu available in generic markets, even ones that claim to be "soft," are too rough and tough for this delicate soup. You want a silky, soft texture that doesn't interfere with the low-impact rest of the soup. If you know an Asian grocer in your area, look for a Japanese "kinugoshi" tofu, or a Korean Soon-Dubu tofu, made for Soon-Dubu Jigae (Korean hot soup).

Ginger Daikon Soup with Shrimps (for two)

• 6-7 inches daikon raddish (if it's thicker than your wrist, make it shorter)
• 1/2 pack super-soft tofu
• 10 shrimps
• 1 inch ginger, minced
• 1 green onion, chopped
• 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/2 tablespoon sake (or mild white wine)
• 1/3 tablespoon cornstarch (for shrimps)
• 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 1/2 tablespoon water (for soup)
• salt and pepper to taste

First, peel the shrimps. (Don't throw away the shells!) Marinate the shrimps with soy sauce and sake, and sprinkle 1/3 tablespoon of cornstarch and mix to coat. The cornstarch should keep the moisture within the shrimps when they're cooked, and add nice, gelatinous coating to the shrimps.

Boil water in a pot and throw in the shrimp shells. Boil for a while to let the oceanic flavor seep out of the shells and drain. (Now you can throw away the shells...) Add ginger and daikon in the soup base and cook till the daikon is transparent. Turn the heat down and add tofu and shrimps. (If cooked at high temperature, the shrimps toughen.) You might want to break the tofu by hand, if it's very soft--cutting it on a cutting board and transferring the pieces to the pot could be tricky.

Give a stir to the cornstarch-water mix and pour it into the pot. Mix carefully so that the tofu won't be in shards. Turn the heat up a little and let the soup boil gently for about three minutes, or till it thickens a little. Add green onions and season with a little bit of salt and pepper.

The fun of this soup is to serve it in a large, communal bowl. In your individual soup cups, you can add other flavorings to your soup, as you have seconds and thirds--I like to have it "as is" for the first cup, then add a tiny dash of olive oil for the second, and maybe a bit of to ban djan (Chinese hot sauce) to the third. To do this, I keep the salinity low when I season the soup at the end of the cooking. You'll be amazed how different the soup tastes each time, and how good it can be without any addition at all.