Dashi Stock to Miso Soup

Alright well it's about that time every year(summer) where I have time, energy and am on a cooking binge again! This year I'm even going to include some TASTY pictures :D. Today I'm gonna give you a really quick run down on how to make a dashi stock and then turn it into a miso soup.

First I'll tell you a bit about dashi stock. Dashi is a fish and kelp based broth that comes from Japan and was more than likely passed down to them from the chinese. This is the basic broth for almost any soup you eat in a japanese restaurant, ramen, udon, miso etc. Dashi is also applicable in many other recipes.

So to start you will need

(BASIC)
Bonito Flakes
Kelp
Soy sauce
Green Onions
Canola Oil
Cooking Sake

Miso Paste (Fermented soy been paste, the darker it is the richer in flavor, the lighter it is the sweeter the flavor)

(EXPANDED)
I add a little garlic and a little ginger to mine. You can also add a few pieces of pork, shrimp or chicken.
I also like adding some starch aka: Complex carbo hydrates to my soups, I usually opt for udon noodles or simple ramen noodles(yes the mr noodle kind work just as well)


Add2-3 healthy pinches, cruched, to about 4 cups of water on a medium heat. Add about half a sheet of kelp , crushed and soy sauce for color. Careful, miso is also very salty so go easy on the soy. Next add about 1/3rd of a bunch of green onions and a drizzle of canola. A splash of cooking sake does add a lot of taste but is not necesary.(Add extra ingredients here). Let come to a slow boil.

Now at this point if you've let it sit and slow boil you'll notice that its smelling like a wonton soup, PERFECT! if it doesn't... well keep going and better luck next time.

So you have a dashi stock, Now what?
Well from here you add whatever you want out of it. Wontons, noodles, more meat etc, at this point you can do almost anything with a dashi stock but we are making miso so I will go with that.

Lower the heat of the broth to about 2-3, or very low. You don't want it to be too hot when you add your miso or this will add to the cloudyness because the soy protein is being denatured. Add about 2 tablespoons worth of miso paste and stir.

At this point you are basically ready to serve. Makes 4 servings

Enjoy, Mata ne.