Wafu (和風)

Pumpkin Soup With White Miso Paste

Something about warm soup on a chilly night, so comforting, loving…it’s like someone put a blanket over someone who dozed off on the couch…oh, thanks honey…no, I’m not sleeping…just closed my eyes for a second…that show is so fascinating to watch…what? it’s over?

Wafu means Japanese style. And this very successful remake of western pumpkin soup done by NHK’s Today’s Cooking. OK, basically it’s pumpkin miso soup but it’s more done than that. It has surreal deep umami flavor, pairs well with naan or rice. My husband adds a dollop of sour cream into the soup to westernize it…a little … So tell me whodunit? Really? … wow that’s wicked.

Ingredients and Instructions for 4-6 servings (Print Recipe here)

• 600g of Kabocha (Japanese pumpkin, recommended)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3-1/2  to 5 cups dashi stock -  I used 2 No-MSG dashi packs to extract strong dashi soup. See picture below. Option: Of  course you could make your own dash stock. I like Alton Brown’s version  I found it uncomplicated.
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• 130-160 g of white miso paste (Saikyo 西京 miso is preferred)
• 1-2 teaspoons of Tamari light soy sauce
• Mitsuba 三つ葉 (Japanese honewort or Japanese parsley) for garnish if you have it
• Seven spices 七味唐辛子 (optional)

1. How to cut pumpkin - Remove top and bottom stems by notching with knife heel around stems first then inserting deeper with the knife tip. Wrap in plastic wrap and microwave 4-5 minutes on 60% power. The pumpkin is still hard but much easier to cut than raw. Cut in half and remove seeds and the stringy part with large spoon. Cut in sections, cube and peel off skin with vegetable peeler. See video on other method.
2. Place 600g of pumpkin  in a pan and pour plenty of water and
3. salt to cook for 15 to 20 minutes until soft. Option: cook and puree all pumpkin and use 600g for this recipe and keep rest in refrigerator for later use.
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4. Drain the water. Put cooked pumpkin back in the same pan, puree with hand held mixer while it’s still hot.
   
5. Gradually add dashi stock stirring constantly until the desired thickness is achieved. I used 4 cups of dashi stock 
6. Cook for 5-7 minutes. Whisk in half of miso paste and do a taste test. Add 1 Tablespoon miso paste at a time to adjust flavor. I used about 150 g of miso paste.
7. Add soy sauce, top with mitsuba, sprinkle 7 spices if you like. Serve warm. I used only 1 teaspoon of soy sauce

Variation – Make it hearty – add pork, burdock roots and matsutakeWith connections, we got cheaper (almost $20 per pound less than in store) Matsutake mushrooms. Lucky!

Pumpkin JOY! Since we were left with plenty of pumpkin puree, I made a pumpkin pudding…FABULOUSE! And my husband tackled Salted Caramel Pumpkin buns…Touchdown!

Hi Punkin….

My daughter just had a birthday. Here she was a year old, observing my husband at a church basketball game.

That was many years ago…time flew by way too fast.