Japanese cuisine is famous not only for the world famous sushi.
Soups are its constant part.
Liquid dishes are used for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and are used as snacks.
Japanese soups are popular all over the world and surprise with original combinations of products and cooking methods.
Japanese soup - general principles of preparation
Often, a prepared dashi broth is used to make Japanese soups. It is a dry granule or powder that you just need to dilute in a liquid. Dashi can be added to water, fish, vegetable and meat broths.
Other products are also frequent companions of Japanese soups:
• tofu;
• a fish;
• seafood;
• rice;
• chicken, meat;
• eggs.
And, of course, the bright ingredients of Japanese soups are seaweed and spices that highlight the national dishes of this country. As for vegetables, onions, carrots, celery, Chinese cabbage are most often used. The Japanese love all kinds of greens, which they prefer to add when serving and do not boil.
Particular attention is required to the technology of cooking Japanese soups. Often the ingredients are boiled or fried separately from each other, and then mixed in a pan or directly on plates.
Recipe 1: Classic Japanese Miso Soup
The classic recipe for Japanese miso soup based on soybean paste. Locals use it for breakfast, lunch, dinner and at any time of the day. The dish is prepared quite simply and quickly, not intended for reheating or storage. In addition to miso soybean paste, you need Japanese dashi broth, as well as dried seaweed.
Ingredients
• 100 grams of miso;
• a spoon of dashi;
• 120 grams of tofu;
• green onions;
• a spoon of dry soup seaweed;
• 900 grams of water.
Cooking
1. Mix dashi with water, send to the stove. Let it dissolve and boil well.
2. Pour half a glass of cold water into the algae, let it soak.
3. Add diced tofu cheese. Cubes can be made of arbitrary size, but preferably small.
4. We squeeze algae from excess liquid and send it to the pot for Japanese soup.
5. We transfer the soya paste into a bowl, add a soup ladle from the soup, mix well so that it does not form a lump. Pour the homogeneous mass into the pan, mix well and turn it off immediately.
6. Ready soup served with green onions, any spices can be added to taste.
Recipe 2: Japanese Salmon Soup
The preparation of this Japanese soup is so simple that even a child can create it. In this case, the dish is rich, aromatic and very healthy.
Ingredients
• 250 grams of salmon;
• 120 grams of miso paste;
• 1.2 liters of water;
• 10 grams of special seaweed for soup;
• 1-2 tablespoons of soy sauce;
• sesame seeds;
• greens for serving.
Cooking
1. Soak algae in cold water for 1.5 hours.
2. Salmon is separated from the skin, bones, cut into cubes and boiled in water until tender.
3. Dilute soybean paste with a small amount of broth, then send to the soup.
4. Press the swollen algae, also add to the total mass.
5. Pour in soy sauce. You can add more or less, we focus on your taste. But remember that it is quite salty and it is important not to overdo it.
6. Boil the soup for two to three minutes, turn it off.
7. Ready soup seasoned with fried sesame seeds immediately before serving.
Recipe 3: Japanese Noodle Soup
In Japan, such a soup is eaten with chopsticks. First, the entire broth is drunk, then the thick is eaten. For cooking, you will need Ramen noodles. You can buy ready-made or make ordinary homemade noodles on eggs with wheat flour.
Ingredients
• water 2 liters;
• 100 grams of soy sauce;
• 250 grams of noodles;
• 1 red pepper;
• carrot;
• 2-3 eggs;
• 2 sheets of nori;
• onion;
• 400 grams of chicken;
• butter, green onions.
Cooking
1. We wash the chicken, fill it with cold water and boil it. Do not forget to remove the foam so that the soup turns transparent. You can use any parts of the chicken. For a light soup, a breast is suitable, for a fatty dish - legs and wings.
2. Separately, boil the eggs.
3. Separately, in salted water, boil the noodles and drain the water. This is to ensure that the soup remains transparent.
4. Chop onion and carrots, fry in a pan. In Japan, sesame oil is used for these purposes, giving the soup a special flavor. But you can take any.
5. We take out the boiled chicken, cool it and throw it back into the pan. Add noodles, fried vegetables, finely chopped pepper and chopped nori seaweed.
6. Pour in soy sauce and boil everything together, salt if desired.
7. Pour soup into a plate, add half a boiled egg, onion greens.
Recipe 4: Japanese Shrimp Soup
For an unusually fragrant Japanese soup, you can use any shrimp, large, small, medium. You will also need bonito tuna flakes.
Ingredients
• 250 grams of shrimp;
• 3 tablespoons of cornmeal;
• a spoon of sake;
• 20 grams of tuna;
• 50 grams of seaweed;
• 10 ml of soy sauce;
• green onions, salt, oil;
• 3 eggs.
Cooking
1. Boil the shrimp until cooked, cool and clean. We put in a blender. Add salt, cornmeal, one protein and soy sauce. Whisk together. It should be cool dough. If it is weak, then add more flour.
2. Form small balls, like meatballs, fry in boiling oil.
3. Beat the remaining eggs with salt and sake, fry 2 thin omelettes in the form of pancakes, cool and cut into strips imitating noodles.
4. Boil sliced norias with tuna flakes for 10 minutes.
5. Add the shrimp balls, omelet strips, salt, let it boil and turn it off immediately. Do not let the omelet fall apart, the strips should retain their shape. Serve Japanese soup with onion, parsley.
Recipe 5: Japanese Soup with Mussels and Rice
The recipe is very hearty and rich first course, having a pleasant, sweet taste. Mussels can be used fresh or frozen, canned ones will not work. We take the amount of water by eye, depending on the desired density of the soup.
Ingredients
• half a glass of rice;
• 4 tomatoes;
• onion and carrot;
• 200 grams of mussel meat;
• 100 grams of white wine;
• 2 cloves of garlic;
• basil, salt, oil;
• 1-1.5 liters of water.
Cooking
1. We make vegetable puree. To do this, fry the chopped onion with carrots in oil. Scald the tomatoes with boiling water, remove the skin, cut into cubes and send to the pan.
2. Fry vegetables together until soft. We put a few twigs of basil, cool a little and pierce with a blender in mashed potatoes. We shift to a pot for cooking soup.
3. Rinse thoroughly until water is completely clear, drain the liquid. Fry the cereal in oil until golden brown, then pour in the wine and keep the pan on fire until the liquid is completely evaporated.
4. Add water, rice, mussels to the vegetable puree and boil until the cereal is ready. About 10 minutes.
5. Add chopped garlic, basil leaves, salt to taste and turn off. We give Japanese soup half an hour to infuse and serve.
Recipe 6: Japanese Crab and Egg Soup
A dish is being prepared on fish stock, for which we use pink salmon. You can take raw fish, but tastes better with smoked.
Ingredients
• 500 grams of pink salmon;
• 1.5-2 liters of water;
• a glass of rice;
• vegetable oil;
• 200 grams of crab meat;
• 2 eggs;
• oil, a little salt;
• 2 branches of celery.
Cooking
1. Place pink salmon in a saucepan with water, boil for 15 minutes. When boiling, remove the resulting foam. Then we take out the fish, remove the bones, skin and cut into pieces.
2. Separately, boil rice. The Japanese pour washed cereal in two parts of water and boil until the liquid evaporates completely. But if in doubt that the rice will turn out friable, then cook by washing.
3. We take apart crabs into pieces.
4. Put pink salmon, crabs in the broth and cook for 5-6 minutes.
5. Add rice, cook for another 2 minutes, salt.
6. Beat 2 eggs in a bowl, pour into a saucepan with soup, without ceasing to mix.
7. Put the chopped celery, let it boil and turn it off. Serve after half an hour insisting under the lid.
Recipe 7: Japanese Rice Noodle Soup and Tofu
Soup is collected right on the plate, does not require cooking. Another feature of this first course is the fried tofu slices, which give an amazing taste. If desired, add any spices, from this Japanese soup will only get better. Of the listed products, 4 servings will be obtained.
Ingredients
• 150 grams of rice noodles;
• 400 grams of tofu;
• 2 tablespoons of miso;
• coriander;
• 150 grams of Chinese cabbage;
• oil, salt;
• a liter of any broth (fish, vegetable, chicken).
Cooking
1. Tofu cut into 4 plates, dried with paper towels or napkins.
2. Coat the pieces with miso soya paste. If desired, you can add any spices, hot pepper to it.
3. Fry the tofu in a pan on both sides until golden brown. Arrange on plates.
4. In the same pan, lightly fry Chinese cabbage, until soft. We also lay out on plates, connecting with tofu.
5. Pour rice noodles with boiling water, stand for 3 minutes. Drain the liquid, rinse with cold water and also lay out on plates.
6. Boil the broth, salt to taste, pour into plates. Sprinkle coriander on top. We put chopped greens to taste.
Recipe 8: Japanese Shiitake Egg and Soup
For this soup, in addition to shiitake mushrooms, tuna flakes and algae will also be required. Sake can be ruled out if desired. From this amount of ingredients, 4 servings are obtained, the soup is cooked for 15 minutes.
Ingredients
• 5 shiitake mushrooms;
• 40 grams of seaweed;
• a spoonful of soy sauce and sake;
• a spoonful of tuna flakes;
• salt, greens;
• 2 eggs.
Cooking
1. Pour 1.2 liters of water into a saucepan. Bring to a boil.
2. Pour tuna flakes, pour in soy sauce and salt. Boil for 2 minutes.
3. Add chopped algae, boil for a minute.
4. Put chopped mushrooms, cook another 3 minutes.
5. Beat the eggs with a fork to a uniform consistency, pour in a trickle into the pan, not ceasing to mix. Cook until folding protein.
6. Pour soup into plates, season with herbs.
Recipe 9: Japanese Broth Soup
Fragrant first course with a bright taste. For cooking, you will need chicken bones, soup sets, illiquid pieces, from which you can cook a good decoction.
Ingredients
• 1 kg of chicken seeds;
• 300-500 grams of pork bones;
• onion;
• 2 carrots;
• 20 grams of ginger root;
• pepper, salt, sugar;
• a spoonful of dasha’s broth;
• greenery.
Cooking
1. We wash all the bones. We put it in a large pan, fill it with water so that it covers the contents by 3 cm. Cook for 2 hours, periodically remove the foam.
2. Throw the onion into a saucepan, cut into 4 parts. No need to clean. We clean the carrots, cut in half and also send to the pan. Cook for another hour. If water does not cover the contents, you can add a little boiling water.
3. After an hour we take out all the bones, filter the broth.
4. Add grated ginger, dasha broth, a pinch of sugar, salt and pepper. Mix well, let it boil and turn it off immediately. Serve with fresh herbs.
Japanese soup - tips and tricks
• No special seaweed for soup? You can use sheets of noriya designed for making sushi. It is most convenient to grind them with scissors. Fold the sheet in several layers and just cut it. Next use the chips according to the recipe.
• Most Japanese soups are not intended for storage and should be consumed on the same day. This is due to the addition of ingredients in which the appearance and taste deteriorate during re-heating. Therefore, you do not need to cook a large portion of the dish, preferably once.
• When buying seafood for Japanese dishes, you need to remember that after thawing, 10 to 30% of the mass will be lost. Therefore, you need to purchase ingredients for soup with a small margin. Also consider losses during machining.
