"Miso" news and stories

• The secret ingredient in miso? Mold. This miso artisan calls it "living food."
• It's all over the Internet: Cooks Source magazine vs. the blogosphere.
• If you're looking for a simple, elegant, unexpected dessert, look no further than zabaglione.
• The wine of the week is a bubbly Domaine Huet, festive enough to carry you through the holidays.
• Ever heard of the Farmeeoh cookie? Make it now, thank us later.

For melt-in-your-mouth fish (with "a golden, caramelized crust, buttery flavor, and a delicate flaky texture"), start with a miso-based marinade, says the Florida blogger who shared this photo. Inspired after tasting Hawaiian star chef Roy Yamaguchi's misoyaki butterfish, she switched it up at home and marinated wild-caught salmon in a mixture of miso, sake (Japanese rice wine), mirin (Japanese sweet rice wine), sugar and a mix of sweet white Shiro and red Aka miso pastes.

Japanese staple miso (fermented grains such as rice, barley and/or soybeans) adds depth to dishes, from simple soups to marinades like this one, and has seemingly endless variations, from light to smoky and dark. If you don't have the time to marinate, try salmon with miso glaze.

Become a member of the Slashfood Flickr pool to get a shot of having your photos featured in Feast Your Eyes.

I love savory hot foods and miso soup is the perfect rainy day dish to fill the tummy and help you shake off the chill. Even if you aren't in the mood for visiting your local sushi bar, you can still make miso at home.

Miso soup is one of those mysterious dishes that might look hard to prepare, but in fact is the easiest thing in the world -- and it just happens to be low in fat and calories. You can find the paste in your local health-food store and as long as you store it in an airtight zipper-lock bag, it will store well for months in the meat drawer of your fridge.

The only downside to miso is the sodium content. Health professionals say to stay under 2,300 milligrams of salt a day, that's 1 teaspoon. In most packaged miso pastes, one tablespoon can contain up to 750 milligrams alone. So, look for the reduced-sodium or light version that still has the rich flavor with a lot less salt. Get my recipe for spicy miso soup after the jump.

Miso is a versatile ingredient that is great to keep around in the back of your fridge. Here are some ways to use it.

Given my love of Japanese food, and my belief in the restorative powers of slurping down a steaming bowl of authentic ramen, I'm surprised that it took so long for me to happen upon Rameniac. I like to think of this site not as a resource but as the Rosetta Stone of ramen. Given that it lists 22 ramen styles ranging from the country's south all the way to Hokkaido all laid out on a map with links color-coded by soup base (miso, shoyu, shio, etc.), I don't think I'm exaggerating terribly much. There's also a section aptly titled "drooling" that reviews 15 ramenyas, some in Japan and some in the States. Add to that nine reviews of instant ramen, and all of sudden I'm craving a hot bowl of the stuff, even if it is practically August.

By the way the photo above is a bowl of shiromaru, or white sea ramen, from Hakata Ippudo, a chain with several locations in Japan as well as abroad. It's a pork bone soup with thin noodles, chopped green onion, luscious slices of pork and wood-ear mushrooms. This ramen is a specialty of Fukuoka. I have a sneaking suspicion that I'll be heading out to New York City's East Village for some soup in the very near future, as in the next 30 minutes.

Source