To all my faithful readers, I’m sorry I missed this past week.  I try my best, but sometimes I just can’t get something posted in time. The good news is, I don’t plan to skip posts for the holiday since I missed two already. Alright, back to the food…

Tonjiru is a Japanese classic comfort food. It’s that meal people make when camping or on cold winter nights to warm up while they sit under the kotatsu. It also happens to be a favorite food of mine and is super easy to make.

The Tonjiru recipe I started with comes from Cooking with Dog, one of my favorite YouTube cooking channels. Here is a link to the video, you should definitely watch it: Cooking with Dog – Tonjiru. I like to add easier to find veggies than cooking with dog, so my ingredient list differs. However, the cooking method is essentially unchanged.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups dashi stock (I use instant dashi)

2 tbsp sake

2 tbsp shiro miso (white miso)

Sliced pork, cut into bite sized pieces

3 small white potatoes

1 cup daikon radish

1/2 cup carrot

1 package enoki mushroom

1 package tofu

6 pieces raw Japanese mochi (these should look like a Mr. Clean magic erasers; if they don’t, you have the wrong kind of mochi)

Cabbage

1 tbsp Sesame oil

Green onion, for garnish (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the mochi on a baking sheet. When the oven reaches temperature, bake the mochi for 5-10 minutes until they puff up and double in size. Remove from oven and set aside.

Heat the sesame oil in a pot on medium high heat. When it becomes aromatic, add the pork. Brown the pork, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes.

Add the daikon, carrot, and potato. Stir fry for another 2-3 minutes, then add the dashi and sake.

Simmer the soup for 10 minutes on medium low heat, covered.

When the potatoes, carrots, and daikon are fully cooked (soft enough to be poked with a fork) add the tofu, mochi and enoki. Simmer for another 3-5 minutes until the mochi are soft.

Add the cabbage, then turn off the burner. Now you will add your miso paste. Put the miso into a ladle. Dip the ladle shallowly into the soup until the miso is just covered with water. Using a whisk, whisk the miso into the dashi stock little by little, starting from the outside. Once all the miso has dissolved, stir the soup and serve.

That’s it! Easy and delicious!