Tonjiru - Japanese Pork Miso Soup

Hi folks, I'm back from our short family getaway to our Southern neighbour, Singapore.  We spent 5 nights there, had lots of yummy food and soaked up the Christmas festivities in perfect weather (cloudy and cool days with no rain). 




I thought I'd better squeeze in a few posts before we head off to Hong Kong again mid next week - the last of our year end holidays! (yes, I know, it's not year end, it's the first week of 2013, and hubby is missing the first week of work and little sonny is missing the first week of kindy.  Oops!)

Having wAAAAyy overeaten during the last few days, it's back to some simple, light and healthy meals.  This means lots of soups, steamed dishes and salads. 

One of my favourite quick cooking soup is Tonjiru.  It is comforting, nutritious and only takes about 15min to cook.  I learned about this soup while browsing through some back posts at Nami's wonderful blog.  It is now a regular item on our dinner menu, especially on days when I do not have time to cook long boil soups (like recovering from the aftermath of a holiday!) 

Tonjiru - Japanese Pork Miso Soup
Simplified from Just One Cookbook

• 200g chicken thigh fillet, sliced thinly (the original version uses pork belly, but i didn't have, so just substituted with chicken)
• 1 small carrot, diagonally sliced
• 1 medium size leek, diagonally slied
• Half a daikon, diagonally sliced
• 1 pack of silken tofu, cut into cubes
• 1 pack of straw mishrooms, rinsed
• Fried fish paste, sliced
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp oil
• 3 tbspn miso paste
• 5 cups water
• Salt and pepper to taste

1.  Heat up the oil and sesame oil, add in the chicken meat and the leeks and saute until the meat is just cooked.

2.  Pour the water into the pot, and add in the carrot, diakon and tofu cubes.  Bring to a boil, turn down the fire and let simmer for about 20 min.

3.  Add the straw mushroom and fish paste slices and continue to let it simmer for another 2 min.

4.  Gently stir in the miso paste, keep stirring until it is evenly mixed into the soup.  Adjust the taste with additional miso paste, salt and pepper.

5.  Turn off the fire and serve immediately.