Japanese Clear Soup with Shrimp Recipe

How to make it

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• Bring the dashi to a simmer. Carefully add salt to taste.
• Do not boil rapidly, as this will cause the broth to cloud.
• Add soy sauce. (The soup should be crystal clear.)
• Cut lemon zest into very fine julienne.
• Trim and wash the snow peas.
• Cut them crosswise at an angle, making diamond shapes.
• Blanch them 1 minute in boiling water. Drain and cool.
• Peel and devein the shrimp.
• Blanch them in boiling water just until cooked, no more than 1 minute.
• Drain.
• Rinse soup cups or bowls in hot water to warm them.
• In each bowl put 1 shrimp, a few pieces of snow peas, and a few threads of lemon zest.
• Make sure that the soup is very hot—almost at the boiling point—and ladle 6 oz into each bowl.
• Serve at once.
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• Variations:
• Garnish: Clear soup garnish can be varied considerably.
• Always use just a few carefully chosen items.
• Don't clutter the bowl.
• The effect should be like an elegant little still-life painting seen through the perfectly clear soup.
• All cutting should be done carefully and neatly.
• Garnish items include:
• Tofu, cut in small cubes
• Cooked pork loin or chicken breast, cut in small dice, batonnet, or julienne
• Lobster tail, in thin slices
• Cooked fish, separated into flakes (use a type that separates into large, firm flakes, such as snapper or cod)
• Small clams, steamed and removed from shell (the broth can be clarified, diluted, and used for soup base instead of dashi)
• Carrots, cut julienne
• Fresh white mushrooms, sliced thin
• Dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked, simmered, and cut into julienne
• Wakame (a type of seaweed); soak until soft, cut into small pieces and discard the hard ribs, and simmer in the soup 2 minutes
• Chinese cabbage, shredded
• Watercress leaves
• Fresh ginger root, cut into fine shreds (use only a few shreds per serving)
• Bamboo shoots, sliced thin
• White radish, sliced thin or shredded
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• Miso Soup
• Miso soup is made simply by dissolving miso (fermented paste made of soybeans, barley, and/or rice) in dashi.
• The two main categories of miso are white miso, which is actually light yellowish in color and has a sweet, mild taste, and red or dark miso which comes in varying shades of reddish brown and is stronger and saltier in taste.
• General proportions for soup are 4 tbsp red miso or 6 tbsp white miso, per quart of dashi.
• Put the miso in a small bowl and carefully stir in a ladleful of hot dashi.
• Stir until completely lump-free.
• Add enough dashi so the miso is thin and pourable.
• (Do not add miso directly to soup, or it will not mix in properly.)
• Carefully stir the dissolved miso into the remaining hot dashi.
• Season to taste and, if desired, add 1-2 tsp soy sauce.
• Add desired garnish as for clear soup, except that the garnish can be added directly to the soup kettle.
• Because this is a heartier soup, it is more often garnished with tofu and vegetables than more delicate seafood.
• Stir before serving, as the miso settles out.