Miso

It is said that the longevity of Japanese people is related to their regular consumption of miso, which is a side note to the fact that miso is rich in nutrients. The main ingredient for miso is soybeans, but there are many different types, including rice miso made from rice curd, wheat miso made from wheat curd, and bean miso made from bean curd, etc. Among them, rice miso is produced in large quantities. Among them, rice miso is the most widely produced; by taste, there are "pungent miso" and "sweet miso"; by color, there are "ruddy miso" and "light miso". By color, it can be divided into "red miso" and "light miso". If you want to eat miso, you need to buy it at a large supermarket. Don't be intimidated by the variety when you first start shopping, it's good to have choices, isn't it? Generally speaking, lighter colors have a lighter flavor, while darker colors have a stronger flavor. If you still can't decide, just look at the package and buy whichever one you think looks good. Cooking is all about imagination and feeling. Miso is actually used similarly to soybean paste and dashi here, and can be used as a seasoning for steamed fish and stewed meats. However, our miso paste is rarely used in soups, while miso soup is an indispensable part of Japanese soups, and is very representative of the Japanese style of soup. Miso doesn't take long to cook, so it's usually the last thing you add to a soup, with a little bit of boiling to avoid losing its aroma. If you're using miso in a stew, you can add the miso in two additions, starting with two-thirds of the miso in the cooking sauce to flavor the ingredients, and then adding the rest to enhance the aroma just before you start the soup. Making miso soup is as simple as buying some dried tofu, seaweed, and fish, cooking them in boiling water, and adding the miso at the end. So even if you buy a big jar or bag of miso, you won't have to worry about how to eat it all.

Udon, also known as udon, is written as うどん in Japanese and as "饂ton" in Japanese kanji, or udon.

In the current Japanese Agricultural Standards (JAS), a round noodle with a cross-section diameter of 1.7 mm or more, and a corner noodle with a width of 1.7 mm or more are considered "udon", while the following are "Japanese-style cold noodles" (width 1.2~1.7 mm, thickness 1.0~1.7 mm, thickness 1.0~1.5 mm, and thickness 1.0~1.5 mm). (width 1.2~1.7mm, thickness 1.0~2.0mm). Typically, they are made from low-viscosity and medium-viscosity flour with a pinch of salt, and are served in a soy sauce-based broth

Hot in a light soy sauce-based fish broth, or cold with a soy-based condiment. The noodle dishes vary depending on the garnish added. Wild greens, tempura, seaweed and raw eggs are common additions, but meat is hardly ever used.

How to make it:

1. Traditional Japanese sake, soy sauce, Japanese miso, kombu and dried fish skin are used as the main ingredients to make the soup base, which is savory and tasty.

2. Choose your favorite vegetables and mushrooms, wash them and blanch them in boiling water.

3. In a separate pot, cook the udon noodles in boiling water for about 2-3 minutes. It is not advisable to cook for too long, otherwise the texture of udon noodles will become soft and lose its toothsome flavor.

4: Add the udon noodles to the soy sauce soup base.

5: Top with assorted mushrooms and leafy vegetables.

This soy sauce soup is usually made with Japanese-style broth (broth made from seaweed and specially dried fish flakes), but if you don't have this broth, you can add Japanese-style broth seasoning (Dashi-moto, available in the condiment aisle of supermarkets) with water.