A few weeks ago, my sous chef and I made a trek to an Asian market in the area, and we brought home a treasure trove of ingredients. We brought home a Coconut, some really cool tea flavours, a Korean chili paste, and some Miso Paste! Our initial thought with said paste was to make Miso Soup, but when we realized we didn’t have dried shiitakes to make a soup base, we changed course and made Misostrone Soup instead.
Well, this time around, we were more prepared, and we rehydrated some shiitake mushrooms to use them as well as the water in our soup! From there, all we needed was a bunch of Scallions and some tofu. We wanted to use soft tofu, but our local grocer only had firm, extra firm, and silken…so we went with the silken, which worked surprisingly well for this use. Anyway, the shiitake infusion and shiitake stock gave this Miso Soup a bit of an earthier flavour than most Miso Soups, which we really enjoyed! We highly recommend this as the icy grip of winter tightens around the land!
Since we hydrated a few too many mushrooms to use in our soup, we cut up the remainder and stir fried them into our Shiitake Buckwheat Soba Noodles side dish!
Time: 20 Minutes (plus Shiitake rehydration time)
Ingredients:
- Dried Shiitake Mushrooms
- 8 Cups of Warm Water
- 1-2 Tablespoons of Miso Paste
- Soft or Silken Tofu
- Scallion Onions
Method:
- Start by placing your diced shiitake mushrooms in a soup pot, and covering with warm water. Allow to sit for a few hours until your mushrooms fully hydrate, and your water infuses with their earthy notes.
- Remove your mushrooms from the pot, and slice them thinly. Then, add however many you like back into the pot.
- Slice your scallions into ribbons, and add them to your stock as well. Bring to a simmer.
- Add in a tablespoon or two of your miso paste, and stir to incorporate it into your stock.
- Slice your tofu into cubes, and add it to your soup. Allow to keep simmering for a few minutes.
- Plate (bowl?), Devour, and Enjoy!
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