Monday, December 27, 2004

To Rest My Stomach - Chirashizushi & Butajiru -


Chirashizushi (uncaked sushi) and Butajiru (Pork miso soup)

Maybe you’re thinking that after all those cooking/baking for Christmas, obachan must be taking an easy way out? You’re absolutely right. My dinner last night was Chirashizushi and butajiru, and I used an instant chirashizushi mix in retort pouch.

This instant chirashizushi mix used to be for 4 servings, and I always hesitated to buy one worrying about having too much leftovers. Now they have a smaller unit (one serving) :D
I'm sure I'll be buying it often.


All I had to do to make this sushi was mix cooked rice with the ingredients in the pouch and top with the nori (dried seaweed) strips which also come with the instant ingredients. I didn't even prepare kinshi-tamago (shredded thin egg sheet).


Butajiru

Butajiru
is also called tonjiru ("buta" and "ton" are different pronunciations of the same chinese character representing "pork," and "jiru" means soup.)
This is my favorite miso soup. For me this soup is easier to season than other kinds of miso soup. Usually, when used light-tasting ingredients only, like tofu, daikon etc., the flavor of dashi and miso has more importance in the taste, so you need to use the right amount for the delicate teste of the soup. But when with pork, the meat seems to determine the taste mostly and you can’t really fail---unless you use ridiculously too much or too little miso.

It was a quick and easy meal after coming back from a bowling game yesterday ;)

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Recipe:

BUTAJIRU
Ingredients (1 cup = 200cc) 3 servings
3 cups water
(1 tsp instant dashi (fish stock) powder…optional)
1 Tbsp sake
3 1/2 to 4 Tblsp miso paste
80g thinly sliced pork
1 yam or potato
30g carrot
50g daikon radish
(1 tsp salad oil…optional)
(20g burdock, shredded … optional)
(a little konnyaku, diced… optional)
Some minced scallion

Peel and cut daikon radish, carrot and yam (potato) into icho-giri or ginkgo leaf shape. (Scroll down and see "cutting vegetables".) If using burdock, shred like the“sogi-giri” as shown in the same site. Cut pork into bite-size. Heat salad oil in a pot and sauté the meat and vegetables. Add water and dashi powder. (If you like lighter taste, skip sautéing and just put raw ingredients in the water to boil.) Bring to boil. Skim off the scum that rises to the surface. Add sake. When ingredients are cooked, reduce or turn off the heat and dissolve miso into the soup. Turn the heat up very briefly and remove from heat as soon as it starts boiling. Do not boil too long after adding miso to the soup. Sprinkle minced scallion on top and serve.

My mom doesn't saute the ingredients, so I usually don't do that, either.

6 comments:

obachan said...

Hey spottiswoode,
Gee, you were so quick to comment! :D I bet you really liked the butajiru, didn’t ya? Maybe mine is the similar kind but not exactly the same.... I’ve never heard about using pork rib, honestly! I can imagine the taste would be richer with the rib, though. I do use a little sake for this and I can put up the recipe later, but it wouldn’t be the same as the one with the rib that you tasted before. You go ahead and experiment on that ;)

ting-aling said...

I remembered you right after getting drunk last Christmas with your Miso Soup comment..

Ms One Boobie said...

As usual.. i can only wish .. that i can get some instant stuff here too.. so my mission when i go to halifax the next time.. i will go look for it.. :)

obachan said...

> ting-aling --- I read you post and assumed you were really drunk. Glad that you had so much fun. ;)

> grilled_aubergine --- Me, too. I love Chirashizushi with eel!!
I had Dango jiru in Kumamoto when my younger sister lived there. I loved them so much.

> MrsTweety --- Hope you can find lots of instant stuff in Halifax. : ) They really help, you know, and it’s kind of embarrassing to say but sometimes they taste better than what I cooked from scratch…..

obachan said...

There’s another kind of Japanese soup with pork, and now I’m wondering if that’s what you had at the Japanese restaurant. The soup is called Kasujiru, and sakekasu (remains of rice produced when making sake) is used for it with or without miso. If you try and think this butajiru is too far from what you had, maybe you can try kasujiru when I post about it sometime next year. Anyway, good luck!! :)

Rei said...

Hello Obachan,
I enjoy your blog so much that I'm starting from the very beginning, so this is a very late entry, but I have just learned how to make Sanuki (iriko) dashi with Sendai miso and its my favorite. I'll have to try it with your recipe.
I really hope you never get tired of maintaining your blog.
Thank you