Kasu-Jiru

Kasu-jiru (Sake-lees base soup) This dish definitely warms you up on a cold winter day. The secret ingredient is sakekasu (sake lees) dissolved in the soup. It makes the soup really thick and gives rich flavor by adding subtle sourness(?). If you put too much, the alcohol in the sakekasu might make you sweat quite a bit. You can put meat and vegetable of your choice, but root vegetables like daikon, carrot, taro and pork or fish are popular ingredients, I think. Konnyaku and aburage are also good in kasujiru. This time I put daikon (from my boss again. Thanks!), carrot, taro, shiitake, salmon and konnyaku in this tasty soup. Salmon tasted soooo good in this soup! Actually I’m not very good at making kasujiru. Good cooks seem to be able to season this soup without making it brown with soy sauce, but I always end up with pretty dirty-colored kasujiru even if I used light soy sauce. I heard the trick is using salt and a little miso effectively. Well, looks like I need a bit more practice.