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.
?? wats that..??
ReplyDeletePosted by MrsT
oooooh looks delicious...good for curing what ails ya.:) .. Is that yuba???? Thanks for all your great ideas... I love home style Japanese cooking.
ReplyDeletePosted by keona
obachan, that looks so good! i always see sake lees at the store, but i didn't know how to use it. i'll try this!
ReplyDeletePosted by santos
> MrsT --- Hehe..now you know : )
ReplyDelete> keona --- You mean that square thing? No, that’s not yuba. They’re pressed sakekasu (sake lees).
> santos --- You have sakekasu over there?! Wow! Try try!! : )
Sorry, I'm not good at making this kasu-jiru, so I couldn't post a recipe, but there seem to be some good kasujiru recipes on the net written in English. Hope you like this.
Posted by obachan
obachan, I've not seen these before. Will keep a lookout for them the next time I go to a Jap supermarket. If sakekasu aren't available, can I just use sake?
ReplyDeletePosted by Julia
obachan, I've not seen these before. Will keep a lookout for them the next time I go to a Jap supermarket. If sakekasu aren't available, can I just use sake?
ReplyDeletePosted by Julia
Hi Julia,
ReplyDeleteSo nice to know some people are interested in trying this soup : )
No, using sake isn't the same as using sakekasu at all. Of course adding a little sake generally makes soup tasty, but it doesn't give the special flavor that sakekasu does.
Posted by obachan
Hey.. Obachan,
ReplyDeleteDo you still want the recipe for that chewy oatmeal chocolate chip cookie..??? my MIL gave me the right recipe tonite.. so if you want it .. let me know ok.. ;)
Posted by MrsT
Hey MrsT,
ReplyDeleteOh, how nice! Yes, yes! Can you email me at my address in my profile? No hurry, though --- anytime that’s convenient for you. Thanks! :D
Posted by obachan
okie dokie.. Obachan.. ;)
ReplyDeleteI will do it tomorrow.. coz' i need to dig it outta my jeans.. and it's total darkness here.. coz' it's 3.38am here.. in Canada..;)
Chloe woke up.. and needed her milk... hah!
Posted by MrsT
Obachan, I love kasu jiru. I owez thought kasu was for making amazake only, until I try this salty version. Yum Yum!!
ReplyDeletePosted by fish fish
> MrsT --- OMG, you’re up at 3.38am and reding my blog…! Thanks and hope you had a nice sleep after Chloe had her milk…
ReplyDelete> fish fish --- Believe it or not, I’ve never tried making amazake myself yet. I’m going to try it sometime soon, because I still have plenty of sakekasu left.
Posted by obachan
Good blog. Keep it running!
ReplyDelete