Wednesday, 29 April 2015

Japanese Feast: Miso Soup



There is nothing like a good miso soup to start a meal, and if you can be bothered to stock up on Japanese larder essentials, you might well find yourself making it again and again. 

The key to a good miso soup is a top quality miso paste and a really good stock (dashi), which is ever so simple to make but requires a muslin cloth. I usually make a big batch and freeze a lot of it so I only have to wash up once!


Miso Soup
These are my favourite pastes, available from the Japan Centre or upstairs at New Loon Moon in Chinatown

Ingredients:
(Serves 8)
10 x 20cm piece of konbu seaweed
5g of Benito fish flakes
1.2 litres water
5+ tablespoons of white miso paste
200g silken tofu, cut into small cubes
3 Spring onions to garnish, finely diced to garnish

Method:
Pour the cold water into a sauce pan and place a piece of konbu seaweed and a shitake mushroom in it, weighing the mushroom down with a plate and leaving it to soak for 10 minutes. Then bring the mix to the boil, removing the seaweed just before it starts to bubble properly, add the fish flakes and, as soon as they have sunk to the bottom (a few minutes), strain the mixture through a muslin cloth.

Dashi
Just before you are ready to serve, heat up your stock to near boiling point. Gradually pour some of the hot stock into your miso in mixing bowl, incorporate, and return it to the saucepan. Heat for a few more minutes so it is just on the point of boiling and serve up into bowls with the tofu in them. Sprinkle on the spring onions and serve.


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