All-Fish-Seafood-Recipes.com

Serves/Makes: 4

Ingredients:

• 30 littleneck clams or other baby clams (about 8 ounces)
• 2 cups water
• 2 cups Basic Dashi* Stock (see recipe below) or 1 teaspoon dashi stock granules dissolved in 2 cups hot water
• 3 tablespoons miso
• Sprigs of mitsuba leaves, parsley or watercress, to garnish
• Sansho** powder, to taste

How to cook:

• Soak the clams in cool, lightly salted water for 20 minutes, then scrub with a brush.
• Bring the water to a boil in a saucepan, then add the clams and cook for about 3 minutes or until the clams open.
• Remove from the heat. With a slotted spoon, portion the cooked clams into four soup bowls.
• Strain and reserve the clam stock. Rinse the saucepan well, pour the clam stock, then the Basic Dashi Stock into the saucepan and bring to a boil.
• Lower the heat, add the miso to the stock and stir to dissolve. Remove from the heat immediately.
• Stir, then ladle the soup over the clams and serve garnished with mitsuba leaves and a sprinkling of sansho powder.

Basic Dashi Stock (Bonita Flake) Ingredients:

• 4 inches square piece konbu***, wiped clean
• 4 cups water
• 1/4 cup cold water
• 3 ounces bonito**** flakes

Basic Dashi Stock (Bonita Flake) Preparation:

• Cut konbu square into 4 narrow strips. Place in a saucepan with 4 cups water and cook over medium heat. Heat until just about to boil, then quickly remove pan from the heat, remove and discard konbu.
• Add the cold water and bonito flakes to the konbu broth. Bring to a boil then remove immediately from heat, and set aside to cool.
• When all the bonito flakes have sunk to the bottom, pour the liquid over a strain and discard the flakes.

Comments:

*Dashi is a class of soup and cooking stocks considered fundamental to Japanese cooking.
**Sansho is known in Chinese as huajiao (literally "flower pepper") a lesser-used name is shanjiao (literally "mountain pepper" not to be confused with Tasmanian mountain pepper). In Japanese, it is sansho, using the same Chinese characters as shanjiao. In Tibetan, it is known as g.yer ma. In America, it is sold as fagara or flower pepper as well as Sichuan pepper. Sichuan pepper has a unique aroma and flavour that is not hot or pungent like black or white pepper, or chili peppers, but has slight lemony overtones and creates in the mouth a kind of tingly numbness (caused by its 3% of hydroxy-alpha-sanshool) that sets the stage for these hot spices.
***Konbu, a kind of seaweed. It is associated with the word yorokobu, meaning "joy".
****In Japanese cuisine outside Japan, bonito usually refers to the skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis), which is known as katsuo in Japan. This fish is smoked and dried to make katsuobushi, an important ingredient in making dashi (Japanese fish stock), used extensively in Japanese cuisine.

Tips on how to prepare clams for cooking.

This recipe for Japanese Miso Soup with Clams serves/makes: 4

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Main Ingredient: Clams
Preparation Method: Soups/Chowders
Cuisine: Japanese