More information re. miso

Hi Marty:

Just wanted to add some comments to eggy's recipe....

We (I'm Japanese-American that grew up in Japan surrounded by members of my mother's foodie family, who owned sushi and kaiseki restaurants for more than a century) always add a tablespoon or two of sake (rice wine) before adding in the miso. That's the flavor enhancer that's missing in almost all miso soup recipes that I've seen, including those contained in cookbooks.

Also, katsuobushi (dried bonito shavings) is NEVER added to miso soup in my family, because we use that to make dashi stock. There is a HUGE difference in flavor between dashi made from scratch vs. dashi powder/pellets. I posted 3 dashi recipes for Julie C. on the vegetarian site a few weeks ago so you might want to check it out. What I do with the leftover bonito is to add soy sauce, mirin, and sugar (slow simmer until all the liquid is absorbed) to make "okaka" -- you can put this into your rice balls or sprinkle it over rice with toasted sesame seeds (we call this "furikake").

The most important thing to remember about miso soup is to NEVER let it boil over, including in the re-heating process. This would kill off the microbes in the miso -- its primary health benefit (these little creatures assist your digestive process). The reason why the Japanese diet is so healthy is because of the emphasis on fermented products (bonito shavings and soy sauce qualify, but the amount of microbes contained in these compared to miso and "natto" -- fermented soybeans -- is negligible) and interestingly enough, Japanese cooking techniques have been handed down to preserve these foods' special qualities (I don't know how they knew before scientific evidence would prove them right).

In my years of eating Japanese food, I've never seen miso soup with dried nori added -- we use wakame seaweed. The most fundamental miso soup recipe calls for tofu, wakame, and scallions (this is the soup taught in Japanese cooking classes). However, my favorite ingredients for miso soup include daikon, cabbage, onions, potato, broccoli, burdock, kabu (Japanese radish), and any kind of greens. You can make a whole meal out of miso soup with hot pot (nabe) dishes.

The yellow miso is called "awase" miso, because it's a combination of red (hattcho) and white (shiro) miso. In my grandmother's days, many households made their own miso using things other than soybeans (like barley) -- and there are as many versions of miso as there are cooks (many blend different brands, etc.) I have at least 4 different miso sitting in my refrigerator, including my friend's homemade version.