The red bean Miso paste that has been sitting quietly in the cupboard minding its own business could no longer be ignored. It kept falling out every time I opened the pantry door (that’s probably a reflection on my tendency of overstocking of the cupboard like we are about to have a famine or something.) I took it as a hint.

So, for the wacky Wakame salad… gather some seaweed.

 

Ingredients

Take out 20 grams of wakame and soak in hot water for about an hour, changing the water a couple of times as you go and stirring to make sure all the seaweed is reconstituting evenly.

 

In the meantime mix together:

2 tbsp rice vinegar

2 tbsp light soy sauce

1-2 tsp chilli powder or flakes

1 tsp sesame oil

2 tbsp roasted sesame seeds (place in a dry frying pan and heat until they are just starting to toast and smell nice)

 

 

Method

When the wakame is suitably rehydrated, drain it in a colander and dry it off with paper towels.  Place the wakame in a mixing/serving bowl, you may need to “cut it up” with a pair of scissors, or you could actually chop it into smaller strands with a knife. I liked the scissor option in the bowl… and then add all the other ingredients and stir well to mix the dressing through the seaweed. Cover and let the flavours infuse.

Now for the Miso

This is not a traditional miso recipe per-se. I used what I had in the fridge and improvised a wee bit.

Heat 3 cups of home-made prawn stock over high heat and add;

1 tsp ikan bilis (dried shrimp, garlic and chilli. Available from most good asian markets)

Heat until hot.

Gather together

1 tsp minced ginger

1 tsp minced garlic

1 tsp rice vinegar

5 drops of Tamari (soy sauce)

2 tablespoons red miso paste (softened with a couple of tablespoons of your prawn stock.)

add all the above to the stock and stir.

Veggies for interest.

1 medium field mushroom cut into 1 cm cubes.

1 small pak choi  (or cabbage or whatever you have on hand) sliced thinly

3 spring onions (scallions?) chopped thinly for garnishing later

Pop the mushrooms and pak choi into the stock and add 300 grams of cleaned raw mussels. Simmer the stock gently until the mussels open.

The Salad

You can serve the wakame salad as a side dish, or if you prefer, you can place a mound of the salad in the bottom of your soup bowls and pour the soup around the side.

 

 

 

Mussel, mushroom miso soup

Ladle the soup into your soup bowls and garnish with the chopped spring onions.

Incidentally, prawn stock is easy to make and freeze. Next time you acquire some fresh prawns for cooking in a tapas dish such as garlic chilli prawns for example, shell and de-vein the prawns, throw the heads and shells into a stock pot and fry gently in a little olive oil (or coconut oil as an alternative for say Laksa stock) until they change colour. Then cover the heads with water and simmer very gently for about 15-20 minutes. Strain the stock through a fine sieve and let cool in smaller containers and then freeze for later use.

I hope you enjoy.

Kind regards,

J.