[Miso Soup]

(A) Materials for 4 persons

• Water: 800 cc (cc=cubic centimeter, 800 cc=1.7 pint)
• Niboshi (dried small fish): 8 g (g=gram, 1 g=1/28 ounce)
• Miso: 2 table spoons = 45 g
• Hondashi (taste extract): 1/4 tea spoons = 1/2 g
• Salt: 1/3 g
• Tofu*: 1/2 "Choh" (Block). Chopped into cubes of 15-20 mm (3/5 - 4/5 inch)

* There is broiled or raw tofu. Raw tofu is either silk-filtered (fine grained) or cotton-filtered (coarse grained). Either will do but silk-filtered tofu is better.

(B) Cooking

1. Water with niboshi is boiled until it seethes.

2. Then, heat is weakened to the medium level and water is kept boiling for 5 minutes.

3. Remove niboshi with chopsticks.

4. Make the heat minimum. Add and dissolve miso. You can dissolve it by a spoon, but you had better use a special tool called "Miso-koshi". It is a small metal-wire net bawl. Miso is pushed by a spoon through the net into water for easy dissolution. Add also Hondashi and salt. Add tofu cubes.

5. Strengthen the heat and let water seethe. Keep water boiling for 20-30 seconds and stop the heat.

6. Serve immediately.