Simple Miso Soup

Hi Everyone!

Miso Soup, very versatile, so many ingredients can go into it changing the flavor. Before we go into anything "fancy" or "different" here's the simple tofu and wakame miso soup.


You'll need:

4 cups water
1 TSP Dashi (I prefer bonito dashi but kombu dashi works well too)
3 TBS Miso Paste
1 TBS Dried Wakame
2 Green Onions
Tofu (your choice in the consistency)


What is Miso Paste? It's fermented edamame, that's the easiest explanation I have. It comes in various colors and tastes.

The mains ones are Shiro Miso (White Miso) and Aka Miso (Red Miso), they also do a mixture of these two together. I have Shiro Miso still in its packaging (this tastes lighter than the aka miso) and my Aka Miso in a glass container (aka miso tastes "meaty" it just has that flavor note that many meat broths have).

Today I used Aka Miso for our Miso Soup.

What is Dashi? Dashi is stock/broth. Usually Bonito (it's a fish that's related to the Tuna, so I'm just going to call it tuna for the sake of my sanity), there's also Kombu a type of seaweed, and there's also Sardine and Shiitake Dashi.  For this recipe I used Bonito Dashi, I also recommend Kombu Dashi.

There are miso pastes out there that already have the dashi incorporated into it. If you have one of these types of miso pastes please omit the step with the Dashi for this recipe.

In a pot bring the water to a boil (I usually leave it on medium heat). Add 1/2 TSP Dashi.
While it's heating up prep your tofu. I used Firm tofu. I wrapped the two slices in paper towel and set a glass bowl on top of it. This will help remove some of the brine the tofu comes in.

Once the Tofu is ready, cut it into cubes. The easiest way is to cut it while the tofu is in your hand...just don't cut your self in the process. If you're uncomfortable with this technique slowly cut it into cubes while it sits on your cutting board.

Afterward cut your green onions into diagonal strips.

Add both the tofu and the green onion to the now hot dashi stock. Let it cook for about 5 minutes.

Do not stir too much you don't want to break the tofu into pieces. If you stir do so gently.

What is Wakame? Wakame is a type of sea weed. It is used in salad, soups etc. Plus it's high in vitamins.

Measure your wakame.

Add it to your miso soup along with the other 1/2 TSP Dashi. Let it cook for 3 minutes.

Below is what it looks like when you first add it to your soup.

What it looks like after 3 minutes

Now in a bowl put your 3 TBS of miso paste.

Add some of the Broth to the miso paste and stir.

If you dilute the miso paste in brother first before adding it to the soup it incorporates faster when you add it.

When you add this to the soup, do not boil the soup!

Just let it heat up and serve immediately ^__^

I hope you try this recipe out. I'll post different kinds of miso soup in the future ^__^

Mini Web Mistress Gypsy hopes you Enjoy.

Gypsy: "I'm ready for my close up Mr. Demille!"

Rice - Gohan

Hi Everyone!

Phew getting these recipes out quickly is a bit rough, but Emily arrives in Japan literally in the next hour or so. I'd like her to have something for her first day  ^_^

Gohan: Means cooked rice, rice is that important that it gets to be the word that defines your meal.

Asagohan: Breakfast
Ohirugohan: Lunch
Yuugohan: Dinner

Notice the pattern?

Today I'll show you how I make rice.

In Japan they have Japonica rice, it's a short grain glutinous rice. Great for chopsticks to pick up with ease and just tastes great.

I use a rice cooker, the brand I have is Zojirushi. It's very easy to use, it comes with a little measuring cup and you just fill it up with how much rice you want and there's a little line inside the bowl that tells you how much water is needed for how many cups you put in it.

Now what if you lost that little cup? I know it's happened before to someone you feel doomed and you try to measure rice in your measuring cup and for some reason the rice doesn't taste the same or doesn't cook the same. Helpful hint, the measuring cup they give you does not equal 1 US measuring cup. It actually measures at 3/4 cup so if you ever lose that precious piece of plastic you now know how to measure without it.

Today I had made 2 cups of rice. Now it sounds so easy just dump the rice and put in the water put it in the machine and press start..........no.......don't do that....please pretty please. You need to WASH your rice first, unless you're in Japan and are able to purchase pre-washed rice, yes that exists and I wish it existed here.

First you measure your rice, put it in the bowl.
Add some water and slowly move your fingers around in the bowl don't be too rough you don't want to break the grains of rice.
You'll begin to see the water get cloudy and white.
This is the first washing, it looks like the rice is sitting in milk.

Drain this water and repeat the washing for a second time.

This time you'll see that it's less cloudy.

Drain this water and repeat this step 1 to 2 more times.

You'll see the water get clearer, we're not aiming for perfectly clear but we don't want the water to be murky either.

I washed mine 3 times. This helps to remove some of the gluten at least that's what I hear.

After draining, you'll fill up the bowl to the water line of how many cups you put in.

I did 2 so if you see the line I put it at was between the 1 and the 3 for the white rice marker.

I then took this to my rice cooker and put it in, closed the lid, plugged in the cooker.

Made sure it was on the setting for white rice and pressed start.

It took about an hour to cook.

I would like to say in the most nerdy fashion, my rice cooker SINGS to me.

This is seriously like the most idiotic thing to love about a rice cooker but I just get all happy when it starts playing its chime to tell me I set it to cook and playing again when it's done.

*Nerdy squeal of joy!*

After the rice cooker tells you it's done doing its job, do NOT open the rice cooker, let it chill out for 10 minutes or so. The rice will improve in texture if you do this, I'm not sure why if anyone can explain that please do I'm all ears.

Once those 10 minutes are up, take your rice paddle and make little slashes into the rice, I do it in both directions so it looks like a checker board. I then proceed to flip the rice and slash a few more times so the rice is fluffed up.

I hope this tutorial was helpful.

If you have a rice cooker that's a different brand just follow the instructions for it along with washing the rice and you should have great tasting rice ^__^

Beef Kushiyaki

Hi Everyone!

Kushiyaki refers to all foods that are skewered and grilled.
Tonight I made Beef Kushiyaki, Caroline style.
Terrible picture I know, but I'm opting for the non photo-shopped look.
I swear it's not burnt! Just horrible horrible lighting! I was not going to spend an hour photographing my dinner for the perfect shot....darn it I was gonna eat that piping hot!

This recipe is versatile and can be done with Chicken, Pork, Beef, Shrimp, the marinade is basically homemade Teriyaki sauce with garlic and ginger added to it so the sky's the limit on what you can cook it with.

The things you'll need:
1. 1 TBS sugar
2. 2 TBS Mirin (sweetened rice wine)
3. 2 TBS Shoyu (soy sauce, please try your best for a Japanese soy sauce, taste varies by country)
4. 2 TBS Sake (if you can't find sake, Sherry will work just fine)
5. 1 TSP ginger paste
6. 1 TSP garlic paste
7. 1/2 pound beef cubed
8. 1 Ziploc bag or 1 container with a lid
9. bamboo skewers, soak in water for about 1 hour, this will prevent them from burning
10. a grill or griddle, heck if desperate use a frying pan

Cut the beef into bite sized cubes, the goal is to be able to eat one right off the stick and avoiding choking hazards.

In a Ziploc bag put all the ingredients except for the beef together.
Today I was out of sake and sherry (a truly rare day) so I used some white cooking wine.

Use your hand and massage the Ziploc bag until the garlic and ginger paste incorporate into the mixture.
Add the beef and let it marinate for at least 1 hour. The one I made today I had put it to marinate at about 11 AM and cooked it at 8 PM.
Put the meat on the skewers.

With a paper towel blot the excess marinade off the beef.

I used a indoor electric grill to cook these, you can use your outdoor grill or as I said before if desperate a frying pan or griddle will work well too.
I sprayed the grill with some Pam and cooked the beef on medium-low heat, it took about 15 minutes, I rotated the skewers 3 times and left them on each side for about 5 minutes to cook and the meat stayed moist. You can also do this on high heat to get a better sear.

If you do not have access to Pam, dipping a paper towel that's been folded into a little square in some vegetable oil and gently coating the grill or pan will work well too.

This recipe can be done with cubed beef or thin sliced of beef skewered, I've done both and both turn out really well.

I had this with a touch of wasabi and served it with miso soup and white rice.

I hope you give this a try.
P.S. what do you think of my Sailor Moon hashi (chopsticks)?

Mini Web Mistress Sasha patiently waiting for a sample of tasty tasty beef