COOKING AT HOME: HOMEMADE DASHI STOCK + MISO SOUP
My son loves miso soup.
He asks for miso soup and rice so often I've come to the point of having instant miso soup in my pantry all the time. Just add water — so easy. But, now I'm feeling quite guilty for feeding him instant miso, as much as I do. So, here's me trying to do better.
What I found was, having fresh home-made miso soup on hand really isn't as hard as I thought it would be. Let me share my new miso wisdom with you 😊.
Homemade miso soup can be broken down into three parts:
PART 1: MAKING THE DASHI STOCK - basically, this is the soup base. This is also the time-consuming part, BUT here's the trick: make the stock beforehand and keep it in the refrigerator so it's made and ready for when you want miso soup.
PART 2: ADDING MISO PASTE INTO THE DASHI STOCK - Adding the miso paste into the dashi stock is what makes it miso soup! So easy.
PART 3: ADDING WAKAME, TOFU, AND GREEN ONIONS - obviously, all of these are add-ins and therefore optional, my son loves all three so I add all three ingredients, and they all go in a couple of minutes before serving (just enough time for them to get hydrated and heated through).
What you'll need for the soup base:
8 cups of water
2 pieces of dried kelp (AKA Kombu) about 10 grams per piece.
2 cups of dried bonito flakes (AKA Katsuobushi)
What you'll need for Miso soup:
6-8 Tablespoon of miso (red, brown or light)
A block of soft tofu, large diced (optional)
4-5 Tablespoon of dried wakame seaweed, or more, to taste/preference (optional)
2-3 Stalks of green onion, sliced (optional)
What you'll do to make the stock (soup base for miso soup):
1. Add water and dried kept into a stock pot and heat on medium-low heat in order to bring to a boil slowly — do not put on high heat. In order to extract as much flavor from the kelp as possible we heat it up on medium-low. Remove the kept right before the water comes to a boil.
2. Add into the kelp stock the dried bonito flakes. Bring the water to a boil, then reduce the heat and allow it to simmer for about 30 seconds, then turn off the heat entirely and let the bonito flakes sink to the bottom of the pot (this should take about 10 minutes, if it takes a little more time for it to sink, that's okay. Mine usually takes about 15 minutes).
*You can add more bonito flakes if you want a strong fish flavor to your stock. (The last time I made this I tried to make it with a little more than 2 cups and I found the flavor to be too strong, but try it, experiment, and see what you like! 😃)
3. Strain the stock through a sieve to separate the bonito flakes from the stock.
NOTE: What you've got now is the soup base for the miso soup. You can use what you need from this stock and refrigerate the rest. This stock should be good for use for 4-5 days (as long as you keep it refrigerated).
*As long as you have the Dashi stock made and ready in the refrigerator it's a pinch to make miso soup.
What you'll need to do to make Miso soup:
1. Pour however many cups of stock you want to make into a pot and bring it to a boil, then turn off the heat.
2. Add about 1 tablespoon of miso paste per cup of stock (if you're making 2 cups of broth then add 2 tablespoons of miso paste). Use a small sieve or strainer to help dissolve the miso paste into the stock, alternatively, you can add one ladle of stock into a small bowl, add the miso paste into the bowl, whisk until the paste is broken up, then add the small amount of mixture back into the pot (these suggestions are to help with dissolving the miso paste into the stock which can be difficult to fully break down since it needs to be worked a little bit).
* The different colored miso have slightly different flavors, pick the one you like. This time I used red miso and it wasn't my favorite. I prefer the lighter flavor of the light colored miso paste.
3. Add the dried wakame, if using. (Add as much or as little as you want).
4. Add the tofu, if using. (Add as much or as little as you want).
5. Add the green onion, if using. (Add as much or as little as you want).
*After adding all other ingredients, if you feel the need to heat up the miso soup further, do so, BUT do not allow miso soup to come to a boil. Heat the miso soup just until it is about to boil. *Boiling will reduce the flavor of the miso soup.