For many, the phrase "Japanese food" instantly conjures up colorful rolls of nori-wrapped rice (maki-sushi) and pink slabs of impeccably prepared raw fish (sashimi).
Indeed, sushi is the culinary prima donna of Japanese cuisine, at least in the Western imagination. But let's take a step behind the stage curtains and explore a less-celebrated, but delicious and culturally significant, ingredient of daily Japanese cooking: miso.
You may perhaps already be familiar with miso soup through Japanese restaurant visits. While here it is a curious appetizer served before a potentially expensive dinner, in Japan it is breakfast and a regular staple of daily living.
In Japanese homes, many families start the day off with a meal of hot miso tofu soup, a bowl of rice and pickled vegetables. (Also in contrast to the American way of doing things, at the Japanese table soup tends to be served alongside the main course, as an accompaniment rather than a precursor to the meal.)
So what exactly is miso, besides some mysterious type of soup, and where can you get it? Miso is simply an ingredient: it is a fermented paste (similar in consistency to hummus) made from rice, barley, and/or soybeans, that is high in protein and vitamins.
It can be used in many ways: in pickles, in soups, in sauces and even alone as a spread. The soybean variety is most common today, and you can find them readily available in Chinatown supermarkets and Asian grocers throughout the Greater Boston area. (There is a Japanese-specific small grocer in the Porter Exchange Mall.)
And though miso soup seems unfamiliar and thus hard to make, in reality making it is as simple as mixing gobs of miso with some dashi in a pot and stirring. (It's almost like making tomato soup from ketchup and water, except a billion times more nutritious and awesome.)
Wait a second, what is this dashi? Some would say that it is the pillar of Japanese cuisine. Dashi is essentially stock made from fish (dried bonito, specifically) and wakame, a type of edible kelp. It is the chicken broth of Japan, except that, in the words of my Japan-phile housemate, "it is infused with the sea." You can get little jars of dashi granules that work pretty much the same way as bouillon cubes.
So if you have intrepidly obtained these two ingredients, why not give everyday Japanese cooking a try? Indeed, not all Japanese food has to be a costly affair that can be prepared only by master chefs behind a sushi bar.
Here are three simple, unpretentious and delicious dishes using miso and dashi that will surely warm and fill you up.
Classic Miso Soup
Ingredients:
*3 1/2 cups dashi stock
*1 cup silken tofu, cut into little cubes
*3 tablespoons miso paste
*1/4 cup chopped scallions
Directions:
1) Bring the dashi stock to a boil over medium heat. If you have dashi granules instead of dashi stock, make stock by adding water via the instructions on the granules' package in order to make the appropriate number of cups of dashi stock.
2) Add the silken tofu, cut into small cubes, to the dashi stock. Reduce heat from medium to a low simmer.
3) Scoop out some of the hot dashi stock into a small bowl, and stir the miso into it until it dissolves. Pour all of this dashi-miso mixture back into the pot.
4) Turn off the heat and garnish with chopped scallions. Other possible garnishes are nori cut into thin strips (with scissors!), minced Japanese pickles and sesame seeds.
Miso Udon Noodles
Ingredients:
*6 oz. dried or fresh udon noodles (fresh available in fridge aisle of Japanese grocer)
*6 cups dashi stock
*1/4 cup miso
*6 scallions
*1 carrot
*1 can enoki mushrooms (long, thin, little white mushrooms)
*2 cups baby spinach leaves
*6 oz. firm tofu
Directions:
1) Cook the noodles via package instructions.
2) Julienne the carrot by hand if you can. I always get lazy and just take a vegetable peeler to peel thin strips of carrot away. Pretty much the same thing. Also chop the scallions.
3) Cut the tofu into little half-inch cubes.
4) In a large pot, bring dashi to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer. Add mushrooms, tofu and carrot. Cook for 5 minutes.
5) Mix some dashi with miso to dissolve it and add it to the pot. Add spinach leaves and cook just long enough for them to blanch. Turn off heat immediately after. Sprinkle scallions on top as garnish.
7) To serve, pour the soup over the udon noodles. Slurp and enjoy!
Pork and Radish Miso Soup
