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The Miso Soup Project, Part 1 (54 Miso Soups)

I read somewhere that at one time, Japanese consumed a hundred bowls of miso soup a month, on average. A whole lot of soup! But for good reason, because miso is truly a remarkable food:

February 25, 2009

66 Ways: How to Cook Miso Soup

In Japan, miso soup reflects the full bounty, breath, spontaneity and endless creativity of the cuisine -- the varieties are mind boggling and delicious. Case in point, the list that follows, sixty six miso soups that a Japanese cookbook editor and fabulous cook named Nobuko-san just sent me.

December 29, 2009

Cooking Miso Soup with Hiroko Shimbo

A few weeks ago I kicked off the Miso Soup Project, an occasional series about this versatile, healthy, elemental and, of course, supremely delicious Japanese dish. To learn more, I visited the remarkable Hiroko Shimbo, Japanese food authority and author of The Japanese Kitchen, The Sushi Experience, among other terrific books. Hiroko graciously invited me to her kitchen to teach me about miso soup, and show me how to cook three tasty versions. Here's our interview:

April 14, 2009

Miso Soup Ingredients

We covered some fantastic miso soup in my latest miso soup post, but what about the ingredients that might be unfamiliar? To help you navigate Japanese markets and find these gems, I wanted to share a trio of photos of key ingredients I mentioned.

December 30, 2009

Konbu Dashi Soup with Egg and Scallion

This dish, like the konbu dashi soup with clams, once agan demonstrates the power of konbu, which infuses water with an irresistible savoriness or umami to serve as a flavor foundation for other ingredients. In this case, Atsushi prepared a simple soup with egg and scallion that was fast to prepare and extremely tasty.

August 20, 2008

Konbu Dashi Soup with Clams

One of the many things I love about Nakahigashi Restaurant is how Mr. Nakahigashi can bring out the sublime natural flavors of ingredients even though he does very little to them. Atsushi expressed this idea in a simple clam soup with just three ingredients: Clams, water and umami-rich konbu. Actually, when he explained what he was about to cook, I suggested he add a little yuzu citrus peel to give the soup another layer of flavor. Atsushi politely demurred -- that's not the Nakahigashi way, he explained. Clams and konbu are all you need. No accents or garnishes necessary.

August 4, 2008

Pork Miso Soup from EN's Staff Meal Dinner Party

Last night a bunch of hungry souls joined me at EN Japanese Brasserie to experience an amazing meal based on classic makanai, or staff meal, cooking. A highlight was Chef Abe's delicious butajiru, or traditional pork miso soup, the recipe of which he graciously shared with me, below.

January 17, 2010

Konbu Dashi Miso Soup with Snow Peas

A simple soup that evokes the ideas of mottainai and the power of konbu: Atsushi collected turnip peels and scrap pieces of carrot from preparing other dishes and added them to a pot of water with a piece of konbu in it. He turned on the heat and cooked it until the konbu gave off a pleasing aroma, then strained the liquid. In the meantime, Atsushi sliced a handful of snow peas on the diagonal.

August 20, 2008

Konbu-Kasuobushi Dashi & Silken Tofu Miso Soup

Let's talk about how to make a dashi before we get to this simple, delicious soup. Everything I've read about preparing konbu-katsuobushi dashi (kelp and dried, shaved bonito) says to first add the konbu to a pot of water and bring it to just a boil, then to remove the konbu before the water starts to really boil. Atsushi took a totally different approach.

August 6, 2008

Videos: Clam Soup and Sake-Steamed Clams

In these two videos Chef Abe demonstrates two great techniques for clams, both easy and delicious. For the clam soup he uses Little Neck clams, and for the sake-steamed technique (sakamushi) he uses smaller Manila clams.

November 19, 2010

Iriko Dashi & Daikon Miso Soup

On his last morning at my apartment, Atsushi explained this dish to me. First, let's talk about iriko dashi, a traditional dashi prepared from small dried fish. While konbu and katsuobushi dashi is intricate and involved, iriko dashi is the opposite: Totally simple to make.

August 25, 2008

Atsushi's Class and Miso Soup

It's always a pleasure to hang out in the kitchen with Atsushi and watch him in action--and you can see what I mean for yourself on May 16th, when Atsushi will teach a Japanese breakfast class at the Brooklyn Kitchen. It's going to be an amazing evening. I hope you can make it.

May 9, 2011

Ton Jiru: Classic Winter Miso Soup

Tadasuke Tomita is the force behind an incredible Japanese-language website called Shiro Gohan ("white rice"). A self-described food enthusiast and now cookbook author, he writes that he created the site "to help people recognize the deliciousness of washoku" (traditional Japanese food).

November 22, 2011

soba noodles in duck broth

Watching a cook named Adam swiftly and deftly portion a duck the other night at Matsuri, I posited, out loud, that the beautiful, gleaming carcass -- all that was left after Adam's handiwork - would make for an excellent soup stock. Chef Ono heard me and walked over. "Those duck bones would make a great soba tsuyu," he said -- soup for soba noodles. "Take a carcass home and try it." And so I did.

January 1, 2008

Cooking with Atsushi

For the past two weeks, I've had a visitor from Japan stay over at my apartment here in New York, a terrific guy named Atsushi Nakahigashi. All of 22-years-old, he's already an accomplished professional bass fisherman -- and an accomplished chef. Since the age of 14 or so, Atsushi's been working at his father's legendary restaurant in Kyoto, Sojiki Nakahigashi. His dad, Mr. Hisao Nakahigashi, is one of my absolute culinary heroes, a wonderful man who I've had the privilege to get to know and write about. Atsushi's his dad's talented protégé, and since he was here in New York... I put him to work in my kitchen! Actually, Atsushi, wise, thoughtful and mature way, way beyond his years, graciously offered to teach me a few things about Japanese cooking. It's been a seminal couple of weeks.

August 4, 2008

Baby Gen's Japanese Dinner Party

Too bad baby Gen can only eat mashed rice: The chefs of the fabulous Kajitsu and their wives came over to our place in Brooklyn the other night for an impromptu Japanese dinner party, and I wish Gen could have tasted the amazing spread.

August 17, 2011

Dinner Party: Chef Abe Cooks Staff Meal-Inspired Dishes

My friends at EN Japanese Brasserie are planning a very special dinner party on Saturday, January 16th. The theme: "fish heads, eel bones and beer" -- in other words, food (and drink) inspired by traditional Japanese restaurant staff meal cooking. The host: yours truly. I hope you can join us. Here's the blurb on the event:

January 5, 2010

More on Dashi...

Today the NY Times ran my story about dashi, a look at how Western chefs across the country are now cooking with this essential stock of Japanese cuisine. As regular readers of the Report know, I'm intrigued by dashi. I thought to add a few more ideas about this remarkable broth to expand on the article.

October 15, 2008

Review -- Roots & Grubs

October 15, 2009

Chef Yamada's "1.5" All-Purpose Dashi

When Chef Isao Yamada recently returned to my place for another cooking session, one of the first questions I asked him was prompted by a reader's comment asking for a method for an all-purpose dashi.

April 1, 2010

Review Well and Good

January 27, 2010

"characteristics of japanese cuisine"

October 21, 2007

Turnips (Lightly) Pickled Three Ways

Turnips, daikon, beets and radishes aren't only about the tasty bulbous root -- the leaves are just as important.

August 1, 2010

seaweed of the forest

May 13, 2007

Yudofu: Tofu hot pot

Here's the story: It's snowing like mad in Brooklyn and my wife, mother-in-law and I are stuck in the apartment waiting for my honey to begin labor. Yep, she's due any moment now -- and we're laughing that, naturally, the baby's gonna arrive smack in the middle of a major snow storm! So far, so good, but there was the little matter of lunch. We didn't feel like doing a big cooking, and we certainly weren't going out in this muck. So what to do?

December 26, 2010

Serious Eats Reviews Our Book!

We were delighted to read that Serious Eats, one of our favorite food blogs in the universe reviewed our book! Here's some of what they said: "Japanese Hot Pots is full of beautiful photography...

October 7, 2009

freestyle hotpot

After I wrote about nabe, or home-style hotpot cooking, last month, I asked a friend in Japan to research the many regional varieties of this social and comforting soul food. She just sent me a list of twenty styles of nabe, dishes prepared with salmon, tuna, octopus, pork, chicken, root vegetables, even wild boar and snapping turtle. These hotpots all reflect local foods, customs and geography, and their histories and lore are absolutely fascinating: One traces back to the cooking of Japanese pirates, another originated with bear hunters. There's a nabe invented by sake makers living inside breweries during production season and one that's supposed to be eaten in the dark (yikes!). There's even a nabe invented in 2005 to commemorate the merger of three cities. Like I said, fascinating.

January 28, 2008

Steamed Sea Bass, Japanese Style

Here's a method for steaming fish that Chef Tadashi Ono explained to me the other day at Matsuri. I had brought a beautiful, freshly caught whole sea bass to the restaurant from the Union Square farmers market, and Chef Ono graciously showed me how to clean and portion it the Japanese way. (I'm going to soon post a video on the subject, which is fascinating.)

July 6, 2008

Review -- Serious Eats

September 29, 2009

hiroshima-style oyster nabe

December 23, 2007