soup

Vegetarian / Vegan dashi (Japanese stock)

maki — Thu, 17 May 2007 13:11:11 +0200

As I’ve stated many times here over the years, the basis of most Japanese savory foods is a good dashi, or stock. Dashi is not just used for soups, it’s used for stewing, in sauces, batters, and many, many other things.

The regular way to make dashi was one of my first entries on Just Hungry. It uses kombu seaweed and dried bonito flakes (katsuobushi). Some people use niboshi, small dried fish, in addition to or instead of bonito flakes.

Katsuobushi and niboshi are both fish-based, so not vegetarian. So how do you make a good vegetarian, even vegan, dashi?

Mizu dashi (water dashi) with kombu

My preference is for a simple kombu based stock, which can be made quite easily by soaking a piece of good quality kombu in water in a closed container overnight in the fridge, as shown in the photo. (See this post for more about kombu.) I put about a 30cm / 12 inch long piece of kombu in about 2 litres (8 cups) of filtered water. This is more kombu than for the regular kombu and katsuobushi stock, since the kombu has to produce all the umami on its own. If you don’t have time to soak it overnight, you can soak it for a minimum of half an hour at room temperature.

To use, bring the dashi up to a simmer (not a full boil), then take out the kombu. This produces a light colored, subtly flavored dashi. The soaked kombu can be cooked further until soft, and used in stewed dishes and the like.

Dashi using shiitake mushrooms and kombu

If the kombu dashi is too subtle for you, you can try tossing in a couple of good quality dried (never fresh) shiitake mushrooms in the water. This needs to be soaked for at least a couple of hours, or until the shiitake are quite soft. This will produce a light brown colored dashi with an assertive shiitake flavor, which is especially suitable for dishes that will include the shiitake. The soaked shiitake can be used in your dish.

Saving the soaking liquid from shiitake mushrooms

Finally, if you are using shiitake mushrooms for a dish and reconstituting them anyway, save the soaking liquid to use as dashi in the future. I keep the cut off hard stems in it to extract a bit more flavor. It will keep for a few days in the fridge, or can be frozen. (I freeze it in small ziplock bags, laid flat.)

Soybean cooking liquid

If you cook whole dried soybeans, the cooking liquid is full of umami and makes an interesting rich vegan stock. Use on its own or in combination with one of the other stocks.

Corn cream soup with intentional lumps

maki — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 15:03:33 +0200

What’s the soup of your childhood? The one that your mother made for you when you had a cold, needed cheering up, or just as a treat? For me, there’s no question: it’s corn cream soup.

Corn cream soup (and yes, it’s called like that, not ‘cream of corn soup’ or ‘creamed corn soup’) belongs to the yohshoku category of Japanese home cooking. It’s an old fashioned, milk based potage, with creamed corn in it. It smells milky, and tastes sweet and savory. It’s loved by Japanese kids.

Now, while my mother was a pretty good cook generally, she did have trouble getting some things right. Her curry for instance was always rather watery. And her corn cream soup, instead of being silky smooth, always had little lumps of undissolved roux. I loved those little lumps though - they tasted like tiny dumplings. Later on when I started to make my own corn cream soup I followed recipes, so my corn cream came out smooth and lumpless. That was fine, but I missed the lumps from my childhood memories. So, I incorporated them back.

Everyone uses canned corn to make a corn cream soup. You can be fancy and use fresh, but that lifts this humble soup into the realm of gourmet special-occasion big deal cooking, which is not what my memories are about at all. I have adjusted the usual way of making this soup by using whole corn rather than creamed, since whole corn cans have more actual corn in them and I suspect less added sugar, and I like the mixture of crushed/creamed and whole corn niblets. Besides, creamed corn cans are unheard of here in Switzerland.

Corn cream soup with intentional lumps

1 can of whole corn kernels
4 cups (about 1 l) milk, whole or 2%
1 medium onion
1 Tbs. butter
1 medium potato
1 bay leaf
1 stock cube
salt and pepper

Optional lumps:

2 Tbs. butter
4 Tbs. white flour

Equipment: immersion (stick) blender, regular stand blender or food processor

Slice the onion thinly. Cut the potato into small chunks.

Heat the butter in a thick-bottomed pan. Add the onions and sauté until the onion is translucent. Add the milk and all the other ingredients, reserving about 2 tablespoons of the corn kernels for later. Heat up slowly over medium-low heat, and simmer until the potato is totally tender. Take the bay leaf out.

In the meantime, make the lumps. (This is basically a badly made roux.) Melt the butter in a small non-stick pan over medium heat. Add the flour. Blend and stir until you have a rather lumpy mix. Set aside.

Blend the soup with an immersion blender, or in a regular blender or food processor, until smooth. Add a little water if if it’s too thick. Add the reserved corn kernels.

Add the lumpy roux and stir briefly, but not too well - you don’t want it to disperse evenly in the hot liquid, you want it to remain in little lumps.

Season with salt and pepper (taste first since the stock cube is salty). Take off the heat (if you let it keep cooking it will curdle).

Makes 6 servings.

You can make it prettier by sprinkling some chopped parsley on top, but I like the minimalist butter-yellow look.

Fairly low-fat creamy red pepper, tomato and garlic soup with not low-fat grilled cheese, bacon and mushroom sandwich

maki — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 08:22:51 +0100

The theme of the elimination challenge in the most recent Top Chef was to create an adult version of childhood comfort food. The winning combo, created by Betty, was a variation of the classic pairing of cream of tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwich. Instead of just tomatoes, she added roasted red peppers to the soup, and instead of just cheese, she put grilled portobello mushrooms in the sandwich.

It looked like just the thing for lunch, but when I checked out the recipe as demonstrated by Lee Anne, I wasn't too happy with the 2 cups of heavy cream in the soup. Not that I have anything against cream, I just thought it wasn't necessary in this case. So I fiddled around a bit and came up with a much lower fat, but still satisfyingly creamy, version. The creamy texture comes from the pureed peppers and the roasted garlic. The only added butterfat in this version comes from the spoonful of sour cream or crême fraîche that each person adds at the last minute, so the cook can shift any responsibility for the added calories to the eater. The soup is almost as good without the cream, so it can be served to a mixed group (vegetarians and omnivores, dieters and non-dieters, lactose-intolerent folks and Swiss people, etc.)

I've also reduced the number of vegetables used. I think the basil and celery used in the original recipe would bring in minestrone-like overtones, and the cream of tomato soup flavor I was aiming for was much simpler, a combination of sweet with a little sour.

The sandwich is not very low-fat. No real grilled cheese sandwich is. Mine is quite similar to Betty's version, except that I used Gruyère cheese, and added crispy bacon. I also used regular mushrooms instead of Portobellos, since that's what I had on hand and they are way cheaper. I also used plain whole wheat sliced bread, not sourdough (I think sourdough gets rather overused in Caifornia).

Fairly low-fat creamy red pepper, tomato and garlic soup

4 large red or orange sweet peppers, or a combination (I used 2 red and 2 orange)
1 large can (800g / 28 oz) of crushed tomatoes
5 large garlic cloves, unpeeled
1 medium onion
2-3 Tbs. olive oil
1 bay leaves
1 Tbs. dried thyme
1 vegetable stock cube
water
salt and pepper
1 Tbs. honey (optional)
2 Tbs. lemon juice
Sour cream or crême fraîche

Equipment needed: stick blender (immersion blender) or blender or food processor

Preheat the oven to 200°C / 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Wrap the unpeeled garlic cloves in aluminum foil.

Cut the peppers in half and de-core, de-stem and de-seed. Put them cut side down on the baking sheet. Bake for about 30 minutes in the oven until the skins are blackened and blistering. Bake the wrapped garlic cloves with the peppers (just put the package on the edge of the baking sheet)

Take out the baking sheet. Push the peppers towards the center of the sheet, and wrap the peppers completely in the parchment paper. Leave until cool enough to handle. Peel off the skins. (Wrapping them in the paper steams them, which makes the skins come off a little easier.)

In the meantime, chop up the onion and sauté in a heavy bottomed non-reactive pot with the olive oil until transparent and soft. Add the can of tomatoes, stock cube, peeled peppers, bay leaves and thyme. Take the garlic out of the foil pouch and squeeze out the softened insides into the pot.

Bring the pot to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer until the peppers are completely tender, about 15-20 minutes. Take out the bay leaves.

If you have a stick blender (immersion blender), blend the mixture thoroughly until smooth. Or, put in a blender or food processor in batches and blend. Optionally, strain through a sieve or strainer (I don't bother with this).

Return to the pot, bring back up to heat, and if it's too thick add a little water until it's the desired consistency. Add the lemon juice and stir very well. Taste and if you think it needs to be a bit sweeter, add the honey. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve with a bowl of the sour cream or crême fraîche on the table, and have the diners put as much of it as they want on their soup.

Grilled cheese, bacon and mushroom sandwich

The key is to pre-cook the bacon until its crispy. Don't put uncooked or flabby bacon inside a sandwich.

To make 2 sandwiches:

4 slices whole wheat bread
Cheese of your choice (I used Gruyèyere)
4 slices bacon
1 cup or so sliced fresh mushrooms
Butter

Cook the bacon with your preferred method. (I cook them between layers of paper towels in the microwave for uses like this.) Slice your cheese of choice thinly.

Sauté the mushrooms in a little butter until they are brown and a bit crispy on the outside. Season with salt and pepper.

Assemble the sandwiches by putting two bacon slices each on the bread, topped with cheese and the mushrooms. Melt some more butter on a flat grill or a frying pan, and grill the sandwiches on both sides until the cheese is melting and the bread is crispy-brown.

Serve immediately.

Miso soup wrapup, and choosing and caring for lacquered soup bowls

maki — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 15:35:35 +0200

The top black bowl is resin; the bottom two are real lacquered bowls.

Food Destinations took up all of my weekend time, and the past two days, blogging wise, but I wanted to wrap up the week of miso soup, and also talk about the black-and-red lacquerware - and lacquerware-like - bowls that the soup is traditionally served in.

Miso soup redux

There are of course many, many more variations of miso soup; the basic thing to remember are the following:

For any ingredients that need to be cooked, make sure to cook them first - either separately (e.g. grilling or parboiling) or in the dashi stock, before adding the miso.
Never let miso soup come to a rolling boil after you add the miso. You will lose much of the aroma and flavor. (Unless of course, you don't actually like miso and are only having the soup for health reasons...)
Add instantly cooked or delicate items at the last minute.
Remember that regular miso is quite salty. If you are having miso soup with rice, the Japanese way, then your soup can be a bit heavier on the miso. If you are having miso soup on its own, go easier on the miso.

I'll have more miso soup recipes in the future I'm sure, but I hope that the 5 recipes got you thinking about your own variations.

Lacquered (and "lacquered") bowls for miso soup

Miso soup bowls are traditionally made of turned or carved wood, that is lacquered with natural lacquer and decorated.

However, most of the bowls you see at restaurants outside of Japan are made of resin or plastic. You can easily tell a plastic/resin bowl, since it is of a uniform thickness all around, and also gets hot outside very quickly. They are also a little flexible. (If you get a bowl of miso or clear soup at a restaurant with a lid on, and the lid refuses to come off, gently squeeze the sides of the bowl and twist-pull the lid.)

The bottom of areal lacquered bowl will be a bit thicker than the sides, and feel substantial in your hand. The bowl will also be expensive. At Jlist.com for example, they sell the plastic-resin type of bowls for under $3, but the real lacquered wooden bowls are $14 (pretty reasonable prices even if you figure in the cost of shipping from Japan).

If you just want the look of the bowls, the plastic-resin bowls are quite nice enough. Some of them almost look like the real thing, with convincing wood grain and such. I have four real lacquered bowls, and 12 black plastic ones with lids. Besides using them for soup, they also make different serving bowls for other things like salads or appetizers - the black or red interior surface makes a dramatic color statement. I've served pale-colored ice cream and sorbet in mine quite often. They are also easy to care for, and usually can go into the top rack of a dishwasher (though I prefer to hand wash mine). Always check the maker's recommendations though. The cheaper, flimsy ones may not stand up well in the heat of a dishwasher.

Real lacquer bowls need some tender loving care to prevent the lacquer from chipping or flaking off the wood base. This is a problem in overheated, very dry houses and apartments. Japan is quite a humid country, and lacquer bowls love humidity and hate dry conditions. If you live in a desert climate, you may want to consider sticking to the plastic-resin bowls unless you can provide extra humidity in the room where your bowls are stored.

The house I live in now is not that overheated, but it can get rather dry in the winter. So I keep my real lacquered bowls wrapped in soft cloth in a closed cabinet, and run a humidifier. (Some people like to put cups of water in the cabinet.) Don't ever put real lacquer ware in the dishwasher - hand wash only! If you have hard water, wipe the bowls after washing or they will get an unslightly white scale on them, which is very visible against the dark colors. Keep it out of sunlight also, since it dislikes ultraviolet rays. This applies to lacquered boxes too, though in my experience bowls seem to be more susceptible to flaking and chipping, perhaps because of their shape.

Why bother with real lacquer bowls at all? you might wonder. On a practical level they do hold in heat a lot better than the plastic-resin type. However, the reason for me to bother with the maintenance issues is they just feel wonderful - warm, substantial, and alive, in a way that plastic or resin can never emulate.

A week of miso soup, day 5: Ground shrimp, ginger and miso

maki — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 00:17:10 +0200

This is a miso soup made of fresh shrimp ground to a paste, mixed with flavoring ingredients, then whisked into hot dashi stock until just cooked. It's called ebi no nagashi jiru (ebi is shrimp). It's a quite traditional soup that used to be laborious to make, before the advent of the food processor. It's not one that is served that often in homes, perhaps because it used to be a bother to make, or perhaps because miso soup is rarely the star of a meal. It's really delicious in any case, and shows yet another way of making a miso based soup.

Nagashi jiru is traditionally made with fresh bonito (katsuo), but bonito is probably not that easy to get a hold of, so I have made it with shrimp here. It can also be made with fresh tuna or a white fish like red snapper.

Fresh ginger and sake are used a lot in Japanese cooking with fish or meat. These ingredients, plus onion, help to lessen any gamyness (kusami). This technique is also used in Chinese cooking. Here ginger juice and sake are used to make the shrimp taste brighter.

The soup has a coral color from the shrimp, and an intriguing texture.

Ground shrimp and ginger miso soup (ebi no nagashi jiru)

4 cups of dashi stock
200g / about 7 oz. fresh peeled shrimp
1 Tbs. miso, red miso preferred, but you can use white or blended
1 Tbs. fresh ginger juice (grate some fresh ginger, and squeeze out the juice)
1 Tbs. sake or dry sherry
1 Tbs. soy sauce
pinch of salt
a little finely chopped green onion

Equipment needed: a food processor

Make the dashi stock following the directions on day 1.

Chop the shrimp up roughly and put in the bowl of the food processor. Process until finely chopped. Add the miso, ginger juice and sake, and about 4 to 5 tablespoons of the dashi stock until it is a very smooth paste.

Add the shrimp paste to the rest of the dashi stock, and simmer very gently while stirring until it turns a pinkish-coral color. Add the soy sauce, and if necessary a little salt (taste!)

Serve with a sprinkle of green onion.

Variation: add some cubed tofu.

A week of miso soup, day 4: Hokkaido-style corn, chicken and cabbage soup with miso

maki — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 19:38:21 +0200

Today's miso soup may not look like miso soup, but it does have miso in it. It shows how to use miso as a background flavoring, instead of the predominant one. Since it has milk and a little butter in it, I've called it Hokkaido style after the northenmost main island in the archipelago that makes up Japan.

Hokkaido is quite different from the rest of the country, since it has large stretches of flat, farmable land (unlike the rest of Japan which is very mountainous) that is ideal for farming. The climate is that of Northern Europe or Canada, and much of it is used for dairy production and crops such as wheat and corn. Sapporo is the largest city in Hokkaido, so whenever you see Sapporo on Japanese food (such as Sapporo ramen), it usually means it has some milk, cream or butter in it.

This soup also shows a way of clearing the refrigerator. I had half a cabbage and some spring onions in the fridge, plus a frozen half of a chicken breast, and I always have canned corn around. So it all came together for this soup. It makes a great one-bowl kind of meal, with some rustic bread. You can put in leftover rice or potatoes in the soup too. The miso adds an intriguing sort of meaty flavor to the milky soup. I've given vegetarian alternatives in the recipe.

I have used a vegetable stock cube that has salt in it instead of dashi for this, so go a little easy on the miso. Taste and adjust!

The Official Testers liked this so much that they ate 5 big bowls of it between the two of them for lunch.

Hokkaido style corn, chicken, milk and miso soup

Note that this makes 6 cups of liquid + the ingredients, so there is more miso than for the previous recipes.

4 cups of water
1 vegetable stock cube
2 cups milk or soy milk
1 cup white cabbage, finely shredded
The white part of 1 green onion, finely sliced
1 cup of fresh, canned or frozen corn
1 Tbs. butter or sesame oil
6 oz. / about 200g chicken breast or leftover cold chicken, cut into pieces (vegetarians use firm tofu, TVP or quorn)
1/2 cup of white miso (or more or less to taste)
chopped parsley for garnish
A sprinkle of white or black pepper

Heat up the water in a pot and dissolve the vegetable stock cube. Slice up the vegetables in the meantime.

Sauté the cabbage and onion in a frying pan with the butter or oil until it's just turning limp. Put in the soup stock and simmer until just tender.

Briefly sauté the corn in the frying pan (you don't need more butter, but you can add more if you like). Add to the soup. Add the milk, and bring up to a simmer. Add the cut up chicken - if you add raw it will cook almost immediately

Add the miso to the soup following the directions for day 1. Taste and add more miso if needed. Garnish with the fresh parsley and the pepper, and serve.

Note: if you go for the vegetarian option and use sesame oil and tofu (the preferred replacement for the chicken), it will be much tastier if you briefly sauté the well drained tofu in the sesame oil before adding to the soup.

A week of miso soup, day 3: Grilled eggplant (aubergine) and mushroom

maki — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 21:23:29 +0200

One of my least favorite restaurant miso soup variations is when they just throw a few raw mushrooms slices into the bowl before serving. Raw button mushrooms have no flavor at all, and a rather unpleasant spongy texture. Grilling them beforehand, on the other hand, reduces their moisture content, concentrates the flavor so you can actually taste it, and adds that nice grilled-roasted flavor. Eggplants (aubergines) are also a lot tastier after grilling.

In Japanese cooking, grilling is usually performed without the addition of oil as a lubricant, so the pure flavor of the ingredient is preserved. I've grilled slices of eggplant and mushroom on a preheated cast iron grill pan (which is much better for grilling on a ceramic-top or electric range than a traditional Japanese mesh grill) until brown on the outside before putting them into the dashi stock to finish cooking. As always, the miso is added at the end.

I've used the small, slim Asian style eggplant for this, not the big fat Mediterranean kind. If that is the only kind you can find, slice it rather thinly before grilling, and cut into quarters before adding to the soup. I used regular white mushrooms but you can use any mushrooms that you like.

I also added a little chopped up ginger shoot as a garnish. You can find green ginger shoots at a Thai or general Asian grocery store - or you may find that your ginger root has sprouted a shoot on its own. Finely julienned ginger root can be used instead if you dont' have any shoots.

The Official Taste Tester gives this one the best marks of the miso soups so far this week, pronouncing it "earthy and tasty".

Grilled eggplant and mushroom miso soup

4 cups of dashi stock
1 slim Chinese or Japanese style eggplant
4 to 5 medium sized mushrooms, or 2 large ones
1 or 2 ginger shoots
1/4 to 1/3 cup white miso

Prepare the dashi stock following the instructions for Day 1. Keep warm.

Preheat your grill pan until it's very hot.

Slice the eggplant into round slices. Slice the mushrooms to about the same thickness as the eggplant.

Line the grill pan with the mushrooms. (There's no need to oil the pan, the mushrooms will not stick.) Grill on both sides until they are marked with grill lines and have shrunken a bit. Toss them into the dashi soup stock and simmer.

Grill the eggplant slices in the same way, and put into the dashi soup. Continue simmering until the eggplant is tender, about 10 minutes. (You add the mushrooms first because they take longer than the eggplant to cook.

Chop the green part o the ginger shoots very finely.

Add the miso to the soup. Serve immediately, garnished with the chopped ginger shoots.

A week of miso soup, day 2: Potato and wakame seaweed

maki — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 17:38:09 +0200

Potato and wakame seaweed is a classic combination, but one that you rarely if ever see on a restaurant menu. I think the reason for this is that restaurants generally cook a huge pot of miso soup in advance, and if you keep simmering potato, it will just fall apart. In any case potato-wakame is one of my favorite miso soups, and depending on the amount of potato you put in, it can be quite filling. I really like it for breakfast, sometimes just on its own.

Wakame is a very versatile seaweed that can be used in salads or soups.You'll see it often as a garnish for sashimi. It's sold in two forms - preserved in salt, or dehydrated. For occasional use, I would recommend dehydrated wakame (often labeled fueru wakame), which is a lot easier to use than the salted kind. Just be careful not to use too much - a little really goes a long way.

Note: if you happen to have some wakame garnish from a takeout sashimi, you can use that for the soup provided that it hasn't been sitting next to raw fish for an extended period. A lot of people find cooked wakame easier to eat than wakame in salads and garnishes. So, if you find yourself always throwing away the garnish, just set it aside as soon as you get your sashimi and put it in the fridge to make a soup. Or - make a soup to accompany your meal!

Potato and wakame seasweed miso soup (jagaimo to wakame no misoshiru

4 cups of dashi stock
2 medium potatoes
1 Tbs. dehydrated wakame
1/4 to 1/3 cup white miso

Prepare the dashi stock following the instructions for Day 1.

Peel the potatoes and cut into small pieces. Put in the dashi stock, and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 10 to 15 minutes depending on how big your pieces are.

When the potatoes are done, add the 1 tablespoon of dried wakame and stir. It will expand very quickly. Simmer for an additional 3-5 minutes.

Add the miso to the soup. Serve immediately.

A week of miso soup, day 1: Zucchini miso soup

maki — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 20:39:42 +0200

Continuing my series on Japanese home cooking, this week I would like to introduce different kinds of miso soup. Miso soup (miroshiru) is one of the key parts of a Japanese meal. Another kind of soup that is served often is a clear soup called osumashi, but the miso soup base is more adaptable to all kinds of variations.

The components of a miso soup are quite simple. It's based on a soup stock called dashi, with various ingredients cooked to different degrees in it. The miso is added at the very end of the cooking process.

I have gone over the making of dashi stock before (as well as the basics of miso soup), but it's always worthwhile going over it again - this time with pictures! I've given some vegetarian options for dashi also.

Today's miso soup is not quite traditional, but it's very easy to make with an ingredient that's easy to get practically anywhere. Besides, zucchini are very much in season right now, as anyone with a zucchini plant in their garden knows.

(If you haven't already, you may want to take a look at the essentials of a Japanese pantry, which has an explantion of the ingredients used.)

Traditional dashi stock

This is a basic and very delicious dashi stock, made with just two ingredients, pictured here.

The dark things are dried sheets of konbu seaweed that I have cut up with scissors for ease of use, and the stuff that looks like wood shavings is shaved dried bonito flakes. I store both double-bagged in plastic bags in the freezer.

Konbu is a large, thick leathery seaweed that is bursting with minerals. What makes it so ideal for making stock from is that it's packed with umami. Dried konbu will have a fine white powdery substance on the surface. Don't wash that off - that is full of umami! Some instructions may tell you to wipe off dirt from the konbu, but to be honest I haven't seen konbu with dirt on it for years, especially not on the dried, pre-packaged kind you are likely to find. If you taste it you will see that it is sort of like a much subtler version of MSG (monosodium glutamate) - not surprising, since MSG is actually chemically isolated umami.

Bonito is a kind of fish (called katsuo in Japanese); it's a popular sashimi item. A whole bonito fish side is slowly dried until it becomes a hard, woodlike block called katsuobushi. This is then shaved thinly. In my grandmother's time every household had a katsuobushi shaver, that sort of looked like a wood planer fixed on top of a box. My mother still prefers to shave her own, but I just use the pre-shaved kind that you see in the photo.

To make about 4 cups of dashi stock, you will need:

4 cups of cold water
A 4 inch / 10 cm square piece (or small pieces adding up to that amount) of dried konbu
About 1 cup (a handful) of bonito flakes

Keep in mind these are not exact amounts. Adding more konbu or more bonito flakes will just give it more flavor. Fans of the original Iron Chef TV series may recall Iron Chef Japanese Rokusaburo Michiba (the one who preceeded Iron Chef Morimoto in that role) adding huge handfuls of bonito flakes to his dashi pots.

First, put your dried konbu and cold water into your pan, and leave it to soak for at least 20 minutes, preferably overnight. Don't wash off that white powder!

After the soaking time, bring the water up to a boil, throw in the bonito flakes, and turn off the heat. Leave to steep for a few minutes, then strain through a sieve.

Your dashi will be a pale golden yellow in color, and ready to use.

Note: if you are frugal, you can keep the used konbu and bonito flakes to make nibandashi from them - a thinner dashi that is fine for use in stewed dishes like nikujaga (Japanese meat and potatoes). Put in a plastic bag or container, and refrigerate for up to 3 days (or freeze) until ready to use.

Alternative ways of making non-vegetarian dashi

The easiest way is to just use dashi stock granules. I always have a box of this around since it's so handy. The amount to use depends on the brand, but generally it's about 1 teaspoon to 4 cups of water. Two brands that are widely available are Ajinomoto Hondashi and Shimaya Dashinomoto; to me they are virtually indistinguishable, though the Hondashi may have slightly more bonito aroma. Do keep in mind that dashi made from granules is saltier than dashi made from natural ingredients, so you will need to adjust the amount of miso soup you put in later. (See also health considerations - most dashi stock granule brands contain MSG.)

In some Japanese households, small dried fish called niboshi are used in stock instead of bonito flakes. You simply throw a few of them into the pot with the konbu, and let it simmer a bit. I have a bag of powdered niboshi, which can be used just like dashi granules. Some people object to dashi made from niboshi, considering it to be too fishy tasting. I don't mind it myself but I do prefer bonito flakes.

Vegetarian dashi options

If you want a purely vegetarian stock (the dashi granule makers claim they are made from real konbu and bonito), try these alternatives:

Use twice the amount of konbu of the recipe above, and soak for several hours or overnight. This will give you a quite subtle yet flavorful dashi.
Use the soaking liquid from dried shiitake mushrooms. Shiitake is also packed with umami, and dried shiitake has it in concentrated form. This will give a very distinctive mushroomy flavor to your soup, which you may or may not like. Use good shiitake mushrooms - I've encountered some that are practically tasteless after soaking. The soaking liquid should turn quite brownish - if it's practically colorless, then you have some dud fungi. Allow about 4 to 5 medium dried shiitake mushrooms per 4 cups of water, leave to soak in a closed container for a few hours or overnight, then strain. Squeeze out all the moisture from the mushrooms and add to the stock. Of course you can use the reconstituted shiitake for cooking.
You can also combine konbu and shiitake mushrooms - put some of both in cold water, soak for several hours, and strain.
If you're in a hurry, you can even use regular western vegetable stock cubes or granules, since all commercial soup stocks contain some umami. Use a salt-free one if possible since the miso has plenty of salt. Your miso soup may not have as 'authentic' a flavor, but it will still taste pretty good.

What kind of miso to use

There are basically 2 kinds of miso widely available outside of Japan: white or yellow-brown, and red. For miso soup, I mostly use white miso (shiromiso) or awasemiso (blended miso). See the Japanese pantry list for more about miso.

Making miso soup

The key thing to remember when making miso soup is that the miso is always added last. Miso is quite heat-sensitive, and boiling it vigorously will really affect the flavor and texture adversely. Over-boiled miso soup takes on a rather grainy quality. The only things you can add after adding the miso are things that cook instantly, such as baby spinach leaves.

So, let's make a very simple miso soup.

Zucchini miso soup

4 cups of dashi stock, prepared as above using your preferred method
1 cup zucchini, cut into thin strips (about 1 small zucchini)
1/4 to 1/3 cup white or blended miso (see notes)

Bring the dashi stock to a boil, and add the zucchini. Simmer until the zucchini is tender, about 5 minutes.

Put the miso into a small cup. Add a little of the hot dashi stock, and mix around with chopsticks or a fork until the miso is dissolved into a smooth paste. (The picture on top shows the miso before it's dissolved, and the one below shows it after.) Add to the soup. Taste the soup, and add a little more miso if it seems too weak for you. (I actually do this mixing with dashi part in the soup ladle, but a cup may be easier to handle if you aren't used to it.)

Bring the soup back up to heat, then switch off. Serve immediately.

Notes:

If you are serving miso soup as part of a Japanese meal centered on white rice, make it a bit stronger in taste; if you are serving it as a separate course, hold back a bit on the amount of miso used. Always taste to make sure you have added the amount that's right for you.
Miso has a natural tendency to separate from the water/dashi, especially as it cools. If this happens to you, don't worry, just mix up the soup a bit.

IMBB 25: Good uses for Stale Bread: A Simple Bread Soup

Max Wyss — Mon, 01 May 2006 02:00:00 +0200

Posted by Max

In the small household I grew up, there was always an issue with bread. Either it was gone because it was fresh and very good, or it was not that fresh anymore, and stayed until stale. To clear up this stale bread, my mother made a simple soup out of it. This simple recipe fits very well in Is My Blog Burning, edition 25, hosted by Derrick Schneider's An Obsession with Food.

Even now, in my own small household, it can happen that bread is left over, and accumulates over a few days, which means that I occasionally dig out that recipe and take care of that bread. The soup is really warming, and quite filling. And, because of the variety of bread I have available, the results are never exactly the same.

A Simple Breadsoup

Hard stale bread
50 g butter
Soup stock cubes
Freshly grated mature Gruyère cheese

Cut the bread into cubes, about 1 inch wide. It does not matter that much if the pieces get smaller.

Put a soup pot on high heat and melt the butter.

Pour the bread in the pot and stir it, trying to cover every piece with some butter. Continue stirring, dry roasting the bread. This is a bit a smoky matter, therefore make sure that the exhaust fan is working.

When every piece of bread has some charred spots (that will be the case after about 10 minutes), pull the pot off the heat and add water until the bread pieces are well covered. Put the pot back on heat and bring it to boil.

Crumble soup stock cubes for the amount of liquid into the soup. It does not really matter what kind of soup base you are using. Beef makes it a bit stronger, but vegetable or chicken works equally well.

Reduce the heat and let it simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. The bread pieces will soak up the liquid, and it might be necessary to add a bit more water.

Taste, season if needed (mainly pepper, as the soup stock has brought in enough salt), serve into bowls and sprinkle a little freshly grated mature Gruyère on it. Enjoy.

There are possible variations with this recipe. If the look of the soaked up bread pieces is offending to your eye, you can puree the soup. In fact, this might be the more likely way it is served in a restaurant. You might also crush the bread or grind it up coarsely before roasting.

A note about the pot. Roasting can be a bit hard on the pot, therefore, I would recommend to not use a non-stick pot, but better a rather robust stainless steel pot. When roasting the cubes, crumbs break off and get burned and stick to the bottom. A stainless steel pot is easier to clean...

Technorati Tags: IMBB 25, bread stale bread,