Seafood Miso Soup – Wappani Recipe

Wappani miso soup is seafood based

Wappani miso soup is basically nothing else than a miso soup with seafood, such as fish, clams and some vegetables. However, a wappani miso soup is boiled using hot rocks, usually in cedar flasks, which are called wappa. The recipe originated at the Awashima island, but maybe you are lucky enough to find a Japanese restaurant, which can prepare it for you. Those hot rocks store heat for several hours so a Wappani could be cooked without heat. However, as you probably do not have hot rocks in your kitchen, we’ll just do the normal seafood miso soup with fish, mussels and shrimp, which is still delicious.

Ingredients

Yields: 4 servings

Seafood mix (other seafood combination is also applicable)

Mussels – 20 pieces

Monkfish tail – 1 piece (about ½ lb)

Shrimp – 8 pieces, large

Clams – 20 pieces

Shallot – 1 piece, small, finely chopped

Ginger – 1 piece, small (thumb size), fresh, crushed and peeled

Rice wine vinegar – seasoned

Sushi rice – 1 cup, short grain

Green onions – 2 pieces, finely sliced

Mixed mushrooms (shitake, enoki, etc.) – 1 handful

Miso paste – 8 tbsp

Dried fish flakes (bonito flakes)

Dried kombu seaweed – 2 pieces of about 4×4 inches

Water – 8 cups

Dashi soup base

Sake – 2 wineglasses

Directions

Begin by preparing the seafood. Scrub the mussels and clams. Remove any barnacles which get stuck on the shells. Pull off the beard of the clam. Discard mussels or clams with broken shells, don’t close when tapped or are open. Trim the tail of the monkfish. Get rid of any black membranes if you see some. Cut monkfish into cubes at about 1 inch per piece. Wash shrimps. If necessary, remove the veins.

In making the dashi, put the water and seaweed together in a medium-sized saucepan. Leave it to soak for about 10 minutes. Heat the saucepan in medium-level heat. Once the water gets warm, take away the seaweed and discard. When the liquid starts to boil, add the dried fish flakes. Cook for about two minutes. Turn the heat off. You’ll know when your stock is ready when you see the fish flakes totally submerged to the pan’s bottom. Strain the broth using a strainer with fine mesh. Throw away the flakes.

In a bowl, combine the shallot, ginger and rice vinegar. Cook the rice. In cooking the seafood, get a large pan with lid. Pour in half of the sake and heat it. Perform similar procedure with another sake glass in another pan with a lid that’s tight fitting. When the first pan’s sake starts to boil, allow it some time to reduce a bit then throw in the mussels and clams. Cover the pan and allow for it to cook for not more than 3 minutes. You should start to hear the shells opening and start to smell the scent of the sea. When the 3 minutes are up, check the pan. If you see an estimate of ¾ open shells, this is already good and you can turn the heat off. Otherwise, allow the mussels and clams to cook a little longer. In the pan of sake, which should be boiling by now, put in the shrimp, mushroom and pieces of monkfish tail. Set a 4-minute cooking time or until the monkfish and the shrimp are already cooked.

Be sure that the dashi is just in its boiling level. Mix the miso paste. Thoroughly stir so as to dissolve the paste.
Pour vinegar over rice and mix gently. Serve in 4 individual bowls.
Proceed in dividing the mushroom and seafood between 4 other separate bowls. Pour the dashi. Use the green onions for garnishing.
Serve the rice and wappani miso soup with a wonderful, warm sake.

Tips

Concerning the fish, I tried several variations so far. Salmon gave it a good taste, basa fish did extremely well, while I would not recommend other fresh water fish. When it comes to shrimp,  I prefer them to be marinated or even better, brined.