After a year of making miso soup several times a week, I went in search of a new soup to make and I didn’t have to look far. This is a very popular soup in Japan. It differs from the Chinese version in that the broth is dashi rather than chicken stock, and is thickened with potato starch. Other than the dashi, egg, and flavourings, you can substitute other ingredients such as green onion, mushroom, carrot, etc.
One possible adjustment you may want to make is a hybrid stock of 1/2 awase (mixed) dashi and 1/2 vegetable dashi. Since most dashi is made with seafood ingredients like kelp, anchovies, bonito flakes, etc. it has a strong ocean smell. My husband calls it “essence of low tide.” I love it, but some may find it too prominent without the very strong flavour of miso.
Kakitamajiru
- 2 cups dashi
- 1 tablespoon usokuchi or standard soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon mirin
- 1 tablespoon sake
- 1 1/2 teaspoon potato starch
- 1 egg
- 1/2 teaspoon dried hijiki seaweed
- 1/4 cup baboo shoot strips
Place the seaweed in a small bowl with water to rehydrate.
Make a slurry of the potato starch with some water
Bring the dashi to a rolling boil and add the soy sauce, mirin, and sake.
Add the potato starch and cook until the broth becomes clear again and is slightly thickened.
Reduce heat and allow the soup to cool to a scant boil.
Beat the egg in a measuring cup. Place a cooking chopstick on top of the cup resting in the pouring spout. Very slowly drizzle the beaten egg down the chopstick to make the egg flowers. If you run out of room, you can scoot the already cooked egg out of the way with the other cooking chopstick so that most of the time, your egg is going into the dashi rather than already cooked egg.
Remove from heat and cover to let all the egg cook thoroughly.
Add seaweed and bamboo shoots and stir.
