The World-Wide Sushi Restaurant Reference
Glossary entry

Miso. Soy bean paste.

Reader comments

• ``It's very simple to make. Just go to an Asian grocery and get some Bonito soup stock. It comes in a variety of different brands and not all taste the same so you'll have to experiment to get the one you like best. While your there, pick up a bag of miso, yellow miso is my favorite. If you like tofu and seaweed in your miso get it too. Follow directions for the bonito stock (if it has any in english). Add from a teaspoon to a tablespoon of miso per bowl of soup you're making(best added to the saucepan while it's heating up to get it to disolve). Add anything else you want(tofu, seaweed, etc.) and your done. ¶ Miso goes a long way so get one of the smaller bags the first time. Also, if you've never seen straight miso, it resembles a paste. ¶ Go down to Uwajimaya and get one block of silken tofu, one bunch of green onions, one small package of deep-fried tofu pouches, and a container of dashi-iri miso (it's got the soup stock in it already; you can also get regular miso and a bottle of instant dashi *or* get a package of dried bonito flakes and kombu -- the latter gives superior flavor but I only do it for guests). ¶ Heat up 5/6 cup of water per person. Add the instant dashi if going that route then 1/8 of a block of tofu (cut into 1/3 inch cubes) and one tofu pouch sliced thinly. When heated through, either mix some of broth with the miso (one large "walnut" per person) and add or stick the miso in a strainer and strain it into the stock. Don't boil. Add the chopped onions just before serving. ¶ One survey, reported in "The Book of Miso", found that the most popular additions to miso soup were:
  • daikon
  • leek (actually Japanese onion, often available at Uwajimaya)
  • age (the deep-fried tofu pouches)
  • wakame
  • tofu
  • chinese cabbage
  • potato
  • spinach
  • cabbage
  • wheat gluten
  • carrot
  • onion
  • burdock root
  • eggplant
  • mushrooms
  • turnip
  • lotus root
  • bean sprouts
  • sansai (mountain vegetables)
  • a special kind of shellfish
  • sweet potato
  • chrysanthemum
  • short-necked clams
  ¶ Potato and wakame and age are good together. Age and chrysanthemum are too. ¶ Good eating. And do try the Taiwanese one too.''

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