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In our family, breakfast is not complete without .  My son likes to dip his toast in , which is something I have never seen Japanese people do, but he says it's good.

My own mother never made miso soup for breakfast, even though it is part of a traditional breakfast in Japan. But when we moved to the US in the 70s, she yearned for good miso.  One day, she cooked a pot full of soybeans and blended them to make a mushy white paste, to which she added salt and koji, a miso starter made from fermented rice, and created a huge mess in the kitchen.

The resulting miso was kept it in a lidded clay jar in the cool and dark corner of the garage to ferment for years. I used to sneak in there and stick in my finger  to lick the thick, grainy paste that looked like mud. Later, when I was much older, I realized I was snacking on a healthy protein, minerals and vitamin-rich live food. 

Miso comes in various shades of white and red varieties. Red (aka) miso like sendai and haccho are dark brown in color, and robust in flavor. Miso can be made by mixing fermented rice, koji, salt and grains, including barley, wheat, and legumes like fava beans and azuki beans.  White (shiro) miso pastes like saikyo are yellow in color, lighter and sweeter than red miso paste, and made primarily of koji. My miso soup is hearty.  I like to have a variety of vegetables from the land and sea. You can experiment with different types of miso. Some are saltier than the others, so when making miso soup, always taste the soup and make adjustments.  I always keep a variety in the fridge and some fermenting in the garage. I let my whim dictate which miso to use for my breakfast miso soup.

Miso Soup With Fava Beans, Zucchini and Tofu

3 1/2 cups Dashi 

3 1/2 to 4 tablespoons Mugi, Koji, white or red miso

1/4 cup, cooked and shelled fava beans

1/4 block -tofu, diced in to 1/4 -1/2 squares

1/2 zucchini, sliced thinly, 1/8 inch thick

1 scallion, sliced thinly, 1/8 inch thick

Bring the Dashi and the turnip o a boil in a medium saucepan, then reduce the heat to maintain a simmer and add the zucchini for a couple of minutes.

In a small bowl, dissolve 3 1/2 tablespoons of the miso paste in a few tablespoons of the warm Dashi. Add the mixture to the saucepan. Taste and add more miso paste, Dashi or water, depending on how strong the soup tastes.

Add the tofu and fava beans and simmer for 1 minute. Turn off heat.

Pour the soup into individual bowls. Garnish with sliced scallions.

Serve immediately.

As a child, I used to love looking inside my grandmother's pale green kitchen cabinet of seasonings and utencils.  It was an old cabinet that my mother tried to get rid of, but my grandmother rescued it,  and put it in her kitchen to store food.  My brother stuck war plane stickers on the glass.  Grandmother had everything she needed in that cabinet.  It was like a treasure box.  My pantry is not in one place like hers. I keep my salt, pepper, sugar and soysauce on my kitchen counter.  The bottled staples like soy sauce, sake, mirin (sweet rice), and rice vinegar, and the oils, are on the shelf next to the range. The dried staples - bonito flakes, seaweeds, noodles, and beans fit snugly in one of my kitchen drawers. At least everything is within reach, except my aromatic fermented nuka pickles and miso, which I keep in the garage.  All my grains and flour are kept in the fridge or freezer, year round to ensure freshness.

I have been collecting pottery and utencils since I was a child.  It's sort of an obsession.  Whenever I go back to Japan, there is often a pot or a bowl in my carry-on between my clothes and bags of buckwheat flour.  I got my pottery collecting obsession from my mother who used to comb through the flea markets and thrift shops looking for things.  Once, I found some plates in a thrift shop that were Made in Japan, probably from the fifties.  Paid less then $10 for the set of five.  They are not fine china but they have a story. I also collect beautiful objects in nature like a pretty rocks or twigs to rest  chopsticks or a leaf to decorate the serving plate.  Then, there are those special occasion utencils like my inlaid daffodail blossom lacquerware bowl, which comes out only during springtime. I look forward to eating out of the bowl and thinking about my childhood days in Kamakura.  

Basic Dashi Recipe

Makes 3/1/2 cups, or 4 servings of stock to make miso soup.  Dashi will keep fresh for a week 3-5 days in the refrigerator, so you can make it in advance and just add miso paste and vegetables for quick breakfast of miso soup. 

4 cups water, 4 cups of loosely packed bonito flakes, One 3-inch piece of konbu seaweed. Using scissors, make several crosswise cuts in the konbu. This helps to extract the flavor during cooking.Place konbu and water in medium saucepan and bring to a boil.  Cook on medium heat until water almost boils. Remove kombu just before water boils to avoid fishy odor. When the water boils, turn off the heat. Then add bonito flakes. Do not sitr. Let stand for 3-5 minutes to let the flakes steep. Then strain the dashi them through a very fine-mesh sieve or a sieve lined with cheesecloth or paper towel. Don't stir or press the bonito flakes because it will cloud the dashi.  Discard the bonito flakes and konbu seaweed or cook them in 4 cups of water to make a secondary dashi. I slice the left over konbu and use it in my salads and pickles to add umami.

Pickles are like the period of a sentence.  It  has a way of finishing a meal to clear the palate. Some Japanese pickles are lightly salted and quick to make and others go through fermentation and can take months.  Pickles are enjoyed for their flavors and aid in digestion.  Eating them in moderation is a good thing.

If I ever get this cookbook project off the ground,  I will probably divide it into three sections. The first section will be called Simple meals and Quiet moments.  It will consist of small routines I do in the kitchen.  Grinding sesame seeds would be one.  I use the fragrant sesame paste in salad dressings and toss it with vegetables. Grating daikon radish is another simple routine.  Grated daikon radish is anessential condiment to brighten my tempura,  grilled fish or noodles dishes.  Then, I have a repetoire of easy, soul pleasing meals I make like onigiri, rice ball. There is also miso soup, my favorite morning ritual.  These simple rouitnes gives me a chance to be quiet and cook.

In the second section, Seasons, I will share simple, Japanese family style meals. In my menus, you won't find nigiri zushi or multi-course Kaiseki or Kappo style cuisine. I am a home cook, not a restaurant chef. Japanese home cooking and restaurant food are two different things.  Chefs may try to include something homy on their menu and call it, "Ofukuro no aji," which means Mom's cooking to add that comfort factor.  I am often inspired by chefs  but  I cook for my family and friends, with seasonaiity, beauty, simplicity and economy in mind. Don't expect to see knife acrobatics in this book.

In the special section, Grain Workshop, I  will show you how I make noodles and dumplings by hand, and use grains to make miso and fermented pickles, and beans to make Japanese dessert . These kitchen projects will be inserted throughout the book.  These cooking projects are more time consuming but the reward is big and helps deepen your appreciating for traditional Japanese food, which is centered around grains and vegetables. 

Freshness is delicious. Japanese cooking is about sourcing fresh ingredients and not fussing with them too much. Because Japanese foods are largely saucless, spiceless, and oil-less, the ingredients themselves must be beaituful, flavorful, and fresh.  This usually means foods in season.  Kabocha squash and pumpkins must feel heavy.  Eggplants mush be shinny and unbruised. Fish fresh from the market don't need the disguise of a heavy sauce.  Visit the farmers markets and the Asian markets frequently.  Talk to farmers.  Do grow your own vegetables.  Don't hesistate to improvise with non-Japanase foods like chard, artichokes, and zuchinni.