Part a series of breakfasts from around the world featured in Little Tables by Vanessa Lewis, published by Beatnik.
Grilled Fish and Miso Soup – JAPAN
A piece of simply grilled fish served with miso soup is a traditional Japanese breakfast. Miso is a paste made with fermented soy beans and barley or rice malt. When mixed with stock and vegetables, it becomes a delicious, savoury broth.
Serves 2 – 3
Ingredients
Miso Soup
- 5g [0.2oz] dried wakame/dried seaweed sheets
- 150g [5.3 oz] tofu
- 2 spring onions, sliced
- 800ml good quality vegetable stock
- 3 Tbsp white or red miso paste
Grilled Fish
- salt
- 2 small-medium whole oily fish,
- cleaned and deboned.
- oil, for frying
To serve
- soy sauce
- steamed white rice
- eggs
Method
Miso Soup
- Soak dried wakame/seaweed in water for about 15 minutes to reconstitute it, then drain and set aside.
- Cut the tofu into 1cm cubes and slice the spring onion diagonally into 2cm pieces.
- Heat the stock in a small saucepan over medium heat until boiling. Then, using a soup ladle, remove some stock and place in a small bowl. Add the miso paste and mix well until the paste has dissolved. Put this mixture back into the saucepan with the stock and heat again until boiling.
- Add the cubes of tofu and wakame/seaweed, and sprinkle with the spring onion.
Grilled Fish
- Cover a frying pan with foil. Sprinkle salt liberally on both sides of the fish. Heat the frying pan on a medium heat, and oil the surface of the aluminium foil lightly.
- Place one fish in the pan and cook for 7 – 8 minutes on each side, or until the fish is browned and cooked through. Repeat with the second fish.
- Serve miso soup and grilled fish piping hot with soy sauce, bowls of steamed white rice and egg- either raw or cooked, according to your preference.
