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
