Spinach and Miso Soup

24Sep09

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This is not a traditional miso soup! Ms. Shimbo was experimenting to produce a creamy miso soup that did not separate. The bright green color is astonishing; somehow it is brighter and more saturated than spinach in its natural state. You will notice that I used cherry-blossom shaped fu, rather than the croutons recommended in [...]

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Tags: miso

Youvarlakia Avgolemono: a Greek meatball soup

20Sep09

http://1tess.wordpress.comWhen I was thinking about what to make for Rosh Hashanah, I looked back to what I did last year—traditions make the holidays. Hmm… does twice makes a tradition? This soup is so good, one should really make it more than once a year.
An irrelevant side-note: did you notice the word avgolemono ends in ‘mono‘ just as many of the Japanese cooking techniques I have on this blog (see my side-bar): agemono, yakimono, nabemono, mushimono, tsukemono, gohanmono! Synchronicity!

Filed under: Beef, Eggs, Miscellaneous, Non Japanese Food, Shiromono, Soups   |  7 Comments
Tags: meatballs, Greek food, avgolemono

Chawan Mushi (a mushroom variation)

24Aug09

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In Japan, chawan mushi is a very popular savory custard. There are even special cups with lids for preparing and serving the dish. The traditional recipe is made with dashi, eggs, and chicken, shrimp, and mushrooms plus seasonal ingredients like gingko nuts, mitsuba, yuzu citron, kinome, or lily buds. This recipe is a variation of [...]

Filed under: Eggs, Japanese Food, Mushimono, Soups, Steaming, Suimono   |  1 Comment
Tags: chawan-mushi, Japanese Cooking

Ebi-shinjo: Shrimp Dumplings

15May09

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Success!!! I posted about ebi-shijo (shrimp quenelles) quite a while ago, but I was very disappointed in the way they turned out. A suggested that she had eaten ebi-shinjo that were much simpler, so I approached the re-make of this recipe with that in mind.
comment on that postI think the biggest problem with the original recipe is that there is just too much liquid.
I didn’t care for the chewy texture of the mushrooms, so I left them out.
I wanted smaller dumplings, so I didn’t boil them wrapped in parchment, nor did I try to deep-fry them. I think these dumplings would have held together in the hot oil, and I may try that some other time; they would make a nice appetizer! Shizuo Tsuji, in his book :Practical Japanese Cooking, has a recipe for crab balls in a clear soup (with a variation for shrimp) which looks interesting—his technique uses plastic wrap to keep the (large) dumplings smooth while cooking in the boiling water.
The shiso flavoring was overwhelming in the original recipe, so I used some lovely garlic chives from my garden just for color.

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Filed under: Fish and Seafood, Japanese Food, Nimono, Simmering, Snacks, Soups, Suimono   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: Japanese Cooking, shrimp

Happy Birthday

23Apr09

So another day of labor, not nearly so long as above, and I was hungry for dinner. A small piece of salmon, and some shrimp were in the freezer, some dill and asparagus were in the fridge. I took inspiration from the seafood miso soup we ate during the winter holidays, and though I had no lobster, the meal was easy to prepare for one and quite satisfiying.

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Tags: Japanese Cooking, miso