Washoku Warriors Challenge: MISO!

I was really excited to try the miso challenge this month for my Washoku Warriors cooking group. I really love miso soup and was looking forward to exploring the different flavors of miso. I was not disappointed! 3 trips to the Japanese market later, I had my supplies. Thanks to my personal shopper for getting all my groceries (Tadd works right next to a Japanese market, so he was my errand boy. Thanks Tadd!) Here is what my grocery list looked like

-Firm tofu

-Saikyo miso

-mirin

-Sake (I had some of this left from the last challenge)

-Sendai miso (this proved to be elusive!)

-Kombu for my dashi stock

-Katsu bushi (or bonito) also for my dashi stock

-White sesame paste (hello, this stuff is $10 a tube!)

-Yuzu peel (this smells so good) Also $11 for a tiny bag.

-fresh salmon

-fresh peaches

-fresh ginger

-baby spinach

I also ended up with a few extra tubs of miso that turned out to be the "wrong" kind.

So what was I going to make with all those ingredients? Here's the menu:

-Fresh carrots with creamy tofu sauce for dipping

-Steamed spinach with creamy sesame miso sauce

-Miso marinated broiled salmon

-White rice

-Poached peaches in lemon-ginger miso sauce

Some of the sauces I made clockwise from the left. Pungent red miso sauce (this was tasty!) Creamy sesame miso sauce (This was a bit bland for me)

Creamy tofu sauce (this was REALLY bland, I mean, it tasted like blended up tofu. I had to add more miso just to make it palatable)

This is Harrison's finger right before he says "Hey Mom! Is this CARAMEL?!" and pops a fingerfull in his mouth. It's probably the furthest thing from caramel I could have made. I wish I had a picture of his face, it was priceless.....

Homemade sea stock (dashi) I had to give this a shout out since I only ended up using 2 tablespoons! I'm currently trying to decide what to make with the rest of it.

The Poached peaches in lemon ginger miso sauce was by far my favorite dish of the day. I have to say when I heard I had to make a dessert using miso I was put off, I just KNEW it was going to be gross. I mean peaches and miso? SO not my thing. Well, I should have trusted Ms. Andoh, I ended up eating my words (and more than my share of the peaches) They were delightfully sweet, tart, tangy and a touch salty. They were so delicious and a perfect ending to a wonderful meal. While the different components of this meal were very time consuming, now that I know my way around the different types of miso, in the future it will be much quicker.

Here's my picky little Henry, who won't eat anything besides french toast and fruit, chowing down on a plate of rice, salmon, spinach and peaches. (Please forgive the fork, we don't have him trained on chopsticks yet!) Thanks for a great challenge Fuji Mama!