Restaurant Quality Miso Soup and Natto with Rice, Egg and Seaweed

Natto with Rice, Egg and Seaweed  

and Restaurant Quality Miso Soup   

(Shopping and preparation order instructions included.  Recipes serve 4.  Suggest serving with a salad.) 

I’ve heard that Natto is supposed to be a weight loss food.  Why is that?  Is it because it is so ugly you lose your appetite?  Does the slimy, stringy texture make you wonder if it’s a tad bit unsafe to take another bite?

After that lead-in, am I really going to give you a recipe for it?

You betcha!  Because although Natto is ugly and doesn’t taste wonderful by itself, it is really good made this way, with rice, seaweed and egg.  

Natto, like other fermented products (think sourdough bread, long-aged cheese and yogurt without jam) is really good for you.  Nutritionally, it is like beans on steroids, packed with fiber, protein and vitamins – and with an extra boost of vitamin K and nattokinase, an enzyme that is beneficial to the heart.  For more specifics, here’s an article from livestrong.com:  http://www.livestrong.com/article/127997-nutritional-value-natto/ and a webpage by a natto producer:  http://meguminatto.com/about_natto.html

Natto is made of soybeans with the bacterium Bacillus subtilis natto added to them.  I suppose you could save some storebought natto to start your own  batches at home (using a yogurt maker or dehydrator or oven on low).  However, if you have a good Asian store in your area, you shouldn’t need to go through the trouble, because they will have several kinds of inexpensive natto to choose from.  Health food stores might also carry it, although at significantly higher cost.  

The Asian store I go to in Eugene has a large variety of natto – all in tiny little frozen Styrofoam packets, about the size to put in a lunch box and take with me to work for topping my afternoon rice.  I feel a little guilty (for environmental reasons) using those tiny Styrofoam packets.  (About 25 years ago, I worked in a sushi bar in Washington, D.C.  One of the chefs ordered natto in one-pound plastic tubs to be delivered to the restaurant, not for sale to the customers, who probably would have been horrified, but for his own meals.  I would love to find one pound tubs for us.)

If you’re still with me, shopping and preparation instructions are below.  If not, perhaps I’ll list the miso on a separate post, also, because it really is special.  We go to a lot of Japanese restaurants when we are out of town and my husband says mine is the best! 

Shopping

Read the recipes through; unless you are really into Asian foods, you might not have all the seaweeds; I do list alternative ingredients.  Other  important points when shopping are: 

1.    Buy only Shiro (light colored, yellowish) miso.  Red (dark) miso and Hatcho (barley) miso are useful for flavoring meats, but will overpower the soup.

2.    Buy silken or egg tofu, not firm or block tofu in a tub.  The silken comes in a box; the egg comes in a tube. 

3.    Buy bonito in flakes and kombu in pieces.  An alternative is “instant dashi”, but I prefer to buy bonito and kombu separately.  They are not expensive and the results taste better.

4.    Buy nori in sheets for sushi.  You can have fun with any leftover pieces making hand-rolls.   An alternative is to buy premade seaweed topping (it comes in jars) for rice, but be sure to check the ingredients.  Many have both sugar and msg. 

 

Recipes are given separately; however, you will want to perform steps in the following order: 

1.         Start a pot of brown rice

2.         Chop veggies, set aside

3.         Start bonito broth cooking

4.         Mix miso, set aside

5.         Cut tofu and scallions, set aside

6.         Strain broth, add veggies to it

7.         Mix natto with seasoning packets and Braggs

8.         Make seaweed topping

9.         Mix miso into strained broth.  Add tofu and scallions. 

Warm on low heat. 

10.          Meanwhile, serve rice, add natto on top, then press a

depression in center and slide an egg yolk in.  Sprinkle

seaweed topping around edge of egg.

11.          Serve miso soup.

12.          Enjoy! 

Natto with Rice, Egg and Seaweed

1 c. brown rice

Dash peanut or vegetable oil

2 tbsp. Bragg’s Liquid Aminos

4 styrofoam packs natto (with seasoning packs)

4 egg yolks (very fresh!)

Seaweed seasoning, below

Make a pot of short-grain brown rice.  I use a stainless steel rice cooker, primarily because I don’t have to watch it or worry about aluminum getting in the food.  (Sometimes I cook the rice on top of the stove, in which case I start with 1 c. brown rice and 3 c. water, bring it to a boil and turn it down to a simmer, stirring occasionally until all the liquid is gone, then checking for doneness and adding more water if necessary.)   Using short grain rice is important.  The rice holds more moisture and is easier to pick up with chop sticks.  It is moister, plumper and a little more flavorful.  If you want to increase the flavor, you can toast it a moment in a medium-hot dry skillet on a stove before cooking it in water.  Add 1 tbsp. Bragg’s Liquid Aminos and a dash of peanut or other non-olive vegetable oil early in the cooking process. 

While the rice is cooking, mix the Natto in one bowl and the seaweed topping in another. 

Natto

Open Styrofoam packs of natto.  You will find one mustard and one vaguely teriyaki-like sauce in each one.  Mix 4 teriyaki sauces, 3 mustards and 4 packs of natto together in one bowl.  Add 1 tbsp. Bragg’s Liquid Aminos. 

Seaweed Seasoning

One sheet nori

1 tbsp. toasted sesame seeds

2 tbsp. dulse flakes

Break up one sheet of nori into small cubes.  Mix with 1 tbsp. toasted sesame seeds and 2 tbsp. dulse flakes.

When the rice is done, portion out between four bowls.  Portion out the natto into four bowls.  Then make a depression in the top of each rice/natto mound. Break an eggs, separate out the white and slide the yolk only into the depression onto the rice and natto.  (Reserve the whites for some other recipe, or maybe cook for your dogs or cats.)  Sprinkle  seaweed topping artfully around the yolk. 

Restaurant Quality Miso Soup

serves 4-8 (depending on whether served as an opening course or as a main part of  the meal)

Have all ingredients prepped as written in ingredient list as below:

8 c. water

1 tbsp. bonito flakes

1 sheet kombu approximately the size of your palm (a little smaller is ok)

Approx. 1 c. vegetables, thinly sliced.  Carrots and mushrooms are traditional, but red or orange bell peppers are nice, also. 

½ c. plus 1 tbsp. shiro miso mixed to paste with ½ c. warm water

1 package silken or egg tofu, drained gently between two towels and cubed. 

seaweed seasoning, natto,  miso, tofu, snow peas

2 or 3 scallions, sliced  

Perhaps a couple snow peas to float on top of the finished soup

Place bonito and kombu in water and turn to high, allow to come to boil, then turn down to low.  Simmer ten minutes.  Turn off pot, strain liquid so it is clear and pour back into pot.  Add vegetables except scallions.  Turn on to medium low heat.  Cook ten minutes longer. 

Mix shiro miso with ½ c. warm water, then add a little of the now clear dashi broth.  Keep stirring until the miso mixture is free of lumps.  Add the miso mixture to the strained broth in the pot.  Stir.  Immediately slide the tofu cubes in (carefully) and the sliced scallions.   Serve within five or so minutes.  Do not overcook. 

Enjoy, preferably with a nice salad including some Asian vegetables (snow and snap peas, radish, pak choi, mizuna, tatsoi, carrots, etc.).  This time of year, I also like to put in a few purple gooseberries and aronias, both of which are firm, tart berries that hold up well in a salad and aren’t too cloying.