Kasujiru Sake Lees Miso Soup Winter

Ingredients

• 150 g sake-kasu (sake lees), fresh, from ita-kasu board; sliced; dissolved in warm water before use
• 1 litre dashi, niboshi or konbu preferred
• 200 g daikon, peeled, cut into half-moons
• 100 g carrot, peeled, cut into half-moons
• 100 g gobo (burdock root), scrubbed, sliced on the diagonal, soaked briefly in cold water
• 100 g konnyaku, torn into rough pieces by hand
• 200 g salmon fillet or pork belly, salmon cut into 3 cm pieces; pork belly thinly sliced — regional choice
• 2 tbsp miso, add to taste; not to exceed a small amount — kasu provides salt and umami of its own

Method

1. 1
   Bring the dashi to a gentle simmer in a medium pot. Add the daikon, carrot, gobo, and konnyaku. Cook over medium-low heat until the root vegetables are just tender but not collapsing — test with a skewer; it should pass through with light resistance.
2. 2
   In a small bowl, dissolve the sake-kasu in a ladleful of warm dashi from the pot, pressing and stirring until no lumps remain. This is where the dish lives or dies: sake-kasu added directly to the pot without prior dissolution creates an uneven, grainy texture that cannot be corrected; the base must be fully smooth before it enters the soup.
3. 3
   Add the protein — salmon pieces or sliced pork belly — to the simmering pot. Cook just until the flesh is opaque throughout or the pork shows no pink. Do not allow the pot to return to a rolling boil.
4. 4
   Stir the dissolved sake-kasu into the pot. Maintain a gentle simmer for 3–4 minutes — sufficient to partially reduce the residual alcohol and integrate the lees into the dashi. The soup will thicken visibly and take on a creamy, off-white opacity from the kasu's starch content. Do not boil hard; overheating coagulates the proteins in the lees and volatilises the alcohol excessively.
5. 5
   Dissolve the miso into the soup using a small strainer or ladle, tasting as you go. The kasu already contributes salt and umami; the miso need only add fermented depth, not dominate. Adjust with further miso or salt until the soup is balanced between the kasu's sweet-earthy character and clean salinity.
6. 6
   Remove from heat. Allow the soup to rest, covered, for 5 minutes. The root vegetables will absorb the kasu flavour during this rest. Serve in deep bowls while the soup is fragrant and steaming, with a distinct yeasty warmth rising from the surface.