Japanese garden creamy Winter soup

When it’s so cold inside, you need a soup every day. Yes, I wrote inside that’s not a typo, as outside the weather is mild, it’s Winter, but not freezing. In my place without heating, the day is just OK, but at night it’s a little chilly. So I put on a big sweater, my half-gloves and I get a bowl of good soup to warm me up…

It’s very quick to throw stuff in. Then, just let simmer a while. Today’s soup is a miso-minestrone. See the 3 steps at the end, but first let’s look at what is in it :

It’s full of season produce. Can you recognize them ?

Do you know that animal ? His name is taro. Well, he is a potato… and it’s usually called…

…satoimo here.

That’s the season of black soy bean kuromame. I had them boiled.

Some greens.

Shungiku, chrysanthemum leaves.

Kezuribushi, bonito fish flakes.

Koji-miso. There exist very different types of miso. The color depends on ingredients. The more rice, the whiter, the more soy, the darker. This one is light colored miso with a high content of fermented rice (komekoji), and it’s rough textured. Its taste is sweet and mild.

Step one : in some water, put to simmer some dry daikon radish skins (I keep them to make broth), a few peeled satoimo taros, a ts of pasted garlic, 2 tbs of tomato paste, a dry chili and a cup of boiled black beans with their broth. Let 20 minutes.
Step two : I made a 1/2 cup of neri-goma (tahini, white sesame paste), mixed it with a tbs of miso, a ts of fish flakes. I’ve diluted that in the soup and let 2 minutes on low heat.
Step 3 : pour the soup on shungiku greens, top with more fish flakes.
If you want it vegan, just don’t add the fish flakes, replace the topping with aonori seaweed flakes.

Opening 2013 with a Kyoto style o-zoni soup

Akemashite omedeto ! Happy New Year ! Bonne année !
Well, I’m not too much into wish-wish, my first concern this year was as usual : What do we eat in 2013 !
Ozoni ! It’s explained here.

The classic Kyoto o-zoni is caracterized by its simplicity, elegance, traditionalism and refinement. Mine is even simpler than planned… I’ve forgotten to add tofu. It was still delicious.
Kohaku, red and white are the good luck color of New Year and this soup follows this color code.

Mochi. Ozoni is mochi.

Dainty soup with a base of Saikyo miso and a dashi broth of the finest hana-katsuo, flower bonito fish shavings. I had to cheat, I’ve added a little sake kasu.

Traditional seasonal veggies. Ginnan are the gincko tree’s nuts. Kyoto’s small taro satoimo and ultra-red Kintoki carrot.

The veggies are boiled separately as they don’t go well together. These small round mochi get soft by poaching them a few minutes in boiling or near boiling water. If you had a big mochi, you’d need to slice it.

Fill the bowl with a mochi, veggies, tofu if you have. Cover with broth and top with a mount of fish flakes. Take the photo quick as the fish flakes disappear like in moving sands.

Yukiguni nabe hot pot (via GiO)

LY

It’s a meal that cooked itself on the table. A nabe (Japanese hot pot). Yukiguni (Snow Country)…

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Asari clam champon

That’s the season for those small asari clams… So dinner is the champon noodle in soup fiesta…

Chinese egg noodles, stir-fried with bacon. Big veggie volume : new onion, mizuna, tomato.

The shellfish opened in a mix of white miso, water and shochu. A little ginger.

Voila : customised Kyushu style Chinese noodles.
Quick, easy and so tasty.

Home-made condiments : karashi miso for jajamen.

Gourmande’s green chili karashi miso. The sauce to make :

Jajamen (click here).

How many sauces and sauce bases do you need in your kitchen ? Er… 476, 477… It’s endless.
You run all over town to find them, they won’t be cheap, and/or you get will them in a bucket and to use it up before it’s stale, you would have cook with it daily for 6 persons. And the list of ingredients can be scary.

The thing is there are some sauces that can’t make at home. I am not making my soy sauce nor my nuoc nam. Some are not so quick and easy to make. I don’t make my vinegars, but I could.
Many are a combination of simpler ingredients that you already have in your closet. Or if you buy the ingredients, you can use them in many different recipes.

Note that there “karashi” means mustard usually, but it can mean “hot spice”. “Togarashi” means chili pepper. You don’t care… but well, if you eat Japanese food, they may serve you a mustard based sauce also called “karashi miso”.

Togarashi . It’s a frozen Korean chili. A hot one.

Gourmande’s green chili karashi miso

2 tbs of brown chunky wheat miso
1 tbs of black hatcho miso
1 fresh green hot chili
1 tbs of kurozato (Okinawan black cane sugar)
1 cup of sake
2 cups of water

+ 2 tbs of fragrant sesame oil

Open the chili, get rid of the seeds and white parts. Mince finely the flesh. Put all the ingredients except the oil in a sauce pan. With a spatula, mix well the miso. Bring to boil, simmer about 20 minutes, till half of water is gone.
Add the oil, continue 2 minutes on low it while stirring.
You can use immediately or keep it a while in a jar in your fridge.

I find it convenient to prepare it for 1 chili, but it doesn’t matter how much you make in a batch. You get about 1 cup. It’s well for a dozen of servings.

Use : jajamen, and to flavor stir-fries, Asian sauces, etc. It is closed to Chinese sauce doubanjang (tobanjan), so it can replace it in most recipes.

Of course, you can substitute chili pepper, sugar, sake (alcohol)… to adapt to the ingredients you can find.

MISO

Miso is a salty paste of longly fermented grains, and soy. It’s often mix. They are not all equivalent. The ingredients differ greatly and taste too.
They are often sold in boxes/packs of 500g. They can last one year in the fridge if you close well the package. If you buy only one, take it brown. With one of each of these 3, you can do most Japanese recipes :

White colored = sweet

White miso (chunky).
It contains lots of rice, a little soy. It is naturally very sweet. The higher % of rice, the sweeter and whiter. Some smooth version have even added sweetener.

Brown colored = a little strong

Wheat miso. This one contains wheat and soy. Other brown ones contain rice and soy.

Black color = strong

Hatcho miso, hacho miso. Only soy. The paste is black. It is used to make “red” miso soup. On the photo, it is “diluted”. You buy it as a thick paste.

The ones that appear to be black and dark beige to brown have some bitterness that you want for this sauce. The very light colored types of miso are very sweet, not so well here. The texture of miso, chunky or smooth matters less as they pound or pass the chunky in a blender, it’s the same thing. I like my sauce with chunky texture.