Monday, March 15, 2010

a breakfast recipe

Ok -- It doesn't save the world. But all of us have to eat. Some of us need protein, but are not ready for very heavy things in the morning. So here is what I now like, after lots of experimentation.

A kind of heavy miso soup. With milk, plenty of food, but easy on morning digestion.

Start with --

1. A container of miso paste. Where I live, we have an H-mart. Lately, we buy a half-pound or pound container of aka miso, shinshu...

2. Some firm tofu. Costco has a nice option.

3. A can of salmon and a can of clams, also available in bulk from Costco.

4. A bag of sheets of wakame (also from H-mart).

(Since the miso paste and the wakame last very long, it all matches.)

Probably it would be good to have fresh scallion onions, or dried chopped onion,
as well.

To get ready --

have a small pot, a largish bowl, and a tea kettle.

First, I put water on in the tea kettle.

Next, using the BACK side of a big table spoon, push two very big spoonfuls of miso paste around
the sides of the bottom (third? half?) of the bowl.

Then... following my wife's preference... slice the tofu. I use about one and half of the pieces in
Costco's pack... each piece being about two inches by two inches by one inch.
I dump them, and the open cans (INCLUDING fluid), into the pot. I would put in chopped onions
at the same time, if I felt like it.

Then put enough water into the pot from the kettle to fill it to the top, and put it on high.

Then pour just enough water from the kettle (ideally about 130-140 degrees?) into
the bowl to cover the miso... no more than one third full. Use the BACK of the spoon
to squeeze and push the paste, to get it to dissolve completely.

Then cut about a sheet and a half of wakame into the bowl. With scissors, first cut it into
strips about one inch long, against the grain. Then point the edge down into the bowl, and slice off lots of little pieces (strips stacked on top of each other) down into the bowl.
Add fresh scallions if you have some.

And then, when you feel the pot has been done enough, just pour it into the bowl, hopefully filling
it to about the top.

When I do this, the big bowl has enough soup for about four breakfast sized bowls.
I eat one, and save the rest for quick microwaving on work days.

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One funny thing. Our cat really, really likes this stuff. My wife wouldn't believe it at first...
but it really went wild with THIS broth... next wakame... next salmon and clams...
but still strongly preferred this tofu over the cat food it ignored nearby.
But this is an odd cat, which plays with mice and attacks coyotes.

That's all.

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