| Miso soup is simple, a blank palette, which can be transformed with the addition of extra ingredients.
In spring, consider fresh young greens, rape blossoms, bamboo shoots, snow peas. Summer brings okra, green beans, corn, tomatoes, and eggplant. In the autumn you’ll find daikon, mushrooms, sweet potatoes, squash, taro, and lotus root. Winter turnips, leeks, cabbage, carrots, and burdock roots are delicious. When choosing the gu for your miso, think about contrasting colors, whether ingredients float or sink, strong flavors and bland. While miso soup was traditionally drunk at breakfast, with a bowl or rice and some pickled vegetables, it is now often served with other meals. To make it a full meal, you can add chicken, pork, clams, lobster, squid, crab, tofu, or even noodles or rice. Please your palate! |
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The other evening after work, I threw together a meal with some (excellent, made by Mr. Tess) leftover Japanese-style panko-baked chicken and miso soup. I used instant hon dashi to make the stock; you can see a picture of the package of the brand I like. It was easy to cut and peel some spring asparagus stems, steam them for a few minutes and blanch them so they stayed a lovely bright green. I was thinking of my friend’s daughter who couldn’t eat my sesame noodles—my friend had mentioned miso soup with udon as her daughter’s favorite. I used some saikyo miso, very sweet and white.
It was a pleasant dinner at the dining-room table, watching Dr. Bramwell on a laptop.
For your pleasure here are some pictures and video of how a miso manufacturing plant works.
don’t these sound good?
corn and cabbage w butter n cream
mushrooms and potato or taro
chocolate and miso sauce on ice cream
Tess's Japanese Kitchen 
Yes they sound good.
If we ever meet, haha you never know, please cook for me! Besides the liver yopu once wrote about I loved any recipe/food you mentioned. I’d probably would have loved the liver too after trying ;)
I mentioned the chocolate miso sauce to Mr. Tess and he sort of grimaced. But if you think about salted caramel or chocolate dipped pretzels, it sounds as if it has possibilities.
I’d love to visit Europe again someday. If not the garlic chives and liver (which if you don’t overcook it is a real surprise—I hated liver as a kid), then I could make you some nice food. I think you could teach me some delicious recipes with your interesting roots. Or even just some amazing cheese and wine.
:) For sure!
that was a cool video series.
You mean the Bromwell? Or the site about manufacturing miso?
I’ve enjoyed several episodes, DVDs from the library, of the good doctor: amazing costumes and sets, stories with enough detail to make you think, well acted…
But the miso manufacturing was interesting how they kept emphasizing how modern and clean and efficient…
Def cool video, but your title photo collage really came out well. It’s one of those visual pieces that one keeps looking at with a feeling that it means something if one only knew that language. Delete this if you would rather wait for someone other than your spouse to be the first commenter about your latest style efforts.
Thanks. You saw the variations as I was playing with it—pointed out some things you liked as I experimented…
Gosh, Mr Tess is right. The header image is mesmerising. Even after looking at the thumbnails and seeing the pattern on the table mats I have no idea how you created that image. It almost looks like etched glass in places — but somehow the dishes sit both on it and behind it. Magic. Mr Tess your panko crusted chicken looks mouthwatering too.
The miso soup title picture really IS the best. I had wanted to say so earlier, but thought it would sound fake, so I didn’t. But Im not alone in thinking it now. I must have spent at least a minute, admiring that picture. :)
Hi zenmaiden,
~~~Oh thank you.~~~
I was adding tiny thumbnails to the “Browse All Recipes” (job still not completed) and was struck by how similar all my pictures of dinner look: a plate of food which one hopes is clear, nicely lit, in focus, even interesting—though even so mundane.
I think something a bit different is called for.
Hi Carolyn,
Or watery, or sashiko, or a garden trellis? Kimono fabric?
I just thought of this: What if this were printed across the chest of a tee shirt? In a different context than a blog page, it might look very subtly strange…
Yes I thought of sashiko too – mainly because I have been learning this technique over Summer. I went into a haberdashery today to get some more chaco and saw that pattern on a navy table runner. So strange the synchronicity that stretches across the world.
I’ve just had a very diverting 20 minutes playing with your miso plant! What a great video – thank-you for posting it. Must check out Dr Bramwell too. <3 Cx
I cannot comment on your blog. I wanted to say something on your post, but ended up in a tizz-a-whig-round-about which kept asking me to log in…
But your post about needles was fascinating.
Oh thanks for letting me know that. I had trouble commenting on a friend’s blogger blog a while back too – I had to sign out of my google profile first for some reason. If you select follow that might help perhaps…
Thanks for reading the post though.