Showing posts with label soup. Show all posts
Showing posts with label soup. Show all posts

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Miso Soup for #SundaySupper

Miso Soup


Construction is still ongoing in my apartment. This past week, my refrigerator was in my dining room, my dishwasher was normally where my refrigerator stands and my kitchen sink along with one side of my kitchen cabinets were missing. Good thing I prepared this appetizer before everything was torn down.

This week's #SundaySupper theme is soups. I prepard a miso soup appetizer a couple of months after I started my first website however, I had no clue what I was doing so I wanted to revisit the dish. Enter Nami of Just One Cookbook. I discovered her almost two years ago and she has since become my authority for Japanese cuisine.

One of the things I found fascinating when preparing this soup is that fundamentally, the preparation is the same between it and many Western soups. It starts off with a stock and then flavor is added to it. In this case, the stock is called a dashi, which is made from kelp and bonito, and the flavor is miso paste, which is commonly made from fermented soybeans. According to Nami, there are many variations of dashi because it is a component in many other Japanese dishes. Nami also notes that dashi packets and instant dashi can be purchased but I don't take shortcuts here so I will make awashe dashi from scratch. Many of these ingredients are not stocked by American supermarkets, but can easily be found in specialty Asian grocery stores.

The Challenge

I would not normally publish a dish such as this because the preparation isn't very complicated but the challenge here isn't difficulty; it's authenticity.

The Source

I encourage you to check out Nami's tutorial on how to make dashi because she took some amazing step-by-step pictures that I was not able to replicate. I started with step 4 of her miso soup recipe because she used a dashi packet for the soup in the post.

Ingredients

0.7 ounces (20 grams) dashi kombu
2 cups loosley packed Hana Katsuo or Katsuobushi bonito flakes
1 quart water
2 1/2 to 3 tablespoons white miso paste
5 ounces soft tofu, cut into small cubes (optional)
1 teaspoon dried wakame (optional)
1 green onion cut crosswise into rings (optional)

Method

1. Gently clean the kombu with a damp cloth but leave the white powdery substance. Score the sides of the kombu using kitchen shears. Place water in a medium saucepan and add the kombu and soak for 3 to 12 hours.


2. Slowly bring the water to just short of a boil (bubbles have formed on the bottom of the saucepan) over medium-low heat, approximately 20-25 minutes, skimming the surface periodically to remove any impurities.

3. Once the water has formed the bubbles, remove the kombu. Remove from heat and let it cool. Once cool, add the bonito flakes and bring to a boil, and continue skimming any impurities. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 seconds, then remove from heat. Let the mixture sit for ten minutes so the bonito flakes can settle to the bottom of the saucepan. Line a strainer with a paper towels and set it over a large bowl. Strain out the bonito flakes, reserving the fluid (dashi).



4. While the bonito flakes settle, add the wakame to a small bowl filled with water to rehydrate, approximately 10 minutes. Once rehydrated, add the wakame and the green onion to serving bowls.



5. Return the fluid to a simmer and add the miso, dissolving it in a ladle and 1 tablespoon at a time, tasting in between additions because miso paste can have a high concentration of sodium. Stir in the tofu cubes, adding 1/2 tablespoon more miso if needed because the tofu can dilute the miso. Spoon the soup into the serving bowls with the wakame and onions and serve immediately.

Successful?

About a week after I prepared this soup, Mrs. Stuntman wanted sushi. I ordered a bento box which came with a bowl of miso soup, however I was disappointed with it and preferred the homemade variety.

Nami notes that the used kombu and the bonito flakes can be reserved to make niban dashi, which is a less concentrated form used in other dishes where the flavors of the dashi are secondary to other ingredients. If you aren't familiar with her, I strongly suggest getting to know her. Please 'Like' her on facebook, follow her on twitter and pinterest in addition to adding her on G+.

Other Sunday Supper Participants

And finally, please check out this week's other Sunday Supper participants:

Do The Chicken Dance (chicken {or other poultry} soups)


Where's The Beef (Beef Soups)


Pass The Pork. Please (Pork or Sausage Soups)


Under The Sea (Seafood Soups)


Eat Your Veggies (Chock Full o' Vegetables Soups)


Some Don't Like It Hot (Chilled Soups)

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