Korean-style egg & wakame soup

Korean-style egg & wakame soup

Ready in under 10 minutes, this super-quick egg and wakame seaweed soup is good to have up your sleeve in case you need a little something extra to round out a meal. It is on fairly regular rotation at our house, in preference to miso soup, actually. It is our go-to soup for serving with the sashimi rice bowl with ginger, garlic and sesame, below. Both recipes were on the same page of the August 17, 2010 edition of Orange Page (no longer available for purchase).

Every ingredient in the soup is a staple of the Japanese kitchen so I never need to shop specially to make it, but outside of Japan, you may need to get hold of cut wakame seaweed (which is also excellent in salads like this one), toasted sesame oil and torigara soup chicken stock granules.

Kankoku-fu kakitama-jiru: Korean-style egg & wakame soup

Serves 4

1/2 a negi (Japanese leek), sliced into thin rounds
2 tsp toasted sesame oil
2 cups (400 ml) water
2 tsp torigara (chicken bone) soup granules
1 tsp Japanese soy sauce
2/3 tsp salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3 g cut wakame seaweed
2 tsp ground sesame seeds

1 In a small pot, heat the sesame oil over a medium heat. Add the negi and cook briefly until wilted. Add the water and torigara soup granules and bring to the boil.

2 Add the soy sauce and salt and stir, then pour in the beaten egg in a circular motion. Once the egg becomes fluffy and cooked, add the dry wakame and cook for a few moments. When the wakame has reconstituted, ladle the soup into bowls and sprinkle with the ground sesame.

Enjoy!

Sashimi rice bowl with ginger, garlic and sesame



 Sashimi rice bowl with ginger, garlic and sesame

This is one of the Young Man's favourite quick dinners. He can even make it, and the Korean-style soup we always have with it, all by himself!

With ginger, garlic, negi and sesame, the flavours are bold but fresh. Shredded perilla brightens the dish, but you could use basil instead, if that's what's available.

We usually make this with maguro (tuna) sashimi, but it was not available on the day, so I used buri (yellowtail) instead.

Domburi are a larger sized rice bowl used for oyako-don and other rice-and-topping dishes suffixed with a don! They have a capacity of around 550 ml, compared to 250-350 ml for regular rice bowls. It doesn't really matter how much rice you use in this dish, however, and you could certainly make it in one big bowl to share, if you don't have domburi.

This recipe is from the August 17, 2010 edition of Orange Page (no longer available for purchase).

Sashimi no zuke-don komi-dare: Sashimi rice bowl with ginger, garlic and sesame

Serves 4

700 g warm, cooked rice (about 4 domburi bowls full )
400 g block of sashimi (tuna, for preference), cubed
2 tbsp Japanese soy sauce
10 shiso (perilla) leaves

For the dressing
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and grated to a slush
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tbsp finely chopped negi (Japanese leek)
1 tbsp Japanese soy sauce
1 tsp ground sesame seeds
1 tsp toasted sesame oil

1 sheet yakinori (laver), torn into small pieces (optional)

1 Place the cubes of sashimi in a bowl, pour over the soy sauce, mix well to coat and leave to marinate for about 5 min. Cut the stalks off the perilla leaves, cut in half lengthwise, and slice into fine strips. swish in a small bowl of water and drain on kitchen paper.

2 In a small bowl, mix the dressing ingredients together. Fill 4 domburi bowls with rice and top with the marinated sashimi, including the juices. Pour over the dressing and sprinkle over the perilla and yakinori, if using.

Enjoy!