Miso Soup

From: Rainer Thonnes rwt@dcs.ed.ac.uk

Date: Tue, 21 Sep 1993 17:17:53 GMT

.5 cubic inches Miso (fermented soybean paste)

small

Potato [*]

.5 teaspoon

Special Seasoning [**]

Wakame (dried seaweed) [***]

Tamari soy sauce (optional)

few dashes

Thinly slice the potato and boil it in enough water for 2 bowlsful of

soup. Meanwhile soak the wakame in cold water for a few minutes, during

which it will expand to about seven times its dry volume and lose some

of its salty taste. Add the special seasoning to the boiling potato.

Just before the potato is cooked, strain the seaweed (discarding the

water in which it has been soaking), and add it to the soup. When the

potato is cooked, remove from heat and add the miso. This is best done

by placing it into a small hand-held sieve or tea strainer, then dipping

it into the soup and jiggling it around. If necessary, gently force the

miso through the sieve using a teaspoon. Do not boil after miso has

been added as this will impair the flavour and consistency. Season to

taste with soy sauce if you like.

[*] You don't have to use potato. You can use carrot or almost any

other vegetable or even tofu.

[**] This special seasoning, obtainable at shops which specialise in

Japanese food ingredients, is a powder normally sold in 10g sachets. It

is sold particularly for Udon or Soba or Miso Soup, and for the latter

they recommend using 1g per serving. I understand it contains Bonito

among other things and adds a mildly fishy flavour. If you can't get

any, you can use the appropriate portion of a stock cube (fish or

vegetable would be best), but only make it about half strength or so,

you want most of the flavour of the soup to come from the Miso.

[***] Good quality Wakame comes in small fine leaves. If you can only

get the large coarse ones you may need to trim off the hard parts. Also,

if they're big, it's impractical to measure with a teaspoon, so just

break off a few pieces. If you can't get wakame at all you could use

scallions or green onions, particularly their leafy parts.

amyl

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mjw/recipes/soup/miso-1.html [12/17/1999 12:04:13 PM]

Soup Recipes 1