Mizoreni: Pork Meatball and Daikon Soup

 

I absolutely love daikon radishes and I'm so glad to see it featured more in new American dishes at restaurants. But my favorites daikon dishes are the traditional ones. Mizoreni (みぞれ煮) is a dashi based soup where grated daikon radish is cooked until translucent, resembling mizore, or sleet. Cooked, daikon radish becomes sweeter with still enough kick to give the soup some depth. Add some pillowy soft pork meatballs and vermicelli noodles and you have yourself a delicious hearty soup.

There's multiple steps to prep but it goes by fast. First, make the meatball mixture by mixing ground pork, scallions, egg, sake, ginger juice, salt and potato starch. The mixture is quite loose, so don't be alarmed. You want to give this some vigorous mixing with your hand so that the meatballs will stay together in the soup. Don't worry, they'll still turn out super soft and they won't turn chewy. Keep the mixture in the fridge covered until ready to use.

Next, grate half a daikon radish on a box grater and squeeze out most of the water. You can use a microplane too but it'll require some elbow grease. Soften the vermicelli noodles in lukewarm water so that they are easier to cut shorter (every brand I've tried is always so long!). I always get the lungkow vermicelli which I recognize in the store by the pink netting and dragon packaging. Make sure to buy the mung bean variety and not the rice.

Once you have all the ingredients prepared, heat the dashi, sake, soy sauce, mirin, and salt until boiling. Scoop some meatball mixture with a small spoon and gently drop into the boiling dashi broth. They will instantly firm up and keep its shape if you've mixed properly. Continue until all the meatball mixture has been made into balls and dropped into the soup. Let the soup simmer for a few minutes to fully cook the meatballs through and skim the top.

Add the vermicelli and grated daikon radish as well as the potato starch slurry (equal parts starch and water mixed until the starch is dissolved) and simmer for another couple of minutes until the vermicelli and daikon are cooked.

Garnish with some fresh scallions and enjoy!

Mizoreni: Pork Meatball and Daikon Soup

 

Cuisine: Japanese

Author: Yukari

Prep time: 20 mins

Cook time: 15 mins

Total time: 35 mins

Serves: 2 servings (main) or 4 servings (side)

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound ground pork*
• 3-4 stalks of scallions, minced*
• 1 egg*
• 1 tbsp sake*
• 1 tbsp potato starch*
• 1 tsp ginger juice*
• 1/2 tsp salt*
• 1/2 large daikon radish
• 2.5 oz mung bean vermicelli (1/4 packet of lungkow vermicelli)
• 4 cups dashi**
• 3 tbsp sake**
• 1 tbsp soy sauce**
• 1/2 tbsp mirin**
• 3/4 tsp salt**
• 1 tbsp potato starch

Instructions

1. Mix the ingredients with * well until it forms a paste like texture and store wrapped in the fridge
2. Grate the daikon radish on a fine box grater and squeeze out most of the water
3. Soak the vermicelli noodles in lukewarm water for a few minutes and cut into shorter lengths
4. In a medium pot, bring the ingredients with ** to a boil and reduce heat to medium high
5. WIth a small spoon, scoop some of the meatball mixture from step 1 and gently drop into the broth and repeat until all of the mixture is done
6. Simmer for 4-5 minutes and skim off the top
7. Add the vermicelli and grated daikon radish and simmer for another couple of minutes
8. Mix the potato starch with 1 tbsp water to make a slurry and slowly pour into the soup in a large circle
9. Simmer for a couple more minutes to cook the starch through
10. Plate, garnish with fresh scallions and enjoy!