A bowl of miso soup rights the wrongs. Lift the bowl to your lips, inhale briefly, take a sip of the deeply savoury liquor, and suddenly all is good with the world once more. It's the hot broth, of course – hearty, fruity, virtually beefy in its intensity, perfectly clear when still then intriguingly cloudy once stirred, but there's more to it than that. The feel of the smooth lacquer bowl in your hands, hearing the occasional whisper that emanates from the tight, steam-freckled lid, and the smell, that is for me the essence of Japan, bring with them a serene pleasure. Then there's the steam that rises from the surface and the gently swirling patterns of the miso in the clear stock as you sip.
In Japan, whether you are eating grilled eel on sticky rice from a lacquer box, a piece of blistering aubergine tempura hauled out of bubbling oil or chicken hearts cooked on skewers set over hot coals, you can almost guarantee that you will be offered a tiny lacquer bowl of miso soup. When there, it is an essential part of my breakfast, along with rice and salty, crunchy pickles. Made from crushed soy beans and rice or wheat, left to ferment and mature, miso's variations in colour, from creamy white to a deepest mahogany, will generally signify how salty it is. The white (shiro) miso, the least salty, is a good place for miso virgins to start.
Miso is often the first thing I make on return from a trip abroad. There is almost always a tub of it in the fridge. Sealed and chilled, it will keep for weeks. You just stir a couple of tablespoons of it into hot stock – I tend to use chicken or vegetable rather than the traditional seaweed and bonito dashi. Introduce a handful of cooked noodles and you have lunch. Add shredded greens, such as pak choi or spinach, and shavings of grilled chicken or tiny shreds of raw beef and you have a light yet satisfying dinner.
The pastes are easy to deal with and readily available and will last several weeks in the fridge. Neither will I turn my nose up at the instant miso soups, of which most wholefood stores have a dazzling range. It is just a case of boiling a kettle. But a homemade version gives you the option to alter the intensity by adding as much of the paste as you wish and, of course, of choosing whether it's a light miso day or a dark one. The paste makes a fine marinade for grilled chicken, too, let down to a spreadable slush with equal amounts of sugar or honey, sake and mirin. Sweet, savoury and strangely peaceful.
Grilled miso chicken
Get the heat right. If you cook the chicken too near the elements or at too high a temperature, your marinade will burn. The chances are that it will darken considerably anyway and char around the edges – a detail that only adds to the character, but you don't want it to burn and become bitter, so don't forget to keep checking as it cooks, moving it away from the elements as necessary.
I once saw this cooked on a bed of sliced cucumber. The cucumber stopped the paste burning. A good idea if you have a cucumber to get rid of. Serve with steamed greens.
Serves 2
For the sauce:
white miso 4 tbsp
mirin 4 tbsp
honey 4 tbsp
chicken breasts 2
pak choi 200g
Put the miso in a mixing bowl, stir in the mirin, then add the honey and mix well. Score each of the chicken breasts three or four times, cutting through the skin and about halfway through the flesh. Place the breasts in the miso marinade, roll over to coat thoroughly, then leave in a cool place for an hour or so.
Put an overhead grill on low to medium. Line a baking sheet or grill tray with tin foil, add a couple of tablespoons of water to it, then place the marinaded chicken breasts on the foil with plenty of the marinade sticking to them. Grill the breasts for approximately 10 minutes, turning once or twice as they brown. Inevitably some of the marinade will burn, hence the importance of the foil.
Lift the chicken from its foil and serve it with grilled or steamed pak choi.
Miso soup, noodles and cabbage
At home I don't use lacquer bowls for my soup. Beautiful as they are, they would lose their sheen after a ride or two in the dishwasher – such are the practicalities of life.
Serves 2, generously
For the soup:
stock 1 litre, vegetable, chicken or dashi
brown miso (mugi) 5 tbsp
sesame oil 2 tsp
dark soy sauce 1 tbsp
cabbage 75g, very finely shredded
noodles 100g, boiled and drained
lime juice of 1
chives 10g
coriander a handful
Bring the stock to the boil in a deep saucepan. Turn down the heat and stir in the miso paste, the sesame oil and soy sauce. Taste, adding more miso paste for a deeper flavour if you wish.
Pile the cabbage into serving bowls, add the cooked noodles, then pour over the miso stock. Finish the soup with lime juice, finely snipped chives and coriander leaves.
Email Nigel at nigel.slater@observer.co.uk. Follow Nigel on Twitter @NigelSlater