Japanese Diet Part II
In previous entry titled " Japanese Diet Part I", I wrote that Japanese diet staple has been rice, and you can find many variety of rice dish in Japan,and listed examples style of dishes you can find in Japan.
Here, I like to write about another staple dish in Japan: Miso Soup.
These days, you can buy a packet of instant miso soup at local grocery store,and many of you would probably be familiar with term "Miso" or "Miso soup". However,you may not know what it is, what dishes you can make out of Miso, or maybe how to make Miso Soup.
What is "Miso"?
Miso is made from fermented steamed soybeans with malted rice and salt. So, if you buy a tub of Miso and scoop a bit with spoon and lick it, you can see how salty it is. Miso is not meant to be used the way it is. Always, water or sugar or something that dilute the saltiness is added to make tasty dish out of it.
You can read more detail on Miso at wikipedia (Please click here)
Miso is not just one kind. There are variety of Miso: Aka miso (red miso), Shiro miso(white miso), dark or light colored shinshu miso(shinshu is area of Japan), Sendai Miso(sendai is prefecture name),Mugi miso(barley miso),Haccho Miso.. list goes on. Over in US, probably what you find at Asian stores will be limited to white or red miso. Those 2 kinds are basic type of Miso. You can see picture of Miso for each kind and Miso soup made out from each different kind of Miso with different ingredients here. (The site is in Japanese but you can see pictures and easy description in English). Certain area people prefer one type of Miso over the other and depending on where you visit in Japan, Miso soup ingredients,miso used for soup is very different. I think white miso is more mild flavor and red miso is very strong flavor. If you buy 2 kinds and, compare taste,you will notice big difference in flavor not just color of final products.
Miso soup is served very frequently in Japan at home or at restaurant.Very basic staple soup in Japan.
Making Miso soup on your own is not difficult.
How do you make Miso soup?
1. wash wakame(seaweed) under running water to get rid of salt,and soak wakame (seaweed) in water up to one hour. Then,chop to small piece
** This soften up the wakame(seaweed) and after soaking,you chop them into small pieces. Maybe one ounce of wakame will be enough for 2 serving. You can eyeball wakame amount. If you soaked more than necessary for soup, you can use it for something else like vinegary cucumber salad
= Cucumber salad=
A. Slice cucumber(prefer English cucumber) into thin round. sprinkle table salt knead the salt into cucumber slice and after 2 min or so,let it sit and after that,wash it under running water in sieve,squeeze the cucumber hard to get water out of it as much as you can.
*soaking with salt make cucumber tender not crunchy
B. Grate about finger nail size ginger into small bowl and add 3tbs of sugar,3 tbs of rice vinegar, 1-2 tbs of soy sauce and mix well and pour it over cucumber and add leftover wakame(seaweed) and mix
Voilà,you made easy cucumber salad!
2. Cut Tofu (I prefer to use firm Tofu) into dice.
** If you had leftover Tofu,you can pan fry them in skillet,drizzle soy sauce and voilà,you got very easy side dish
3. Chop green onion
Now,you make dashi (stock/broth)
* Dashi (broth/stock) is also another thing you find variety of way to make it and variety of ingredients to be used. Konbu dashi(kelp broth),Niboshi dashi (dried sardine broth),Ichiban dashi,Niban dashi etc etc. If you find making dashi is too time consuming,you can just buy a bottle of dashi powder called Hon Dashi and you can find it at Asian store.If you use powder,all you need is dashi powder and water
1. Most popular dashi making method and the way you learn at cooking class at junior high school in Japan will be Ichiban dashi. Add about size of 5 inch long konbu (kelp) to about 900 ml water and put it on mid heat.
2. When kelp is coming to surface,take the kelp out from water and add about 1 ounce of Katsuo bushi (bonito flakes,which you can buy at Asian store) into the kelp water. And when it boil, turn off the heat right away and let it sit til Katsuo Bushi sink down to bottom of the sauce pan
3. Prepare bowl,place sieve over it, place cheese cloth on top and pour the kelp bonito flake water over and there you have it. You just made " Ichiban Dashi"
Now, the soup making part
1. If you do use dashi, use Dashi as is.If you use dashi powder,you need to make quick dashi for soup using water and dashi powder
2. Boil the Dashi and put miso paste in it. Best way to dissolve miso is to use small sieve and press the paste against it with wooden spoon over boiling water.
3. After miso is dissolved,turn the heat to simmer (no boiling at this point), and add wakame (seaweed) and Tofu. When Wakame,Tofu came to surface,add chopped onion,turn off the heat right away and serve.
What would you do if you had leftover Miso soup??
I like to add cooked rice (prefer Kokuho Rose rice) into Miso soup and eat like porridge.
Enjoy!
** You can click each unique ingredients' names to see what the products look like. You can see picture of products and Chinese characters on products and that would make identifying ingredients easier at Asian stores. Please note that I am not endorsing those products in any ways. This is sorely for purpose of your ingredients hunting easier.
Here, I like to write about another staple dish in Japan: Miso Soup.
These days, you can buy a packet of instant miso soup at local grocery store,and many of you would probably be familiar with term "Miso" or "Miso soup". However,you may not know what it is, what dishes you can make out of Miso, or maybe how to make Miso Soup.
What is "Miso"?
Miso is made from fermented steamed soybeans with malted rice and salt. So, if you buy a tub of Miso and scoop a bit with spoon and lick it, you can see how salty it is. Miso is not meant to be used the way it is. Always, water or sugar or something that dilute the saltiness is added to make tasty dish out of it.
You can read more detail on Miso at wikipedia (Please click here)
Miso is not just one kind. There are variety of Miso: Aka miso (red miso), Shiro miso(white miso), dark or light colored shinshu miso(shinshu is area of Japan), Sendai Miso(sendai is prefecture name),Mugi miso(barley miso),Haccho Miso.. list goes on. Over in US, probably what you find at Asian stores will be limited to white or red miso. Those 2 kinds are basic type of Miso. You can see picture of Miso for each kind and Miso soup made out from each different kind of Miso with different ingredients here. (The site is in Japanese but you can see pictures and easy description in English). Certain area people prefer one type of Miso over the other and depending on where you visit in Japan, Miso soup ingredients,miso used for soup is very different. I think white miso is more mild flavor and red miso is very strong flavor. If you buy 2 kinds and, compare taste,you will notice big difference in flavor not just color of final products.
Miso soup is served very frequently in Japan at home or at restaurant.Very basic staple soup in Japan.
Making Miso soup on your own is not difficult.
How do you make Miso soup?
1. wash wakame(seaweed) under running water to get rid of salt,and soak wakame (seaweed) in water up to one hour. Then,chop to small piece
** This soften up the wakame(seaweed) and after soaking,you chop them into small pieces. Maybe one ounce of wakame will be enough for 2 serving. You can eyeball wakame amount. If you soaked more than necessary for soup, you can use it for something else like vinegary cucumber salad
= Cucumber salad=
A. Slice cucumber(prefer English cucumber) into thin round. sprinkle table salt knead the salt into cucumber slice and after 2 min or so,let it sit and after that,wash it under running water in sieve,squeeze the cucumber hard to get water out of it as much as you can.
*soaking with salt make cucumber tender not crunchy
B. Grate about finger nail size ginger into small bowl and add 3tbs of sugar,3 tbs of rice vinegar, 1-2 tbs of soy sauce and mix well and pour it over cucumber and add leftover wakame(seaweed) and mix
Voilà,you made easy cucumber salad!
2. Cut Tofu (I prefer to use firm Tofu) into dice.
** If you had leftover Tofu,you can pan fry them in skillet,drizzle soy sauce and voilà,you got very easy side dish
3. Chop green onion
Now,you make dashi (stock/broth)
* Dashi (broth/stock) is also another thing you find variety of way to make it and variety of ingredients to be used. Konbu dashi(kelp broth),Niboshi dashi (dried sardine broth),Ichiban dashi,Niban dashi etc etc. If you find making dashi is too time consuming,you can just buy a bottle of dashi powder called Hon Dashi and you can find it at Asian store.If you use powder,all you need is dashi powder and water
1. Most popular dashi making method and the way you learn at cooking class at junior high school in Japan will be Ichiban dashi. Add about size of 5 inch long konbu (kelp) to about 900 ml water and put it on mid heat.
2. When kelp is coming to surface,take the kelp out from water and add about 1 ounce of Katsuo bushi (bonito flakes,which you can buy at Asian store) into the kelp water. And when it boil, turn off the heat right away and let it sit til Katsuo Bushi sink down to bottom of the sauce pan
3. Prepare bowl,place sieve over it, place cheese cloth on top and pour the kelp bonito flake water over and there you have it. You just made " Ichiban Dashi"
Now, the soup making part
1. If you do use dashi, use Dashi as is.If you use dashi powder,you need to make quick dashi for soup using water and dashi powder
2. Boil the Dashi and put miso paste in it. Best way to dissolve miso is to use small sieve and press the paste against it with wooden spoon over boiling water.
3. After miso is dissolved,turn the heat to simmer (no boiling at this point), and add wakame (seaweed) and Tofu. When Wakame,Tofu came to surface,add chopped onion,turn off the heat right away and serve.
What would you do if you had leftover Miso soup??
I like to add cooked rice (prefer Kokuho Rose rice) into Miso soup and eat like porridge.
Enjoy!
** You can click each unique ingredients' names to see what the products look like. You can see picture of products and Chinese characters on products and that would make identifying ingredients easier at Asian stores. Please note that I am not endorsing those products in any ways. This is sorely for purpose of your ingredients hunting easier.
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