Clam Soup (Clam Miso Soup)

When I make my clam miso soup, I like to usekombu dashi instead of my regular dashi
stock.  The umami from kombu matches perfectly with the delicious essence coming from clam stock.  It feels like an oceanic culinary experience.  I also suggest using nothing but clams as ingredients – no tofu or wakame seaweed. 

Author: Namiko Chen

Serves: 2

Ingredients

• ½ lb (200 g) Manila clams
• 2 cups (500 ml) water
• 2 inch (5cm) dashi kombu seaweed(optional - See Note 1)
• 2 Tbsp miso (I use awase miso)
• 1 green onion

For Degrit Clams

• 2 cups water
• 1 Tbsp. salt
  

Instructions

1. De-grit clams (Read my How To page for details and complete process). Here’s a quick version. Add 1 Tbsp. salt in 2 cups water. Place a sieve in the bowl so that any sand and grit the clam purge would stay on the bottom of the bowl instead of being consumed by the clams again.
   
2. Place the clams inside the sieve without overlapping each other. The water level should be right around the clam’s mouth. If there isn’t enough salt water, make more using the same ratio of water and salt. Cover with aluminum foil (to make it dark) and leave it in a cool place for 2 hours. This should give clams enough time to purge sand and grit.
   
3. Wash the clams carefully with a brush. Clams are now ready to use.
   
4. Gently clean the dashi kombu with a damp cloth (DO NOT WASH) but leave the white powdery substances which contribute to the umami flavor in the stock.
   
5. Put clams, water, and dashi kombu in a pot and bring it to a boil over high heat.
   
6. When boiling, reduce heat to low.
   
7. Skim off scum and here’s how I do it. Prepare a cup/bowl of water and afine mesh strainer and scoop off scum. Dip the strainer in water to clean while scooping.
   
8. Turn off the heat immediately after clams are all open. Remove the dashi kombu.
   
9. Add miso 1 Tbsp. at a time. Each brand of miso has different saltiness so adjust accordingly.
   
10. If you do not have a miso strainer, use a ladle and dissolve miso in there so you can make sure all the miso paste are dissolve before adding more.
    
11. When you are ready to serve, heat up miso soup, but DO NOT BOIL miso soup (because it will lose the miso flavor). Serve in miso soup bowl and sprinkle chopped green onion.

Notes

1: If you don't have dashi kombu, you can omit; however the flavor will lack nice umami from kombu.

Preparation time is not including the time for de-gritting clams.

http://www.justonecookbook.com/clam-soup/