Miso soup recipe

The most common soup in Japan is miso soup which is seasoned with miso (soy bean paste). As typical Japanese-style meals include a bowl of miso soup, making miso soup is the basic of Japanese cooking.

Basic Steps for Making Miso Soup:

1. Prepare dashi soup stock in a pan and bring to a boil.
2. Add hard ingredients and cook until softened.
3. Add soft ingredients and heat for a short time.
4. Scoop out some dashi soup from the pan and dissolve miso paste in the soup.
5. Gradually return the moistened miso in the dashi soup and stir gently.
6. Turn off the heat before the soup boils. Add green vegetables.

The flavor of miso soup varies depending on the type of miso, soup stock, and ingredients. It's best to choose your favorite type of miso and ingredients. In fact, several different kinds of miso soup is served daily in Japanese homes.

Common Ingredients for Miso Soup:

Tofu, potato, onion, daikon radish, wakame seaweed, clams, abura-age (deep fried tofu), green onion, green peas, cabbage, carrots, and lots more.

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Best of Boston 2011: Sushi

Oishii

1166 Washington St.
Boston, Massachusetts 02118
617-482-8868

After a few years of flirtation with more-is-more sashimi decadence, we have come back around to sushi that's simple, delicate, and pure. No gold-flaked lacquer, please. And hold the foie gras sauce, while you're at it. We prefer to actually taste how fresh the fish is. This is Oishii's enduring formula: seafood, allowed to shine beneath only the most carefully chosen sauces. But that doesn't mean the presentations aren't artful: Crowned with just a garnish here or a flower there, each piece gleams like a jewel, a tribute to minimalism.

Shrimp Tempura

Tempura shrimp is often served on a bowl of rice or hot noodle dishes.

Ingredients:

• 12 large shrimp
• 1 egg
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup ice water
• *Vegetable oil for frying
• *flour for dusting

Preparation:

Remove heads and shells from shrimp without removing tails. Devein the shrimps. Make two or three incisions on the stomach side of the shrimp to straighten them. Lightly press the back of shrimp to straighten. Remove the dirt from the tails of shrimp, using a knife. Dry shrimps on paper towels. Beat an egg in a bowl. Add ice water in the bowl. Add sifted flour in the bowl and mix lightly. Heat the oil to 340-350 degrees F. Lightly flour shrimp. Pick the tail and dip shrimp in the tempura batter. Immediately deep-fry the shrimp until crisp.

Serve these crispy fried shrimp with mustard sauce or sweet and sour sauce. The tempura batter can be used for other recipes. Try it with vegetables. 

california maki/roll

I guess everyone who is familiar with Japanese food must have heard of "California Roll". California roll includes with crabmeat, creamy avocado, crunchy cucumber rolled inside out with a bed of sushi rice.
Ingredients : 1 Batch of sushi, 1 avocado sliced into stripes, about 10 once of crab meat, 1 pack of unseasoned nori, roasted sesame seeds, ginger, wasabi, soy sauce. everything listed could be purchased at an asian super market.

Instructions

1. Prepare a batch of sushi rice.
2. Because a California Roll gets rolled inside out, you need to cover your makisu (bamboo mat) with plastic wrap to keep the rice from sticking to the mat. You'll also want to prepare a small bowl of water to dip your fingers in to keep the rice from sticking to them.
3. Carefully fold your nori in half, if the nori is fresh, it should split in half along the fold to give you two 3.75 inch x 8 inch pieces. If your nori is stale and refusing to split, you can toast it by gently waving it over an open flame, or simply use a pair of scissors. 
4. Lay one sheet of nori towards the bottom of the mat. Lightly wet your fingers in the bowl of water and top with a small amount of rice. 
5. Making sure your fingers are moist to prevent the rice from sticking, use your fingertips to gently spread the rice out to the edges of the nori in a thin even layer. Don't use too much pressure, or you'll end up with mushy rice.
6. Sprinkle the rice with sesame seeds, then flip the rice and nori over so that the rice is on the bottom and the nori is facing up. 
7. Along the bottom edge of the nori, put a few strips of cucumber down, followed by a few strips of avocado. Finish, by spreading some crabmeat across the roll. Be careful not to add too much filling or your roll won't seal properly. 
8. To roll, tuck your thumbs under the bamboo mat and use them to lift the mat and rice over the filling, while using the rest of your fingers to hold the filling in place. 
9. Use the mat to continue rolling the rice over the filling until the rice hits the nori
10. At this point you'll probably need to start pealing the mat back away as you continue to roll, otherwise you'll end up rolling the mat into the rice. 
11. Once, the rice has been completely rolled into a cylinder. Give the matt a firm hug with your fingers to compress the rice a little so it doesn't fall apart when you cut it. 
12. If you're not going to eat the roll right away, wrap it in plastic wrap until you are ready to eat your California Roll. Putting the rolls in the refrigerator will make the rice hard and is not recommended, but if it's going to be more than an hour before you're going to eat the roll, you should put it in the fridge to keep the crab from spoiling. 
13. To slice the rolls, use a long sharp knife, and place the back edge of the blade at the very center of the roll. Pull the knife towards you, letting the weight of the knife cut through the roll. If put pressure on the knife, it will squish the roll and the filling will come out. Repeat cutting each half into thirds to make 6 pieces of sushi. 
14. Serve your California roll with soy sauce, wasabi, and ginger.