Getting Started
Ingredients
Where to Buy Japanese Food

Rice
How to Cook Japanese Rice
Aburamushi Rice

Sushi
Kitsune-zushi
Sushi Robots

Soup
Miso Soup
Gyoza Soup

Main Courses
Crab and Cucumber with Golden Dressing
Butt-Kicking Dipping Sauce
Lemon Cheese

Snacks

Sweets
Japanese Sweets


Miso Soup

If you're really lazy, you can buy packets of powdered soup or pre-mixed miso paste and dashi concentrate. However, if you're a bold young chef eager to commit brave acts of culinary derring-do, you can try this recipe:

Le Traditional and Butt-Plain Miso Soup

1 cup secondary bonito stock (from scratch or from dashi powder)
1 tbsp miso paste

Heat the bonito stock. While you wait for the stock to come to a boil, blend the miso paste with a little stock to make it easier to mix into the soup. Just before the stock boils, add in the miso paste. When it boils, take it off the heat and serve.

...And that's it. Soup for one.

If you're even braver, you can try adding things to the soup. There are a number of different aesthetics—my favorite is the "one ingredient which sinks, one which floats" rule—but the final rule is, "Whatever tastes good."

When adding ingredients, take care to see that everything arrives at the peak of doneness at the same time. You'll need to add ingredients to the broth at different times.

Things that sink

Cubes of soft tofu
Thin deep-fried tofu (Inari-no-moto)
Ramen, udon, or other hot noodles
Daikon
Potato, washed of extra starch
Thinly sliced meat
Shrimp
Shiitake mushrooms
Snow peas
Sliced or shredded carrots
Lightly sauteed onion
Parsnip
Turnip
Eggplant

Things that float

Wakame
Scallions
Sprouts
Leek

Garnishes and seasonings (optional)

Sesame seeds
Ginger juice
Chili oil
White pepper
Shredded nori
Shiso leaves
Yuzu citron peel
Raw egg

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