Soba with Ginger Miso-Maple Syrup Dressing

On a whim, I bought soba noodles without a recipe in mind and it's been sitting in my pantry for months. I hope to try this soon.

What you’ll need for 4 servings:-

• 3 tbsps miso paste
• 1/2 tbsp grated fresh ginger
• 1.5 tbsp maple syrup
• 1/2 tbsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsps flavourless cooking oil
• 1 tbsp white vinegar
• 270g dried soba noodles
• 300g organic firm tofu, drained and sliced
• 1 stalk of spring onion (scallion), thinly sliced
• 2-3 chinese cabbage leaves (wombok), thinly sliced
• Chilli oil *optional*

Method:-

Add miso paste, ginger, maple syrup, sesame oil and cooking oil and whisk until smooth. Transfer 1/3 of the mixture to another bowl to be used as the tofu marinate. Set aside.  Add white vinegar to the remaining 2/3 of miso mixture and whisk until smooth. Check for taste and adjust with more maple syrup and vinegar if you like.

Pat the tofu slices with kitchen towel until dry. Then using a teaspoon, lightly smear the miso marinate on both sides of the tofu slices and place on a preheated griddle. Grill until lightly charred over low-medium heat. While grilling the tofu, start cooking the soba noodles according to the packet instructions. Once the soba noodles are cooked to al dente, drain and rinse until cold running water to remove the starch and preventing the noodles from sticking together. If you like the noodles to be a little hot for consumption, run hot boiling water through the noodles again, which means you will need to undercook the noodles by 2 minutes off the recommended time.

Toss soba with the dressing and side aside. Once all the tofu slices have finished grilling, the dish is now ready.

To serve,  divide the soba noodles equally on 4 plates and top with grilled tofu. Finally,  scatter the sliced cabbage leaves and spring onions. Drizzle with some chilli oil if preferred.

Miso Carrot Soup

From Canadian Living.

Beat the spring blues with this sunny and bright orange soup. It's as flavourful as it is good for you. For a pretty presentation, sprinkle with thinly sliced green onions and drizzle with a little more sesame oil.

• 1 tbsp (15 mL) vegetable oil
• 1 sweet onion, diced
• 2 ribs celery, diced
• 2 tbsp (30 mL) minced fresh ginger
• 1 bag (900 g) carrots, diced
• 1 tsp (5 mL) granulated sugar
• 1/4 tsp (1 mL) salt
• 2 cups (500 mL) no-salted-added vegetable broth
• 1/4 cup (60 mL) white miso
• 2 tsp (10 mL) unseasoned rice vinegar
• 2 tsp (10 mL) sesame oil
• 
  

InDutch oven, heat oil over medium heat; cook onion, celery and ginger, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 8 minutes. Stir in carrots, sugar and salt; cook, stirring, for 2 minutes.

Stir in 6 cups water and broth; bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until carrots are tender, about 12 minutes. Remove from heat. Using immersion blender, purée soup until smooth. Reheat over low heat. 

Whisk in miso paste; cook, whisking, until combined and warmed through, about 1 minute. Stir in vinegar and sesame oil.

Tip from The Test Kitchen: Miso is a fermented soybean paste that's frequently used in Japanese cooking. It comes in a wide range of colours (white, yellow, red and dark brown are common) and varieties; some are made with the addition of grains, such as brown rice (genmai) or barley (mugi). Generally, the lighter colours are more delicate in flavour. For this light spring soup, white miso is the best choice.

Pan-Roasted Asparagus, Poached Egg & Miso Butter

Here's a recipe from Momofoku. We love asparagus and miso so I'm sure this will be another family favourite. The leftover miso butter will be used with eggplant sometime this week.

Serves 4

I love miso ramen. I ate a lot of it in the Sapporo region, where it was invented, when I was living in Japan. In many places, they’d finish it with a huge knob of butter and some canned corn as a garnish—totally ghetto, totally delicious. Daydreaming about that miso ramen got me to thinking about making a miso compound butter, which I’d never seen anywhere else. Butter + miso worked like crazy on those bowls of soup, so I mixed up a batch, adding more and more miso as I went. The end result was nutty and creamy, and it just tasted good—so good I licked it off my fingers, like cake frosting.

Quino was messing around with the miso butter one day and found that when he mixed it with an egg it tasted like carbonara—the fermented, salty tang of miso standing in for the pig. One day, I was trying to make a beurre monté based on sherry vinegar and the miso butter instead of water and plain butter. I mixed it with an egg and realized it tasted like hollandaise sauce—not so literally, but in a similar appealing fat-on-fat sort of way. We saw it had potential, and we put this dish together, to look like an asparagus-and-fried-egg dish you’d see at any rustico Italian market-driven restaurant in New York, but with the idea that nothing really prepared you for the flavor combination you get from that not-quite-hollandaise.

1⁄2 cup shiro (white) miso

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more if needed

1⁄2 pound thin to medium asparagus

Kosher salt

2 teaspoons sherry vinegar

4 poached eggs

Freshly ground black pepper

1. Make the miso butter: Combine the miso with 5 tablespoons of the butter in a small bowl and beat with a wooden spoon until well mixed; the butter should be one color, not a streaky mess. Reserve until needed; you can refrigerate it, well wrapped, for up to a few weeks.

2. Snap off the woodier bottom inch or so of each asparagus stalk. Use a vegetable peeler to shave away the tougher outer layer from each stalk, but don’t get carried away: you probably won’t need to peel the stalks more than 2 or so inches up from the trimmed end.

3. Heat the remaining 3 tablespoons butter in a wide skillet over medium-high heat. Line a plate with paper towels for draining the asparagus. When the butter sends up the first wisp of smoke, put the asparagus in the pan. (Do not overcrowd the pan; cook in batches if necessary, draining each one, and refreshing the butter if the butter from the first batch smells scorched.) When the asparagus start to take on some color, 2 to 3 minutes, season them with a generous pinch of salt and turn the heat down to medium. Turn them with a spoon or spatula so they can color on the second side, another few minutes. When the asparagus are nicely browned and tender (but not exactly soft), transfer them to the paper towels to drain.

4. While the asparagus are cooking, heat the sherry vinegar in a small saucepan over medium heat. After half a minute, add the miso butter, turn the heat to low, and stir to warm it through. When the butter has loosened slightly—it should still have a certain viscosity to it and shouldn’t be melted—remove the pan from the burner and put it in a warm spot.

5. Season the cooked asparagus with another pinch of salt if needed. Smear a quarter of the warmed miso butter into a thickish puddle in the middle of each plate. Divide the asparagus among the plates and top each with an egg. Finish each dish with a few turns of black pepper, and serve at once.

Note: If you have reason to make a larger quantity of miso butter—and there are many, because miso butter has a weeks-long shelf life and makes just about anything more delicious—mix together larger quantities of butter and miso in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.

Roasted Eggplant with Miso Lime Dressing

Here's a recipe similar to what I tried a few weeks ago.

Dressing inspired by Bon Appetit
Serves 4

1 large eggplant
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon honey
zest of 1 lime
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon water
3 tablespoons white miso
-
chopped fresh cilantro
togaroshi, optional

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Prepare the dressing. Whisk together rice vinegar, sesame oil, honey, lime juice and zest and water. Next, blend miso with the ingredients, using a fork to mash and then form into a paste.

Slice the eggplant in half lengthwise. Pierce the surface with a fork. Spoon the dressing liberally over the eggplant.

Roast until eggplant is falling-apart tender, about 45 minutes to an hour.

Remove from oven. Sprinkle with cilantro and togaroshi, if desired.

When eating, it’s best to mix together the miso dressing with the tender eggplant beneath to distribute the salty miso flavors.

Miso Mashed Potatoes

From Steamy Kitchen

You can use either Miso & Easy (ready made miso in convenient bottle) or regular miso paste that you can find at grocery stores (usually in refrigerated section near tofu) or health food stores (like Whole Foods).

ingredients:

2 pounds red potatoes, scrubbed2 tablespoons butter2 tablespoons Miso & Easy (or 1 tablespoon regular miso paste)2 tablespoons milk2 teaspoons minced fresh chives, parsley or green onion

directions:

In a large pot, add the potatoes and cover with water by 2 inches. Bring to a boil, then turn heat to medium and let cook for 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are easily pierced with a fork.

Drain the water, leaving the potatoes in the pot. Mash the potatoes with a potato masher. Add in the remaining ingredients and mix well. Taste and season with additional miso (needs more flavor) or milk (too thick) if needed.

Miso Ginger Asparagus

Try this with steamed or roasted broccoli, cauliflower or grilled eggplant slices.

1 pound asparagus, ends trimmed
1 teaspoon cooking oil (olive, canola or vegetable)
2 teaspoons Miso &; Easy (or 1 teaspoon miso paste + 1 teaspoon hot water)
1 tablespoon water
1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1 clove garlic, finely minced
1/2 teaspoon roasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon sesame seeds

1. Preheat oven to 375f.  Place asparagus on baking sheet and drizzle with cooking oil. Toss to coat. Roast asparagus for 8-10 minutes or until pierces easily with fork. Timing depends on how thick the asparagus spears are.

2. While the asparagus is roasting, prepare the ginger miso sauce. In a small bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients until smooth.

3. Pour over asparagus and serve.

Miso

I have recently discovered miso for cooking. It's one of Mark Bittman's favourite ingredient. Below are some of his recipes from his New York Times article of March 8th.

Umami Dearest

By MARK BITTMAN

It may seem completely counterintuitive, but there is a strong connection between miso and Parmesan cheese. They are salty, complex products made from the most basic and elemental ingredients: milk, salt and bacteria in the case of Parmesan; soy, sometimes wheat or other grains, salt and bacteria in miso. Each makes use of surplus product and preserves the bounty almost indefinitely; each takes time to prepare correctly, and neither process is simple. The effort that goes into them creates intense, complex and uncommonly fine flavors of the umami family.

About 20 years ago, I visited factories for each, and I Eurocentrically thought I was clever in bringing miso up to the level of Parmesan. Now I recognize that — although it’s not a contest — in a desert-island situation, miso would be my choice.

Limiting miso to soup is like limiting Parmesan to pasta. You can dry it and turn it into a condiment (which happens to be reminiscent of Parmesan); you can use it to create a fantastic compound butter (David Chang of Momofuku showed me this five years ago); you can stir it into mayonnaise, which is consciousness-expanding. And then there’s miso butterscotch, which sounds like dessert — and indeed can be — but is better imagined as a step beyond the caramel sauce you may know from Vietnamese cooking. Talk about umami! All of these can be steered in a variety of directions by combining them with other seasonings.

You will want to know “which miso for which recipe?” I’ve noted preferences here, but it’s better to play around than to get hung up on perfect pairings. White misos are milder than red; good miso is generally more expensive than industrially made stuff (the prices and label information usually make that clear); and refrigerated, miso keeps just about forever, so you can experiment with it at your leisure.

Miso Spice

Time: About 7 hours, almost completely unattended.

1/2 cup miso.

1. Heat the oven to 175. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Smear the miso in an even layer, as thinly as possible, over the parchment. It’s O.K. if it’s ragged around the edges or even a little thick in places.

2. Bake, undisturbed, until large pieces of miso peel easily from the paper, about 3 hours. Turn the pieces and bake on the other side, until the miso crumbles easily, another 3 to 4 hours.

3. Let the miso cool, then crumble it with your fingers or grind finely in a spice mill or designated coffee grinder.(It keeps in the fridge in a sealed jar for months.)

Yield: About 1/4 cup.

Possible additions: Cayenne or other ground chilies; ground kombu or crumbled nori; sesame seeds.

Possible uses: Season a whole fish, croutons or bread crumbs; sprinkle the top of bread before baking; warm it in sesame or peanut oil for a bagna-cauda-style dip.

Miso Butter

Time: 10 minutes (plus more for chilling, if you like).

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, at room temperature

2 tablespoons miso

Freshly ground pepper (optional).

1. Cream the butter and miso together with a fork, adding black pepper if you like.

2. Use immediately, or roll into a log in plastic wrap and refrigerate or freeze for cutting into slices later.

Makes: 4 to 8 servings.

Possible additions: Chopped scallions or chives; minced garlic, ginger or chili; lemon, lime or orange juice or citrus zest.

Possible uses: Melted onto fish, chicken or steak (lots of umami); on asparagus, broccoli or carrots; drizzled on a baked sweet potato (or a regular baked potato).

Miso Mayonnaise

Time: 5 minutes.

2 tablespoons miso

1 cup mayonnaise.

1. Stir the miso into the mayonnaise (homemade is best) until smooth.

2. Use immediately, or cover and refrigerate for up to a week.Yield: 1 cup.

Possible additions: Grated ginger, honey, brown sugar or agave syrup; chopped pickles (or pickled vegetables); chopped chives or shiso leaves.

Possible uses: Dip for sweet-potato fries; smeared on croutons to serve with fish soups (like rouille or bouillabaisse); to make a gratinée of simple cooked vegetables with bread crumbs; as an aioli.

Miso Butterscotch

Time: 10 minutes.

3/4 cup cream

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1/4 cup miso (red miso is a bit salty for truly sweet applications)

3/4 cup brown sugar.

1. Combine the cream and butter in a small saucepan, and cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the butter melts.

2. Stir in the miso and sugar and cook, stirring frequently, until the mixture is slightly thickened and shiny, 5 to 10 minutes. Taste and add a little more sugar if you think it’s too salty (remember, you’ll be using it in savory dishes).

3. Use right away or refrigerate, well covered, for up to 1 week and rewarm before using to loosen it up.

Yield: About 2 cups.

Possible additions: Chopped nuts; some sesame oil instead of butter; some honey instead of brown sugar.

Possible uses: On poached pears or apples; marinade for meat; braising base for sturdy vegetables like cabbage, eggplant, turnips or new potatoes; sundae sauce — especially over fruit ice creams or sorbets.

Comments: Favorite salad dressing recipe: Sesame oil, miso, mirin (or honey), lime juice. So yummy.