Ikan Billis Mushroom Miso (みそ) Soup

I have introduced a Miso soup recipe in earlier post.  Miso soup is a simple and tasty soup to make.  Miso was also said to have health benefits, but I will not swear by it here, readers may go and search the web for more information. Here I introduce a more localize (Singapore) receipe.

Ingredients

1. 2 bowls water
2. 6 dried shitake mushroom
3. 2 tablespoon Miso (みそ) or dashi (だし)paste (I prefer dashi)
4. 1/2 or 1 block of soft bean curd
5. 1 handful of ikan billis
6. 1 tablespoon cooking oil

Method

1. Rinse the mushroom, and soak the mushroom for 3 hours.  Cut away the stem (use it to boil the soup and throw away after that).  Slice the mushroom thinly.
2. Wash and drain dry the ikan billis.
3. Heat up a soup pot, add in cooking oil to oil the bottom and sides of pot to prevent sticking, fry the ikan billis (almost like toasting because very little oil used) until fragrant.
4. Pour in water, and add in mushroom (and the stem) and also the water that was used to soak the mushroom. Boil for 30 mins.
5. Cut bean curd into small cubes (1/2 cm)
6. Add in the bean curd, and bring to boil.  
7. Put in Miso paste and off fire and keep it cover for 10 mins.
8. Open and stir, serve hot.

 I personally like to use the organic tofu (bean curd) of the brand “Unicurd”.  It is really nice and soft. (see http://www.unicurd.com.sg/product_OrganicTofu.asp)

Repeated Note from previous post: Some Miso paste is indicated as Dashi paste (I’m not very good at Japanese, but it is written as だし (dashi) and notみそ (miso).  Dashi paste are miso paste where other ingredients, usually Konbu (kelp) or fish, added to make the soup tastier.  Its ok to use plain miso or dashi, although dashi is tastier.