Smelt Snow Pea and Alfalfa Sprout Miso Soup


Recipe:  Boil enough water to make a dashi soup broth in a sauce pot. 
     Add a small handful of dried bonito flakes and some chopped edible seaweed. 
     Boil the dashi for ten minutes to make the dashi broth. 
     Strain the broth into a clean saucepot.
     Simmer the dashi over medium low heat. 
     Add a pinch of minced garlic and a pinch of minced ginger.
     Add a few drops of soy sauce and a few drops of rice vinegar. 
     Add a few drops of soy sauce. 
     Stir a spoonful of miso paste into the soup. 
     Add a couple of thin julienne cut snow peas. 
     Add 4 deboned lake smelts.
     Simmer for a minute till the smelts become fully cook. 
     Place some alfalfa sprouts in a soup bowl. 
     Ladle the broth and snow peas around the sprouts. 
     Place the smelts around the sprouts in the soup. 
     Sprinkle a few thin bias cut slices of green onion top on the broth.  (Do not cook miso paste at a high heat or for too long of a time, because the excess heat will change the flavor.) 
     This is a very nice and healthy Japanese soup.  The smelts are not "fishy" flavored at all.   Smelts are a very delicate flavored fresh water white fish.  The alfalfa sprouts add a nice flavor and texture too.  Yum!  ...  Shawna