Anonymous
Posted on 2019-11-09 01:44:51 Score: 0 (vote Up/Down)    (Report as spam)


I made Tuna Tataki, Miso Soup and a nip salad but since I cooked this for three people and was busy running around getting everything prepared and finished at the same time, the documenting process suffered. Gomen ne.

Anyway, all three of these are very easy to make provided you have some basic Nip cooking ingredients. Let's go over how to make Miso Soup from scratch, with home-made Dashi stock:

Ingredients in picture, clockwise from the top are Kombu (Dried Kelp), Katsoubushi (smoked bonito flakes), Aka Miso (red miso paste, saltier and stronger tasting that Shiro Miso). These three are all you need for the broth, the rest are optional. Traditionally a pinch of dried Wakame seaweed is added, along with finely sliced green onions (not pictured) as garnish. Little cubes of tofu are also added for protein, which I have decided to replace with some fish cake I had. Enoki mushrooms work well in this soup as well.

The cool thing about miso soup is that you have the freedom to make it your own. You can add some noodles, for example, you can add shrimp or even boiled potato instead of the tofu. You can even make it hardier with plenty of veg. What I made is similar to what you'd find served at most places though, which is simple and light, with only a little bit of each ingredient thrown in. This is done for a reason as the broth does not become over-powered by stronger flavours and you are able to enjoy it to the fullest.

We start by making the Dashi stock. Dashi is the building block of Nip cuisine and is used from everything from soups to omelettes to sauces to batter. It keeps for about five days in the fridge. Dashi can be made with instant dashi powder but it is recommended to do it the right way at least a couple of times to acquire the taste for it. Dashi stock is made with konbu and katsoubushi but can be made with only konbu or only katsoubushi, and sometimes with other things that add umami like dried shiitake mushrooms or other dried seafood.

Start by filling a pot with a desired amount of water. For 1-2L you can use one large sheet of konbu. You don't have to overdo it, look at the pic for example. Let it sit for 1-2 hours or over night in the fridge if you are fancy.

Bring the pot to a boil and let simmer for 10 minutes. After add a fistful of katsoubushi flaskes and turn off the heat. Let sit covered for another 10.

Pick out the konbu and place in ziplock back in the freezer if you'd like to use it again in the future for a second round or for a different recipe. Next run the broth through a fine strainer into a different pot to remove the bonito flakes. The flakes can also be stored in the freezer for future use (home-made furikake aka rice seasoning, for example). In the picture you will see I also used some dried scallops which I later added to the soup.

You have made delicious dashi stock.

The next step would be to add anything that needs a little cooking or heating up. This would be the tofu, potato or fish cake as is my case.

To make miso soup you simply have to bring the broth close to a simmer and mix a heaping tablespoon of miso paste in. Make sure not to add too much as it will ruin the soup. You can always add more if need be. Care must be taken not to boil the soup once the paste has been added as this will kill all the beneficial bacteria (or something along those lines). Piping hot is what you're looking to maintain it as until it is served.

The paste is hard to mix in a big pot, so please use a separate small bowl along with some of the dashi from the pot and whisk well, and then add it to the pot.

You have made miso soup. Now it can be garnished with a pinch of wakame (which need a few minutes to re-hydrate and expand), some green onions and the enoki mushrooms. Voila!

Really simple and really easy and good for you. Using instant dashi powder reduces the cooking time to about 10 minutes.

Anonymous
Posted on 2019-11-09 01:45:21 Score: 0 (vote Up/Down)    (Report as spam)


Tuna Tataki is also incredibly easy to make and offers some freedom with ingredients. I made it coated in Furikake but this can be substituted for toasted sesame seeds and pepper. The dipping sauce is also very important but, again, there is lots of freedom to alternate if you're missing some ingredients.

Clockwise from the top: Japanese soy sauce (required), Mirin (Japanese sweet cooking rice wine - also required), powdered wasabi (wasabi paste or horseradish paste also work), sesame oil, rice vinegar, olive oil (required), tuna steaks, furikake and a knob of ginger.

The tuna needs to be marinated for 30-60 minutes in a container or sealed bag.

Make the marinade with 4 tbs of soy sauce, 1 tbs of mirin, 1 tsp of wasabi, the grated ginger and optionally 1 tsp of mustard if you have some around. Mix, dump over tuna, let sit.

Incidentally, you can add some more soysauce, mirin and some dashi to the marinade and throw some soft boiled eggs in there and let sit for 2 days to make some pretty good shouyu tamago.

Next, the dipping sauce. Quantities can vary so try tasting it and use your head as you add shit. In a small bowl add a base of olive oil, about 3tbs. Add 1tbs soy sauce and 1tbs mirin. Add 1 tbs dashi stock. Add 1 tsp rice vinegar, add 1 tsp sesame oil. That's it! Mix well. Lots of freedom here to experiment. Everything is to taste and ingredients can be omitted as long as you have soysauce and mirin in there you should be good. Lots of other recipes online. Also, this makes a lot of sauce so drastically reduce quantities if eating alone; It is only for dipping the tuna in.

Once you are ready with the sauce, and your rice is ready, you can move on to the tuna. I prefer it to sit outside the fridge until it's just slightly cool before cooking.

Place the furikake on a plate, add pepper if you wish, take the tuna straight out of the bag and dip to coat on all sides.

Heat some olive oil in a pan on high heat, make sure that thing is sizzling. Add tuna steak and cook for NO MORE than 10 seconds/side, on all sides. It should be done blue rare and any form of over-cooking will ruin this recipe.

Using a razor-sharp knife take care to slowly cut into thin slices without snagging the meat. Serve with fresh Japanese rice and some greens and enjoy one of the most mouth-watering meals you've ever had.

I won't go into detail about the salad because I don't feel like it but it was basically some lettuce, shredded daikon radish and carrot, some wakame seaweed and a couple of cherry tomatoes with a sauce similar to the dipping sauce except it was made with mayo, soysauce, mirin, dashi and yuzu kosho.

And yes, I totally fucked up the presentation. Biggest sin being that the salad should have been on the plate next to the tataki and the rice in a bowl. Mistakes happen if you're in a rush so try to always be prepared ahead of time when cooking.

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