click for larger image Miso Soup - original recipe by Barry L. Kramer
Preparation time: about 20 minutes
Cooking time: about 25 minutes of attendance
If you prefer a soup with much more vegetables in it, you can use additional quantities of the vegetables up to double. This is very tasty.
click for larger image
3 spring onions, very thinly sliced
6 to 8 oz. fresh baby portobello mushrooms, sliced
4 oz. fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced
2 carrots, very thinly sliced or coarsely grated or a combination of both
3 or 4 complete stalks of bok choi, very thinly sliced
1T ground fresh ginger
1-46 oz. can chicken broth
2T Yamabuki Shiro Miso (dark yellow/tan color). Color variants are available
but I haven't tried them.
olive oil and butter for cooking
1. After slicing mushrooms, cook them in equal parts olive oil and butter in
a 6 quart cooking pot. Lightly salt mushrooms while cooking. Add more butter
or oil in small quantities if needed. They should become tan on one side, then
be turned (individually if necessary) and cooked to a tan color on the second
side, and very tasty if you sample them. Remove them as needed and keep warm
because you need to cook multiple batches.
2. While cooking mushrooms, mix the 2T miso (which you can purchase at a good oriental grocery) with about 3T water; mix thoroughly into a thick liquid, smooth with no lumps.
3. After all mushrooms are cooked, add chicken broth and sliced spring onions (and any mushrooms that were removed) and cook at medium heat until it boils. Continue boiling until onions become soft and the concentric rings can be separated. Stir often.
4. When onions are soft, add carrots and cook not quite boiling, until carrots start to become less crisp but not soft. Stir often. Don't overcook.
5. Add bok choi and ginger and cook, not quite boiling, until bok choi and carrots fully achieve their final desired texture. I like to have them firm but not quite crunchy. Immediately remove from heat.
6. Pour the miso and water mixture through a very fine mesh metal strainer into the soup. This is to remove grainy particles from it that can settle to the bottom of the soup. Spoon hot broth into the strainer (or dip its bottom into the soup) to encourage the miso to go through the mesh but do not force it through. Discard any remaining miso particles from the strainer that do not readily dissolve. Mix well.
Do not boil or overheat the soup after adding the miso.
When reheating, microwave 10 or 15 seconds at a time and stir each interval so as to not boil it. Reheats very well.
This is very visually appealing because of the colors and shapes and textures and doesn't really resemble the miso soup with sparse vegetables that is often served at Japanese restaurants.