Miso Soup

Miso soup is my boyfriend's favorite asian style soup. For some reason, he does not like egg drop soup or hot and sour soup. His favorite soup of all times is Italian Wedding Soup, which I plan to make for him some time this month. I've actually promised to make him some a while back, but never got around to it.

Miso soup is actually quite simple to make. It uses dashi, miso paste, silken tofu, water, and green onions. Five ingredients, super simple! Finding the dashi was an adventure for me though. I went to tons of stores trying to find dashi, but nobody had it. In the end, I found dashi at the 99 Ranch Market.

I used a miso paste that was half red and half white paste combined. It turned out really good.

Ingredients

12-ounce block firm silken tofu

2 quarts dashi

6 tablespoons dark or red miso

2 tablespoons light or white miso

4 green onions, thinly sliced

Directions

Wrap the block of tofu in 2 layers of paper towels and lay on a plate. Invert a second plate on top of the tofu and weigh down with a 28-ounce can. Leave for 20 minutes then cut the tofu into 1/4 to 1/2-inch cubes.

Heat the dashi in a 4-quart saucepan over medium-high heat. When the dashi reaches 100 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer, ladle 1 cup into a small bowl. Add the miso, and whisk until smooth.

Bring the remaining dashi to a bare simmer (about 185 F), approximately 10 minutes. Add the miso mixture and whisk to combine. Return to a slight simmer, being careful not to boil the mixture. Add the tofu and scallions and cook for another minute or until heated through. Remove from the heat, ladle into soup bowls and serve immediately.

French Onion Soup

Soup of the day: French Onion Soup. This soup was approved by my boyfriend, which makes me feel like a chef! =] It was a very simple soup to make, although I found the Gruyere cheese a little pricey. It was $22/lb. I got half a pound, which was enough for several ramekins servings!

So without further delay, the recipe:

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 4 onions, sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 fresh thyme sprigs
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup red wine, about 1/2 bottle
• 3 heaping tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 quarts beef broth
• 1 baguette, sliced
• 1/2 pound grated Gruyere

Directions

Melt the stick of butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions, garlic, bay leaves, thyme, and salt and pepper and cook until the onions are very soft and caramelized, about 25 minutes. Add the wine, bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer until the wine has evaporated and the onions are dry, about 5 minutes. Discard the bay leaves and thyme sprigs. Dust the onions with the flour and give them a stir. Turn the heat down to medium low so the flour doesn't burn, and cook for 10 minutes to cook out the raw flour taste. Now add the beef broth, bring the soup back to a simmer, and cook for 10 minutes. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.

When you're ready to eat, preheat the broiler. Arrange the baguette slices on a baking sheet in a single layer. Sprinkle the slices with the Gruyere and broil until bubbly and golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes.

Ladle the soup in bowls and float several of the Gruyere croutons on top.

Alternative method: Ladle the soup into bowls, top each with 2 slices of bread and top with cheese. Put the bowls into the oven to toast the bread and melt the cheese.