Yamaimo Soup とろろ汁

If you've ever enjoyed minced yamaimo in any tororo dish, you're sure to enjoy this. It's a twist on the traditional miso soup. Same base, but no miso.

Yamaimo is a type of yam that is usually eaten raw in Japanese cuisine. It has a sticky, gooey juice that, when the meat of the yam is ground down, becomes this slimy, binding goo with bits of pulp. It's almost never eaten alone since it isn't super flavorful. Its mouth feel and texture are so distinct, which makes it a key ingredient in a number of dishes including this one. The simplest way to eat yamaimo is ground with soy sauce over hot rice. Anyway...

The ingredients of this soup are simple:

• 1 yamaimo, about 250g 山芋
• 2 cups dashi jiru (fish stock) だし汁
• 1 Tbsp soy sauce 醤油
• 1 Tbsp mirin 味醂
• 1 egg yolk 卵黄
• 1 pinch of aonori  青のり

 I start with the dashi jiru. Onto the stove top to a boil. While it's heating, I give the yamaimo a wash and peel it.

Once peeled, it is quite a slipperly little sucker. So, I keep the last bit of the peel still on the edge. I love my ceramic mincer. It lets you grind the vegetable down and as it is ground, the bits fall outward into the moat around the bowl. This ceramic bowl is made in Japan, so you can find it sometimes in a Japanese grocery store. Aside from that, I'm not sure where to find one.

When the yamaimo is ground down nearly to the end, I give the last bit the final peel before I grind down the rest of the yamaimo.

My dashi stock has come to a boil. I remove it from the heat, and add the soy sauce and mirin.

By now, I've poured my minced yamaimo, that slimy, bitsy, slippery pulp, into a small bowl. With 250g of yamaimo, I get about 1 full cup of pulp.

I take my dashi stock and pour in small amounts into the bowl of yamaimo, mixing to incorporate the soup into the yamaimo. About half way through, I add one egg yolk to the yamaimo and mix well. I finish by adding the remainder of the stock to the mix.

Voila. Two large bowls full of tororojiru (yamaimo soup)! I sprinkle a pinch of aonori on top and serve. Itadakimasu!