I love sushi and I love miso soup almosts as much. Last week I discovered just how easy making miso soup is at home. Miso has a rich complex salty and savory flavor to it. I have made a few quick variations of miso soup, but finally decided to make the soup in the traditional way. I found this recipe in
Martha Stewart's Cooking School: Lessons and Recipes for the Home Cook. If you haven't bought this book - you must. The book is arranged by techniques and corresponding recipes. Besides the clever arrangement, the pictures are beautiful and clearly show the steps for each technique and recipe.
Miso soup is made from a base of an easy Japanese stock called Dashi. Dashi is used in many Japanese dishes such as dipping sauces, noodles, etc. The ingredients might be a little hard to find at some grocery stores, but stores like
Whole Foods Market,
Fairway, and any Japanese market will have the ingredients. Before I start explaining how to make the soup, lets talk about a few ingredients (according to Martha's book pages 60-62):
by Lynne Rosetto Kasper and Sally Swift for Christmas this year from my grandma. Inside the cookbook is an array of fonts and photos, which at first I found confusing. Then after second glance and some real reading, I realized that this book is the literary version of Kasper's Splendid Table radio program. Throughout the book you can hear Lynne's voice offering the reader tips and secrets to making delicious meals. The first recipe I tried was Soup of Fresh Greens and Alphabets which included making a recipe of Cheater's Homemade Broth. What exactly is cheater's broth? Basically it is taking store-bought broth and adding "every flavor-boosting trick" Lynne and Sally know. At first I was skeptical with the amount of work I was going to have put in to make the broth before I even made the soup. But once I tried a spoonful of the finished broth, I was sold. It is truly the most flavorful broth I have ever made - so good that I could have just eaten it alone without anything added to it. Lynne and Sally recommend making this broth and storing it for whenever you feel like making soup. The broth keeps for 4 days refrigerated and 6 months frozen.
