January 20, 2010

Miso Soup with Pork Meat Balls

miso soup

Its the middle of summer here in Australia right? So what was with that cold snap earlier this week. Any time the weather gets cool and wet I always crave soups, and I wasn't going to let the middle of January stop me!! I've had miso soup many times, but never have I attempted to make it myself. I thought I would give it a go. I had some pork mince so thought that I would make some nice ginger and garlic meat balls to put in the soup. After a little Googgling I discovered that pork in miso soup is called Tonjiru, usually made with thingly sliced pieces of pork. So I guess this soup is MY version of Tonjiru.

miso soup 3

Working during the day is kinda a double edged sword. You get to make money to fuel your food loving habits, but it tires you out so that once you get home you can't be bothered cooking. This recipe is pretty easy and takes less than 10 minutes to prep and about 20 minutes to cook. So in less than half an hour you can be staring at the dishes you need to wash up....yay!

miso soup 4

For this recipe I figured I would take the extremely easy road and use a pre-made miso paste, for the base of my soup. There are plenty of recipes out there to make your own base, but the white miso paste I tried was pretty darn good. I also had a few mushrooms in the fridge that were deprived of their water content. So I thought I would rehydrate them in the soup, after a little peeling and slicing.

dehydrated mushrooms
Before
sliced mushroom
After, they look totally normal hey?

So here is the recipe.

Miso Soup with Pork meat balls (Maria's Tonjiru)
serves 4

400g Pork mince
2 cloves of garlic, minced
small piece of ginger, minced
4 cups water
3-4 table spoons of white miso paste
5-6 mushrooms, sliced
150 gram silken tofu, sliced into rectangular pieces
2 sheets of nori, cut into triangles
sesame oil

miso soup 2

1. Combine pork mince, garlic ad ginger in a bowl. season with salt and pepper. Divide pork into eight individual portions and roll into balls.

pork meat balls

2. Boil water and dissolve miso paste into it. Reduce heat to lowest possible. Drop meat balls into soup. Allow the soup to cook very slowly, making sure that the soup does not come to the boil. The meat balls will be slowly poached for 10-15 minutes.

miso paste

3. Once meat balls are cooked, add mushrooms and tofu. Allow to simmer for 5 more minutes, until all ingredients are warmed up.

tofu

silken tofu

4. Serve in bowls with a few pieces of nori and a few drops of sesame oil.

I ate 3 bowls of this stuff to myself. I couldn't help myself, I just had to add a good helping of chilli oil, which is extremely addictive by the way! Is there anything that doesn't taste better with some good chilli oil??

miso soup with chilli oil

13 comments:

Tricia F said...

Looks wonderful! Glad to know someone else is having soup in the middle of summer :)

3 hungry tummies said...

Oh you are having soup too! It sure looks good!!!

CC11 said...

Looks very yummy (I'd be scooping out the Pork Meat Balls)

Agnes said...

Everything definitely tastes better with chilli oil!

Conor @ HoldtheBeef said...

Yes, I'm with you on the chilli oil love. This looks like a great midweek (non heatwave) dish :)

Arwen from Hoglet K said...

That looks beautiful. I love silken tofu in soup, but like you I've never made my own miso. It's great to hear it's so quick! Good rescue of the mushrooms too.

Unknown said...

Yum, this looks delicious. I love miso soup, but like you, never made it myself - I may need to try now. Thanks! Leigh

Velva said...

Beautiful! A perfect end to a hard day at work. Your Miso soup looks delicious.

Anonymous said...

Great recipe. I love having meat balls in my soup :)

Kirrily said...

I'm so glad you posted what ingredients you used for the miso soup - I've always been unsure of what I needed/should use! Will try and make this soon now!

Adrian @ Food Rehab said...

perfect combo right there. Never had a meated up miso soup so this is a treat.

Trisha said...

what a healthy and appetising-looking dish! i love miso soup and with the addition of meat balls hmmm i think i'll fall inlove with this dish! will have to try it next time!

Iron Chef Shellie said...

So making this for Hamish and I! yum!