Miso dama means miso ball, and it is an easy way to make single servings of miso soup by simply combining ingredients of your choice. It is like making instant miso soup by yourself. Mix bonito flakes, granulated dashi, miso, and your favorite ingredients, roll up the mixture for one serving, freeze, and when you are ready to eat, just take it out and pour hot water over it. Because it can be made quickly, it is useful for busy mornings or when you just want one more dish.
The advantage of making miso dama is that you can make miso soup easily. Freezing the miso also prevents the flavor from deteriorating, making it last longer. You can easily eat miso soup at your daily table, or even at work or school if you bring it along with your lunch. Also, if you boil miso soup several times after making a pot, the flavor may become too strong and the aroma may be lost, but with miso dama, you can always enjoy the taste of freshly made miso because you make it for one serving at a time.
Ingredients (4 servings):
4 tbsp of miso paste
1 tsp of granulated dashi
0.2 oz/5 g of dried wakame seaweed
1"/10 cm of Tokyo negi leek
*You can change wakame and negi to other ingredients.
1. Cut the ingredients into the small pieces.
2. Mix everything in a bowl.
3. Divide in four pieces. Place each portion on plastic wrap and roll up.
4. Place on a baking pan and freeze. The flavor lasts longer when frozen than when refrigerated. It is recommended to use a metal baking pan, as the temperature drops rapidly, making it more difficult for the flavors to escape.
How to Eat:
You need 180 ml of hot water for each serving. Since the ingredients are not raw, hot water can be simply being poured over miso dama.
Tips:
If wrapping and storing in plastic wrap is too cumbersome, you can put them in ice trays or freezer bags.
When placing in storage bags, make lines for each serving for easy removal. The estimated time for maximum freezing is about one month.
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Although miso dama are very easy to make, there are some ingredients that are recommended and some that are not. Let's check out the reasons for each of them. Recommended ingredients and reasons: Abura-age Fried Tofu Adding abura-age to standard ingredients such as dried wakame seaweed and leeks adds richness to miso soup and makes it tasty. Cut into small pieces for easy rounding. Tenkasu Tempura Crunchy This may seem surprising, but tenkasu is another ingredient that can really boost the flavor of miso soup. It is also a great point that it does not require any preparation and is easy to use. Hakusai Napa Cabbage Adding one vegetable makes the dish more filling and satisfying. Heat Napa cabbage in a microwave oven and squeeze out the water before adding it to the miso dama. Unrecommended ingredients and reasons: Tofu Tofu is not suitable for freezing, as it changes the texture. However, it is a standard soybean food in miso soup, and you probably want to add some to it. In such cases, koya-tofu, freeze-dried tofu, is recommended. Root Vegetables Root vegetables such as carrots, sweet potatoes, and burdocks cannot be cooked in hot water alone if added as is. If you wish to use them, boil them once to heat through and cool before adding.
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We will introduce history of miso in the next blog post.
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