Digest Number 283

[Guest guest]

I have been eating miso soup since I was 19, and I'm now 74! Good stuff,

but there's a few things to know.

 

Miso is the ferminted paste made from soybeans. It's kind of like making

tofu or soy milk, except you let it ferment. I'm sure this is too simple

an explanation, and probably they use a fermintation starter from prior

batches to insure they get the same taste, batch after batch. I buy it in

oriental stores in a container kind of like cottage cheese is sold in.

It's really a Japanese food, so maybe it is available only in Japanese food

stores, and I actually buy it in Japan Town here in San Jose, Calif.

 

There's roughly two kinds of miso -- dark, and light. The dark miso tastes

a lot stronger, and I don't much like it. The light miso is a light tan

color, tastes much better in my opinion, and I like it. Sometimes you can

buy " red miso " which is composed of half dark, and half light. I prefer

just the light.

 

Making miso soup is easy -- you just boil water, and spoon some of the paste

into it. Don't ask me how much -- you'll find out once you taste it.

People add small cubes of tofu to it, and sliced green onion tops, but the

taste is still that of the miso. Sometimes in Japanese restaurants they

add other stuff to augment the paste -- usually " katsu-o-bushi " which is

thinkly sliced dried bonito fish. Being a vegetarian, I don't like that,

and I certainly don't use it in my home. But it'll probably be in miso

soup in restaurants, so beware. If you want, you could probably make a

vegetable stock (without chicken of course), and use that for a starter to

also add more flavor to the soup. But myself, I just enjoy the miso

without all the other stuff.

 

I've bought tempeh -- it's available packaged in the deli counter at our

grocery store. To me it seems like kind of very hard tofu, or tofu that's

been dried quite a bit. But I'm not sure that is the real case. But you

can eat it the same way -- it's just much harder. I think it comes from

S.E. Asia like Thailand, or somewhere around there. I don't think it is

used in China, Korea or Japan.

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Also, this may sound silly, but can someone

please tell me what miso is, as well as Tempeh? l have bought tempeh

burgers, but are not sure what they are actually made of. l feel like l have

alot of research to do!

 

Regards,

Gabbie