As a Japanese, I must write about Miso soup. I cooked Miso soup last night with the Miso I brought from Germany to Austria. So it's time to write about it 😊
You may imagine Miso soup as something quite liquidy with Tofu and seaweed. Or it takes a lot of effort to prepare Dashi, soup made from seaweed or bonito flakes. Somehow true and somehow not.
Miso soup is like curry for us. There are a lot of varieties of curry; red, green, yellow, with beans, with meat etc.
You can put anything you feel like in Miso soup. I used ginger, leek, mushrooms (Shiitake is more common but you can use anything!) and Mochi.
Seasoning is also flexible. I seasoned with spicy spice mix this time.
I cooked everything except for Mochi from cold water and added Mochi. When the Mochi got soft, I added Miso.
Dashi soup? You can take time to prepare it but often I feel vegetables make good soup especially when they are a bit sautéd with oil. Sometimes I soak seaweed overnight in water to make simple Dashi soup but not always.
Here is the rough direction how to make Miso soup:
- Cut vegetables in your favorite size.
- (Optional) Sauté the vegetables in a pot.
- Add water and cook the vegetables.
- When the vegetables get soft, add miso to the soup. Around 1-1.5 tablespoon per person but add some more according to the amount of the liquid.
- (Optional) Garnish with chives or spring onion slices.
Done!
We mostly eat Miso soup with rice. You can cook rice for the soup or if you have cold rice in your fridge, just add in the end so that you don't have to warm it up separately. I often do this a bit messy style for my weekday lunch. It's super tasty 😁
Soup Stories Series
- Soup Stories #1: About this series and Spanish Bread Soup
- Soup Stories #2: Winter Schatz Soup
- Soup Stories #3: Chinese Egg Soup
- Soup Stories #4: Pumpkin Soup
- Soup Stories #5: Detox Leek Soup
- Soup Stories #6: Bean Friend's Chickpea Soup
スープストーリーズで一回は味噌汁について書きたいと思っていました。日本語で書くと読んでくれる人はほぼ日本人だと思うので、何を今更！と言われてしまうかな？
お味噌汁と言うと和のスープなのですが、結構洋風の具にしても合います。あと、出汁はとったらおいしいけれど、別に取らなくても十分おいしいと書きたかったのです。
たとえば今の時期だと、ドイツではポロネギがシーズンで、ちょうど手元にあったので、これにマッシュルームと生姜を足して、ポロネギが柔らかくなるまで煮て、餅と味噌を加えて出来上がりです。和洋折衷でおいしく仕上がりました。冬は根菜と白味噌、柚子胡椒をちょっと足したお味噌汁なんかもおいしいですね。柚子胡椒のほか、黒胡椒もいいですね。
さすがに日本人だったら豆腐とわかめのお味噌汁も食べると思いますが、思いの外遊べて簡単に作れるので、好きな野菜の組み合わせで是非お試しあれ。
I heard about miso soup but I haven't tried this one. I am curious about its taste. I hope I can find a restaurant that sells that dish here.
If you are in Cebu according to your profile, definitely you can find some Japanese restaurant or a Japanese/Asian shop that has Miso :) It's super easy, give it a try!
Yes, I will. ☺️
Soup time again! I love this series :D
Mochi is another thing I've come across in manga, but never been able to find here. Oh, the sweet little cakes with plum, green tea or vanilla flavour are common, and tiny balls of mochi-wrapped ice cream can even be found in regular grocery stores, but the food kind isn't available anywhere that I know of.
Image source: japan.travel website
Same in Germany. Most or all the Mochis I see in German supermarkets are sweet ones. If you find an Asian market, there might be some. Or Korean Toppogi is similar to our Mochi.
So Manga is a good source of learning. I must think about let my daughter read some to get to know Japan more 😁
Oh! I do have toppoki! I bought a package a month ago, thinking I'd cook them in a spicy sauce, but the hubby keeps saying "Not today, I want something else today." He's never even tried rice cakes, so I don't know what he has against them. I hope the best before date hasn't passed...