I just got back from a week with my mom and sister in the small town where I grew up. today I almost felt like I forgot how to cook since I was by and by large banned from the kitchen all week unless it was to help fold dumplings (which I have gotten quite good at) or bao (they will never hire me at din tai fung, let’s put it that way). today at 6:45 I realized I actually had to make something or we would have no dinner. so: soup.
pork miso soup
Just One Cookbook has a great primer on tonjiru and my recipe is modified from hers.
here’s what I used:
1/2 pound pork belly, sliced thinly (I got a big hunk of it from a chinatown meat market hanging out in my fridge, sliced is okay too. I like cutting it myself though, a slightly thicker cut of meat is nice!)
1 small onion, sliced thinly
1 small knob of ginger, minced.
4 .5 cups of dashi (I added water and then some powdered dashi stock, didn’t have time to make it with bonito flakes today! The powdered stuff is a bit salty so definitely taste your soup before you add the miso if you’re using this).
1/4 cup red miso (I love sodium, you might want to do 3 tablespoons and adjust it accordingly)
2 potatoes, chopped up
half a bag of enoki mushrooms (I cut the mushrooms into 3 parts)
about 1/4 a korean radish, sliced thinly.
1 chopped green onion (cilantro, if you have any, is really nice in this in place of green onion)
1/2 block medium-firm tofu, added in the last 5 minutes
1 baby bok choy, leaves split off, each leaf cut into three pieces vertically)
a handful of snow pea leaves (I love these, they add such a nice and unique flavor and they go perfectly with any fermented bean product— miso, bean curd etc)
heat: medium to start, then to a simmer
I start off by putting 3 small pieces of fatty pork into a heated dutch oven to cook off and then adding the remaining pork and ginger. when the pork is mostly cooked, I add the sliced onion and stir it around for a few minutes before adding the root vegetables and mushrooms (the greens go in last). I stir everything on medium heat till the edges of the potato are a bit translucent and the mushrooms have wilted down, and then add the dashi stock. When the soup comes to a boil, skim off the foam that forms and discard it down the drain, then lower the heat to simmer, cover and cook for 15 minutes. Uncover, add the tofu, & cook for another 5 until the tofu’s floating. Then turn off the heat, incorporate the miso, add the greens and cover for another few minutes until they’re nicely wilted. Then eat! I like a bowl of rice and some of my homemade pickles with this. There’s already so much stuff in the soup that it’s a substantial meal on its own.
some other food thoughts:
One of my favorite books this year (and now, of all time) is BRAIDING SWEETGRASS by Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer, a Potawatomi botanist and bryologist. To very clumsily paraphrase, she writes about appreciating the gifts of the earth. I’ve gone foraging a lot this late summer and fall, and when I decided to make a batch of spiced pecan cookies today, I remembered I had some spicebush berries in the freezer. Finding them nestled in saran wrap, a reminder of autumn past, really did feel like a gift. It’s been really nice this year to eat food I’ve harvested myself, whether in nature or, lately, things I’ve been watching grow in my planted tank. I have a few little hydroponic experiments going with sprigs of herbs and some wasabi mustard microgreens. I am grateful for all the hands who harvest our food, and I’m grateful I get to eat uniquely delicious things— putting spicebush berries into my cookies or using foraged peppercorn to make Chinese style fish feels like a special secret between myself and the friends & family who eat my food.