Recipe: Tonjiru (豚汁, miso soup with pork)

Miso horny. Sorry. So very, very sorry.

Here’s an easy recipe for tonjiru (豚汁, miso soup with pork) I learnt from the fabulous Princess Fugu.

Tonjiru is perfect with boiled Japanese rice and fresh, simply flavoured, grilled fish. The deep, salty flavours of this hearty soup make a wonderful contrast with the simple pleasures of rice and fish. The soup is also great as a healthy snack on its own.

Details:

Serves 4 (or ~6-8 using Japanese bowl sizes).

Preparation: 30 minutes of intermittent chopping and throwing things into a big pot.
Cooking: 1 hour, or more. Soups always taste better when the flavour has had time to develop.

Ingredients:

For those in London, may I suggest the Japan Centre (on Piccadilly, just off Regent Street). They had pretty much everything I needed there.

• Miso: I like the Marukome red miso with added dashi (料亭の味, ryōtei no aji). There’s a picture of a bald, baby with a large head on the pack.
• 1 x dashi pack: even though the miso I buy contains some dashi, I find the soup is better with a little extra help.
• 1 x daikon
• 1 x large carrot
• 1 x pack buna-shimeji (brown beech or brown clamshell mushrooms)
• 300g Buta bara (thinly sliced back rib pork): I couldn’t find any, so ended up using pork escallops. Not ideal. Try to find thin slices of meat with some fat for flavour. Ask your local butcher.

The Method:

1. Fill a large saucepan with around 1.75L of water and heat it on the stove.
2. While waiting for the water to boil, peel and slice the carrot and daikon. I like to use large, roughly cut chunks. Wash and break up the mushrooms. Slice the pork into bite-size morsels.
3. Once the water’s boiled, turn down the heat and add the dashi pack. Stir it around a little, then leave for a 2 to 3 minutes.
4. Remove the dashi pack and bring the water back up to a boil. Add the daikon and carrots. Cover the pan and let the veg bubble merrily away. But don’t let them get too lairy.
5. Go and have some fun for 15-20 minutes. Enough time for, well, you can fill in the blanks can’t you?
6. Check the daikon. We’re looking to soften it, much like the Germans tried to do with Steve McQueen in The Great Escape. Except we’re not using a cooler. We have a cooker…
7. Enough of this nonense. If you can pierce the centre of a large piece without too much resistance using a fork, you’re ready for the next part.
8. Add the pork. So tell me, what did you do while the veg was cooking?
9. After about 10 minutes (earlier if you’re pressed for time), throw in the mushrooms and leave for a couple more minutes.
10. Now it’s time to add the miso. Turn the heat to the lowest setting (or even switch it off). Take a large spoon or ladle, preferably wooden or plastic so the heat is not conducted too rapidly into the miso. You’ll probably need at least two heaped tablespoons worth of miso. Lower the miso filled ladle into the soup until it is covered and stir in the soybean paste. It will gradually dissolve, leaving you with a smaller and smaller amount on the ladle. If find this is better than adding a whole load at once. You can constantly taste the soup to check the flavour. Once it tastes right, remove the excess miso (if any); if it doesn’t, add some more.
11. Leave the soup to stand, or on low heat, until your are ready to serve. Before you eat, gently warm the soup, taking care not to let it boil. Add some water if the flavours are to strong. Enjoy!

Closing Comments:

One of the beautiful things about this soup is that it can be kept in a cool place for at least five days without ill-effects. At least, that was how brave I was. Your digestive tract may vary.

If you can find them, gobō (burdock shoot) and konnyaku.

So there you have it. A no nonsense recipe for miso soup. Itadakimasu!

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Contact details for the Japan Centre in The Directory: shops.

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