This is what I did last night:
Ingredients:
2 quarts dashi
4 scallions - greens chopped, whites trimmed of roots
24 littleneck clams - de-gritted and de-salted
8 Tbsp of shiro (white) miso
Instructions:
Heat dashi to 100℉ - good time to chop the scallions and portion the miso into a bowl for mixing. When the dashi reaches 100℉, ladle 1 cup of dashi into a bowl containing 8 Tbsp of shiro miso and stir/whisk until incorporated - set aside. Add the white parts of the scallions to the dashi. When dashi reaches a simmer, add the clams. When the clams are open, add the miso (making sure the dashi NEVER boils after adding miso - it can get gritty and you will kill all the crazy health benefits of miso!) - after a minute or 2, toss in the chopped scallion greens, simmer for a minute or 2 and then kill the heat and serve!
Now ... what would I do different? Not much - mostly has to do with the clams! :)
Specifically? MORE! I love clams - 24 didn't seem like enough! But in my smaller pot, those 24 clams were a bit crowded - I would use a much bigger pot! I would do everything the same until the clams opened - I would remove them from the pot when they are open, continue with the directions above without them, remove them all from their shells and then add the shucked clams back in at the very end, just to make sure they are heated through. With these changes you will have more clams and less hassle dealing with shells. Don't get me wrong, the shells look pretty in the soup and I might leave a few for presentation.
The clam miso soup I had in Tokyo used really teeny tiny clams - not sure what they were, but if I come across teensy clams, I would absolutely try this recipe using those!
Quart sized mason jars are perfect for storing dashi and miso soup!
