After I watched several food/cooking related episodes on Netflix, it recommended a popular Japanese TV drama, called Midnight Diner (or “Shinya Shoku/深夜食堂”). In the opening scene of episode 1, the character (Master) was making a soup with pork belly slices, daikon radish slices, carrot slices, shiitake mushroom slices, miso…. I decided to give it a try. This is a perfect recipe that fits my thoughts of cooking- using simple ingredients and cooking techniques.
When I first cooked, I didn’t have a detailed recipe to follow. I simply used the information I gained from the TV episode. I didn’t know what this dish is called in either Japanese or English. When I described this to friends, I just called it Japanese pork belly vegetable miso soup. Despite this, I like the dish so much. With the right amount of salt/miso paste, the finished dish is colorful and savory with slight sweetness. It is also packed with nutrition and fibers.
I later learned that, in Japan, it is called “Tonjiru”. It literally means pork soup. The basic rule of making this dish is simmering pork belly slices with several roots’ slices, such as daikon radish, carrots, taro, potato, and burdock root. Since I don’t like too much starch in the soup, I only used radish, carrots, mushrooms and yam cake. One thing worth to point out is in the TV episode, the Master used burdock roots in his recipe. It is something used a lot in Japanese soup. It is believed to offer a lot of health benefits. Soup made with burdock root has some sweetness and a special aroma that not everyone likes. I just took it out from my recipe.
Like I said, when I first cooked this dish, I didn’t have a recipe. That tells you the ratio of each item doesn’t need to very accurate as long as you don’t make it too salty. It is obviously a great dish for cold weather, but I find it is such a good comfort food that I could use it year around.
Pork and Vegetable Miso Soup (Tonjiru 豚汁) 五花肉片蔬菜汤
Equipment
- 6" or 8" sauce pan
- 10" sauce pan
Ingredients
- 10-12 oz sliced pork belly
- 2 pieces medium-sized carrot
- 1 pack yam cake (konnyaku) (about 9 oz)
- 8-10 oz daikon radish
- 6-9 pieces fresh shiitake mushroom
- 0.5 stem leek or Japanese long green onion
- 1 tsp oil
- 1-2 tsp salt
- 2-3 tbsp miso
- 0.5 cup dried bonito flakes (optional, could be replaced by dashi powder)
Instructions
- Peel the daikon radish and carrots. Gently rinse shiitake mushroom to remove dirt. Clean the leek.
- Cut the mushrooms to small chunks (one mushroom to 4 pieces). Cut the whole radish into two pieces, and cut each half into 1/8 inch slices. Cut the carrots and leek into 1/8 inch slices too.
- Rinse the yam cake and cut it into either chunks (like the mushroom chunks) or slices (like radish slices)
- Cut the pork belly slices to 1x2" pieces
- To the 6" (or 8") sauce pan, add 5-6 cups of cold water. And heat to boiling. Add the dried bonito flakes, and let it simmer at low heat for 2-3 mins. Use a fork or chop stick to remove most bonito flakes. This is called dashi soup.
- Put the 10" sauce pan on stove top, and turn heat to high. Once the pan becomes hot, add oil and pork slices. Cook until grease comes out of the pork fat. Turn to low heat, and cook until lean pork turns brown. Use a spoon to scoop the excess amount of grease/fat.
- Add mushroom, radish, carrots, and yam cake pieces to the pan with pork. Pour the dashi soup into the pan too. Add the salt and turn heat to high. Once boiling, remove the scum. Turn heat to low, and simmer for 20 mins.
- Add the leek pieces. Simmer for 2-3 mins. Turn off heat, add the miso paste and mix well.
- Adjust taste with salt, and serve with other dishes.
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