A little lesson. (FARMERS MISO SOUP)

I am a miso lover. I need to have miso soup at least once a week, usually as the precursor to some sushi even though that feels like the lazy way out. Miso paste in general has so much more potential than a few cubes of tofu and some lonely sails of seaweed. By learning a few different (easy!) ways to use it, miso can be a staple in your fridge forever and ever. You, as the owner of a high-quality tub of miso, can reap the many health benefits for just as long.

Since it’s a fermented food, it is important is to avoid boiling miso. High heat will harm the living enzymes that make this a genuine superfood as it will also dull the unique flavors. Use miso to ‘finish’ dishes that you have created rather than adding it when there is still cooking to be done.

Miso to-do list:

-Mix into softened butter to make ‘miso butter’, the best topping for seafood ever.

-Mix with minced garlic and chili paste as a condiment for grilled meat.

-Whisk into salad dressing or marinades.

-Just miso solo in a bit of simple broth.

-I’ve seen people use it in pesto as a substitute for parmesan but…

Below is a hearty soup recipe that uses a bunch of fantastic end-of-summer vegetables, but any mixture of veg would work. Once the soup is off of the stove, dunk a measuring cup into the broth, scooping out about one cup of hot liquid. Drop a few spoonfuls of miso into measuring cup and whisk/stir until it is dissolved. Pour the miso mixture back into the soup pot and adjust to taste. You can simply repeat this process until you have reached the desired amount of umami.

Try potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnips, parsnips, cabbage, spinach and/or noodles. This recipe can be as elaborate or as simple as you’d like, the main thing is hot (not boiling) liquid*, dissolve miso, enjoy.

FARMERS MISO SOUP

(serves 4-6)

2 quarts stock or water

1/2 cup onion, chopped

1 kohlrabi, peeled and cubed into small chunks

1 celery rib, thinly sliced crosswise

1 cup chopped kale leaves

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 pound tofu, cut into small cubes

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 splash of rice vinegar

a few red pepper flakes

1/4 cup wakame seaweed, soaked in cold water until softened

1/4 cup miso paste (any color)

1/2 carrot

1 inch ginger

chopped chives to garnish

• Place the stock in a large pot and bring to a gentle boil. Add onion, kohlrabi and celery. Simmer about 10 minutes. 
• Add kale, garlic and tofu. Cook until all vegetables are tender, about 10 more minutes.
• Remove from heat. Stir in soy sauce, vinegar and red pepper to season. Taste and adjust. Add wakame.
• Take one cup of stock out of the pot and place in a bowl or measuring cup. Whisk miso into the hot broth and pour it back into the soup. Taste and adjust.
• Ladle soup into bowls and using a fine grater (preferably a microplane), grate some carrot and ginger into each soup and sprinkle with chives to garnish.
• When reheating the soup, warm it but don’t boil. I’ll say it again.

*Make your own stock! I love stock making.

https://upchefcreek.wordpress.com/2011/02/22/elaborations-veggie-dashi/

https://upchefcreek.wordpress.com/2013/04/19/balancing-it-out-alkalizing-broth-2/

The law of least effort. (DASHI)

As in Western cooking, many Asian dishes begin with a type of flavorful stock. One of the most basic is a Japanese stock called dashi.  Like many other culinary conveniences, dashi can also be purchased in a dehydrated form, a bouillon cube, powder or concentrate, but to use it in this way is to forfeit its many health-supportive characteristics. And there is no excuse for that given the simplicity of its preparation. Homemade dashi consists of three ingredients: kombu, bonito flakes and water. That’s it! Of course there are endless things that can be added to the stock to make it more elaborate; dried mushrooms, chilies, ginger, garlic, miso and so on. But, basics first.

Kombu is a type of sea vegetable similar to kelp. It is the backbone of dashi and, like many varieties of seaweed, it is high in iodine, potassium, calcium, vitamins A and C and low in calories. Stored as a dried ingredient it has an indefinite shelf life and can be incorporated into any pot of boiling liquid to release its mineral value. It is also useful placed into a pot with cooking beans because it contains enzymes that help to break down the sugars that infamously cause gas and bloating. After it rehydrates, growing in sea monkey proportions, it can be sliced and added to your preparation. Texturally, it is not the most appealing of all sea vegetables, so if this is already more seaweed than you can handle, it can be strained out and discarded… only you will know.

Bonito, as labeled in Asian cultures, is a type of small tuna. Bonito flake is smoked and dried, then shaved into thin pieces. (Not to be confused with bonito from the Atlantic which is a relative of mackerel.) Another dry ingredient, bonito flakes also have an indefinite shelf life but during the winter when soups are king, you may find yourself purchasing bags of it at the Japanese market* more often than usual.

To make dashi, kombu is boiled in water (1-2 inches of kombu for every 2 cups of water) for 15 minutes. One-half cup of bonito flakes are added to the kombu-water mixture after it is taken off the heat. When the flakes sink to the bottom of the pot, the stock is ready to be strained and used. Vegetarian dashi simply leaves out the bonito, a minimalist creation.

Stock in every culture is just a starting point, taste-wise it is nothing much to speak of until enhanced by other ingredients. A quick and easy way to flavor the dashi is with miso, a paste made from soybeans that have been fermented with a grain, usually rice or barley. Miso can range in flavor from rich and savory (dark) to sweet and mellow (light). It lasts a year or more when stored airtight in the fridge and has immense nutritive value. By adding two tablespoons or so to your freshly made dashi, it will put to shame any powdered instant miso packet you might have had otherwise.

Miso paste should be whisked into the strained dashi just before you are serving. Boiling miso will kill its beneficial enzymes so, if reheating is necessary, do not bring to a full boil. Adding some chopped scallion, wakame (seaweed) and tofu cubes will give you the well-known Japanese restaurant starter but the addition of creative ingredients on the part of you, the chef, like noodles, meat, fish or veggies can turn this simple building block into satisfying meal.

* Japanese Markets in NYC:

Sunrise Mart , M2M , Katagiri

Oftentimes Korean markets will carry above-mentioned items as well as Whole Foods.

It s’easy. (HIJIKI AVOCADO SALAD)

We have lots of enthusiasm for seaweed when wolfing down sushi rolls or slurping miso soup but most people don’t give it much thought outside of a Japanese food context. Too bad! Since it is such an easy product to incorporate into a meal, packed with major health benefits, and there are both overt and covert ways of working with it for those who lack said enthusiasm. Sea vegetables are known to stabilize blood sugar, alkalize the blood and help your body to eliminate heavy metals: led, mercury and aluminum which are toxins from the environment, otherwise tough to get rid of. They also cleanse the lymphatic system which is responsible for the health of all the other systems. Uh-oh, I feel a ‘superfood’ rant coming on… luckily superfoods are one of my favorite things to rant about, especially when this easy aaaaand good for you to eat. Need I say delicious too?

Harvested in many parts of the world, so long as the waters are clean, sea vegetables are an age-old food not only in Asian traditions but in most sea-accessible parts of the world like Scandinavia, the UK, coasts of Australia, New Zealand and South America. In the US, seaweed is hand gathered from the cold, dark waters off the northern east and west coasts. Canada too. Unless you are at one of these sources, you will be very likely to purchase edible seaweed in dried form. It is widely available in health food stores, Asian markets and those really expensive bodegas-turned-gourmet shops in certain parts of Brooklyn… however convenient. Since it is dried, the shelf life is indefinite, which is great because you can keep a package of seaweed as a pantry item and use it when you wish. Varieties such as wakame, kombu, hijiki and arame need only to be rinsed and rehydrated in hot water and they grow like sea monkeys, up to three times the original volume (vegetarian sea monkeys). Others are eaten without rehydration and remain sort of crunchy like nori and dulse.

To subtly incorporate seaweed in a meal, start by adding a two inch piece of kombu to a pot of cooking water for beans, pasta, rice or grains. The nutrients in the seaweed which include vitamins A, B, C, E, and minerals like potassium, protein, fiber and calcium will fortify the water and the good water will be absorbed by the food in the pot. At the end, you can chop and eat the kombu or simply consider your duty done and remove it from the pot and toss it. Carrageen and agar are both sea products that are used as gelatin would be in helping both sweet and savory dishes to thicken and set. Great for panna cotta, puddings, glazes and the like, no one the wiser.

There are better tasting and textured seaweeds for eating straight, try a small handful of wakame or arame in a soup. Thinly sliced nori makes a lovely garnish on salads or soups as well. If you want a large helping, follow the recipe below for a briny hijiki salad coupled with smooth, silky avocado. The key is to marinate overnight in a great vinaigrette with a few crunchy carrots to round it out and sweeten the deal.

HIJIKI AVOCADO SALAD

1/2 cup dried hijiki seaweed
boiling water

1 tablespoon shallot, finely chopped
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
juice of 1/2 lemon or lime
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
salt and pepper

2 carrots, medium dice
2 avocados

• Place hijiki in a bowl and pour boiling water over it to generously cover. Let stand 20-30 minutes or until tender. Drain thoroughly.
• Meanwhile, place dressing ingredients: shallot, vinegar, oil, lemon juice, sugar, mustard, salt and pepper in a lidded jar or container and shake until well combined. Taste for seasoning, adjust.
• Add chopped carrots to drained seaweed and pour on the vinaigrette. Place in the fridge covered for at least one hour, preferably overnight.
• When ready to eat, half the avocados (remove seed) and slice the flesh lengthwise into about 5 strips inside the avocado skin, without piercing the skin. Using a spoon, lift out the strips in one scoop as intact as possible and lay them on a plate (4 servings).
• Mound a heaping spoonful of marinated hijiki salad on top of each sliced avocado half. Pour on a little extra dressing if desired.

I almost forgot the rant!! Seaweed also has anti-cancer, anti-viral, anti-fungal, anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, anti-boredom (i added that last one) properties. All that info is before even consulting wikipedia, which claims seaweed used in medicine fights tuberculosis, influenza, arthritis and even tumors. I hear it also helps dissolve cysts. It has no fat or calories, and combats sluggishness as it performs a house-cleaning on your insides. The only people who should steer clear of the sea crop are those who have a hyper-thyroid condition because the concentrated iodine content might cause trouble. For the rest of us, it means anti-goiter.

For the ultimate ease, try a seaweed shake… not the kind you drink with a straw, the kind you shake over things. Pictured here is a dulse and garlic shake which adds a great burst of flavor on top of soups, salads, roasted vegetables, stirfrys, popcorn, rice or just about anywhere you need a little seasoning. Other types may also contain sesame seeds, hot pepper flakes, salt, pepper. You can make your own combo with different ground seaweeds and the flavorings of your choice. Store in an airtight jar and shake! Use frequently. Enjoy.

Dear Dokebi,

 

199 Grand St • Williamsburg, Brooklyn (front door/restaurant + back door/bar)

One can say I’m on the rebound after leaving my last steady Korean restaurant back in Queens. Now that I am a Brooklyn resident, all is well! Yet I search for a meal to fill the void where Tofu and Noodles once was, a cozy neighborhood place I can turn to when the need to eat Korean food arises, which is often. I am always saying that if I feel a little ‘off’ or sort of run down spicy, effervescing Korean food without fail cures what ails. And anyway I crave it voraciously every couple of weeks. That is why I keep coming back, that is why I can’t stay away.

I feel lucky just having you close by! You too have excellent banchan, some items very reminiscent of the ex- and some brand new ones to enjoy. Those little blocks of egg you serve, more like a custard than the usual omelette-like manifestation, are so light and silky they almost disappear upon the palate. And what was in that spinach? Garlic and miso? Also delicious. Yes, and thank you for your fabulous kimchi, fish cake and sprouts, too. They help me long for my former go-to place a little less with every bite.

Since your menu is much bigger, it is difficult to know you intimately (as of yet), but I plan on getting to know you better. It seems that one of your specialties is Korean BBQ, which I have not tried, but I do spy on others boisterously digging in on any given visit. So far, I concentrate on the stews and I am a big fan of the whole grain rice you offer alongside. The tiny cubes of sweet potato hidden in there are a nice textural change to all that bitey rice. I am also really into the bibimbap. I don’t mind paying the extra $2 for the stone bowl, though I don’t see how it could be eaten from any other vessel. But I know that I have had to accept the higher price point of the neighborhood in general and especially in my frequent Korean food fests. I do appreciate the saving grace… with $8 lunch specials I make my way through the menu without feeling too jaded.

Dear sweet Dokebi, you are a great bar + grill with a great happy hour and alot of heartfelt food to give. After a 5-year relationship with the last place, please forgive me, it is a little hard to get over the super-low prices, the strictly authentic, hearty fare, the unassuming atmosphere I found there… But our relationship is new and exiting and I trust that it will grow.
Yours truly,
Ori