Re: give seaweed a chance! (Wakame and Miso Soup recipe)

[Guest guest]

Try it in Miso Soup. Here's our miso soup recipe. More authentic

than NT's recipe as real Japanese miso soup doesn't contain soy

sauce. My Japanese husband decided the book was no good when he saw

the miso soup recipe. He said how can it be Nourishing TRADTIONS

when it's not a traditional recipe? I try to convince him by

cooking other yummy things from the book.

Anyway, for anyone who wants it, here's an easy way to make Miso

Soup:

In water, put a piece of dried kombu seaweed, a few dried shiitake

mushrooms, and some dried bonito flakes (katsuobushi). Bring it to

the boil and remove the kombu (not sure why but most people remove

the bonito flakes - my husband tends to put them in a sieve type

thing in the soup and boil it, then he removes the sieve, puts soy

sauce on the bonito flakes and eats them). Chop up any vegies such

as Chinese cabbage, onion (makes it sweet), potato, eggplant,

dried/fried tofu (aburage), Daikon (Japanese white raddish), tofu.

[we tend to use just a few of these at a time]. Add these vegies to

the stock and boil until soft.

Meanwhile, put a good pinch of dried wakame in some cold water to

reconstitute. Squeeze them and add them to the soup.

Take OFF the heat (very important so you don't kill the live goodies

in the miso). Ladle some of the hot liquid into a separate bowl and

melt some miso into it. Add this miso liquid back into the soup

(taste it to see if you need more). (much easier to dissolve it

this way, otherwise you get miso lumps).

Pour into bowls, chop up some shallots, put on top and serve!!

We actually keep a container of stock (dashi) on hand in the

fridge: in filtered water, put a piece of kombu and a handful of

dried shiitake mushrooms. Whenever you want to make soup, pour some

of this into the pan along with some of the shiitake (I usually do

one mushie per person) then add the bonito flakes to the soup (or

you can skip the bonito flakes). Top up the container with more

water and shiitake mushrooms and chuck it back in the fridge for

next time.

You really can't taste wakame, just have to get used to the slimy

texture. But I think it's like anything, you get used to it.

The other way we eat wakame is with thinly sliced cucumbers

(lebanese cukes are best) and rice vinegar. Not sure if he adds

anything else besides rice vinegar so if you're interested in this,

I'll ask him and let you know. It's very yummy and refreshing and I

guess the vinegar would disguise the seaweed taste.

--- In , <dianamagic2000@y...>

wrote:

> Thank u Mike for the post on seaweed. a few months ago i bought

some seaweed at an asian market. Not knowing a thing about it, i

bought some Wakame. i soaked it and then tasted it, and i found it

quite distasteful. did i buy the wrong stuff? i looked up the

website u posted, and did not see wakame, so perhaps i should try

another variety. can you recommend me one that you most prefer.

and also a recipe for making tea as u described. i want to give it

a chance. also, perhaps u can tell me what i can do with the rest

of the wakame to perhaps disguise the taste.

>