Tonjiru (Japanese Pork Miso Soup)

I just came back from a short weekend trip to Port Dickson. I love to visit small towns because there are some things you’ll find that are much cheaper to acquire than in KL. My latest haul were some baking equipments (below).

They have a wide variety of muffin cups that are just soooo pretty and cheap too. A long bag of say….i think 60 pieces ++ cups is only RM4. Haha, I love finds like these. Am one happy camper for a day.

Aren’t they pretty?

During the trip, we ate a whole lot and now I’m longing for something light. I’ve always loved how Japanese cuisines have these dozens of simple soup recipes which you can play up or adapt to your own preference. I think one of the greatest things they invented was miso paste. It’s really like their soup bouillon base but made naturally from fermented soy beans. This is another miso soup recipe but cooked with pork and carrots.

The soup is hearty but you won’t feel like it’s too much. It is delicious with the pork and I added some quail’s eggs just as an extra something. At first I wanted to add some tofu but felt like I didn’t want to overcrowd the soup too much. But if you have some leftover soup and not much of the fillings left, adding tofu is a good thing.

TONJIRU RECIPE
Adapted from ichigoshortcake

Ingredients;

– 150 – 200 gms pork belly slices, cut into bite
sized pieces (or feel free to use other cuts of pork)
– 2 carrots, peeled, chopped roughly
– 1 onion, diced
– 2 cloves garlic, chopped
– 3 – 4 cups Dashi stock, I used the
powder mixed with water
– 1 1/2 tablespoons light soy sauce
– 1 tablespoon mirin
– White pepper
– 2 tablespoons miso, I used a grainy type
but use white miso and not the red ones
– Hard Boiled Quail’s eggs (optional)
– Chopped scallions
– Sunflower oil
– Shichimi pepper

Steps;

1. Dice the onion and chop the garlic. Cut the pork belly into slices.

2. In a heavy based pot, sautee the onions first in a little sunflower oil till they’re translucent. Add the pork belly and garlic. Sautee till the pork is cooked on all sides.
3. Pour in the dashi stock just a little first to de-glaze the bits stuck at the bottom. Pour in the rest of the dashi stock and add carrots. Let it come to a boil and simmer for about 10 – 15 mins till the carrots are soft.
4. Add mirin and pepper. Add hard boiled quails’ eggs just before dissolving miso.
5. Turn the heat off and dissolve miso into the soup. Sometimes certain miso can be quite salty in itself and you might not need soy sauce. I omitted mine. But always taste and check the seasoning.
6. I used a grainy type of miso here because it’s all I have but the original recipe calls for white miso.
7. Serve hot in bowls scattered with some chopped scallions on top and shichimi pepper if you’d like.

Enjoy!