Miso Soup

[torakris]

last night a very simple miso soup with satoimo (taro)

[helenjp]

Yum, we had satoimo miso soup with greens tonight, but this morning we had...

...light-colored miso soup, made with oysters simmered very briefly in the broth, and a handful of chopped scallions added immediately before the heat was turned off and the miso added. It was great!

[torakris]

I really need to get more color in my miso soups....

last night was onion and aburage, my son's favorite

[notaste]

I ate at Tagoto in Kyoto recently and had an amazin white miso soup, it was actually creamy and did not separate.

Wanted to know if anyone had the recipe for it?

Thanks.

[Hiroyuki]

I did some googling, but no luck.

Katakuriko (potato starch) might do the trick.

Why not make some experients and report back?

[notaste]

I did some googling, but no luck.

Katakuriko (potato starch) might do the trick.

Why not make some experients and report back?

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hehe...got a good authentic miso recipe i can start wit? hehe

btw...i noticed many of the miso soups in japan had miniature clams in them....very nice touch....

[Kuma]

You could try making a roux with a Tablespoon each of flour and butter and then adding the hot miso soup while stirring to make a creamy Veloute style soup.

Cheers,

Rob.

[helenjp]

this photo of Tagoto's menu for the month has a bowl of grated yama-imo (yam or glutinous yam, dioscorea japonica) thinned with dashi、made like so,using (per serving)

100ml (about 2/5th of a cup) of dashi

1 tsp shoyu, preferably light shoyu (usukuchi)

1 oz yama-imo, grated very finely

1 egg (optional)

about 1/2 a scallion or spring onion, chopped finely (optional garnish)

Mix the dashi and seasonings in a small pan and bring to a simmer.

Peel the yam and grate finely.

Pour grated yam into simmering broth, stir, and return to a simmer.

Add egg, and allow to simmer very briefly without stirring, then serve and garnish.

The recipe in the link actually uses instant dashi, but in a simple soup like this, I would not do so, but use a good konbu (kelp) and katsuo (bonito) or a simple konbu (kelp) dashi. I would add 1 tsp of sake to the base soup too.

You can make this type of "nagashi" soup with other vegetables too - turnip is a favorite, and lotus root or tofu lees are used too. It's definitely a Kansai dish - I've made it a couple of times for my northern-born husband, but he was totally underwhelmed.

If it was really creamy and faintly sweet, there's a chance that white miso was used too.

[notaste]

this photo of Tagoto's menu for the month has a bowl of grated yama-imo (yam or glutinous yam, dioscorea japonica) thinned with dashi、made like so,using (per serving)

100ml (about 2/5th of a cup) of dashi

1 tsp shoyu, preferably light shoyu (usukuchi)

1 oz yama-imo, grated very finely

1 egg (optional)

about 1/2 a scallion or spring onion, chopped finely (optional garnish)

Mix the dashi and seasonings in a small pan and bring to a simmer.

Peel the yam and grate finely.

Pour grated yam into simmering broth, stir, and return to a simmer.

Add egg, and allow to simmer very briefly without stirring, then serve and garnish.

The recipe in the link actually uses instant dashi, but in a simple soup like this, I would not do so, but use a good konbu (kelp) and katsuo (bonito) or a simple konbu (kelp) dashi. I would add 1 tsp of sake to the base soup too.

You can make this type of "nagashi" soup with other vegetables too - turnip is a favorite, and lotus root or tofu lees are used too. It's definitely a Kansai dish - I've made it a couple of times for my northern-born husband, but he was totally underwhelmed.

If it was really creamy and faintly sweet, there's a chance that white miso was used too.

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hmm...so ur sayin it wasn't miso soup at all...hehe...I'll have to give tat recipe a try then to be certain...thanks for the research on tis ;-)

[torakris]

Since my husband doesn't like miso soup I really don't make it a lot. A couple nights ago I just needed one more simple dish so I pulled some satoimo (taro) from the freezer and used the tops of the scallions I was using for another part of the meal.

[helenjp]

Looks good! The whole meal was tonjiru and rice here!

[torakris]

Looks good! The whole meal was tonjiru and rice here!

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I have those days!!

[helenjp]

Cauliflower and negi (Japanese dividing onions) miso soup with soy milk. Take care to get the plain type, not the sweetened, vanilla-flavored type .

For 4 people

1/2 - 1 head of cauliflower, depending on size.

Divide flowerets finely and chop up stem parts, soak in water for a while.

1 negi, trimmed and cut in very short lengths.

Simmer till tender in about 800ml (roughly 4 cups) dashi. It will reduce somewhat, don't worry about that.

Dissolve 4 tbs of miso into soup, add 150-200ml soy milk (that is, roughly 1 cup). Heat through, but don't allow to even simmer.

I've tried miso soups with milk in them, and hated them all, but the soy milk seemed much less obtrusive. Mild and comforting!

[Hiroyuki]

Soy milk! That reminds me of gojiru 呉汁. It was a favoriate of my father's.

For those of you who don't know about it, gojiru is made by soaking soy beans in water (overnight), grinding them in a suribachi, and adding them to miso soup.

[helenjp]

Yes, I thought of gojiru too, but it's not thick like that.

How did your father like his gojiru? Any ingredients that go particularly well with it?

[Hiroyuki]

Yes, I thought of gojiru too, but it's not thick like that.

How did your father like his gojiru? Any ingredients that go particularly well with it?

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Sorry, I don't remember much about his gojiru. Just the same old greens, I suppose. I did some googling but found no particularly good ingredients for gojiru.

[_john]

recently I have been developing a keitai miso shiru, or portable miso soup. I wanted to have good miso soup at work but none of the instant miso soups are any good. I decided to make my own after seeing a similar project on a Japanese blog.

First I made a concentrated katsuo konbu dashi. I then added half of the miso, weighed, for 10 portions. With my miso this is 18g per portion. I then added various seasonings to help out the miso: koikuchi shoyu, sake, and mirin. While stirring constantly I boiled off all the water until the paste returned to the original consistency as the miso. I let it cool and added the remaining miso (sashi miso, or miso added so that the raw flavor of miso is not lost). I then weighed the miso mix into individual portions in plastic wrap and added: mitsuba stems, kona sansho, koya dofu (freeze dried tofu), and parboiled flounder. I then wrapped them up in balls and froze them in a zip lock bag. I put this in the freezer at work. When I want miso soup I just have to unwrap the ball, add hot water, and stir. restaurant quality miso soup "instantly".

why don't you try keitai miso shiru with your lunch? a much easier version can be made with instant dashi powder, miso, and your choice of frozen parboiled ingredients.

[helenjp]

I do the same thing when I want to get dinner made in a hurry - though in a much mor slapdash fashion. Luckily, there are certain vegetables which seem to improve with freezing in contact with the miso. Cabbage is the one that springs to mind, and fried tofu strips are also tastier that way than when added last-minute to soup.

[Jon Savage]

I recently discovered a miso that already has dashi included in it. It may be sacrilegious but a gob of this, a bowl of hot hot hot water veg and protein to taste makes a mighty fine quick miso IMHO.

Edited July 19, 2008 by 6ppc (log)

[Hiroyuki]

Yesterday, I got two bags of myouga from two different people. Obviously, myouga are in season right now here in my area. My wife suggested making myouga tempura and pickles, but I didn't like either. One bag of myouga ended up in miso soup.

[melonpan]

First I made a concentrated katsuo konbu dashi. I then added half of the miso, weighed, for 10 portions. With my miso this is 18g per portion. I then added various seasonings to help out the miso: koikuchi shoyu, sake, and mirin. While stirring constantly I boiled off all the water until the paste returned to the original consistency as the miso. I let it cool and added the remaining miso (sashi miso, or miso added so that the raw flavor of miso is not lost). I then weighed the miso mix into individual portions in plastic wrap and added: mitsuba stems, kona sansho, koya dofu (freeze dried tofu), and parboiled flounder. I then wrapped them up in balls and froze them in a zip lock bag. I put this in the freezer at work. When I want miso soup I just have to unwrap the ball, add hot water, and stir. restaurant quality miso soup "instantly".

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i for one will DEFINITELY try this method out! thanks for posting this! sounds GREAT.

[helenjp]

Myouga pickles - the type you pickle in salt briefly, and then in sweetened vinegar - are a lot more approachable if you pickle some young ginger at the same time. The two eaten together are rather nice, and it stops the myouga from being too overpowering.

[nakji]

Last night I made a big pot of tonjiru, since it turned rainy and cool-ish where I am. I started using the recipe from Washoku, but since I hardly had any of the ingredients she called for, I used my own mix instead. Negi; carrot; sweet potato, and mushrooms- although I'm not sure of the variety name. They're medium-sized, and all grow together as a bunch, with gray tops. They're not enoki, maitaki, eringii or shiitake. I also added some garlic (!) since: a) My husband brought a kilo home last weekend and I have to start using it up; and b) I love the taste of garlic and miso together. Although the recipe in Washoku called for equal parts white and red miso, I only had red on hand. I figured the sweet potato would add enough sweetness anyway. I garnished with some mitsuba - my first time buying it. I usually patiently take it out of my cart every week, when my husband puts it in hopefully, thinking it's cilantro. This week, I let it stay, and put it into the soup.

I can't say I really enjoyed it, as it reminded me of celery leaves, and I hate celery.

We had a couple of bowls each, along with rice and some homemade pickles (Korean radish and Canadian sweet red onion). The whole thing was a really satisfying meal, and better yet, there's some leftover for lunch today.

[Hiroyuki]

Any miso soup containing pork can be called tonjiru (mainly in the Kanto area) and butajiru (mainly in the kansai area), and I personally think that gobo (burdock root) comes at the top of the list of ingredients that should go into it, along with carrot, daikon, sato imo (or sweet potato), negi, and konnyaku.

As for the mushroom, wasn't it buna shimeji?

Did you put a whole bunch of mitsuba in your tonjiru? I usually don't associate mitsuba with tonjiru. Chopped bannou negi or other types of negi are usually sprinkled on top.