Kenchinjiru Root Vegetable Buddhist Soup

Ingredients

• For the kombu-shiitake dashi
• 15 g kombu (dried kelp), wiped clean with damp cloth
• 4 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in 1 litre cold water overnight or 30 minutes in warm water; soaking liquid reserved as dashi
• 1 piece gobo (burdock root), skin scraped with back of knife; cut obliquely; soaked in cold water with a splash of vinegar for 10 minutes
• 1 medium carrot, roll-cut (rangiri) or half-moon (hankiri)
• 150 g daikon (white radish), half-moon cut (hankiri)
• 100 g lotus root (renkon), half-moon cut (hankiri) to show hole pattern; soaked briefly in vinegar water
• 150 g konnyaku, torn by hand into rough irregular pieces; not cut with a knife
• 300 g firm tofu (momen-dofu), broken by hand into rough pieces
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsp usukuchi shoyu (light soy sauce)
• 2 tbsp sake
• 1 litre kombu-shiitake soaking liquid, strained; this is the dashi
• To finish
• 1 tsp yuzu zest, finely grated or cut in fine strips; floated on each bowl at service

Method

1. 1
   Prepare the kombu-shiitake dashi: combine the kombu and dried shiitake in 1 litre of cold water. Soak until the shiitake are fully rehydrated and the water has turned pale amber. Remove and discard the kombu before the liquid comes to temperature; slice the rehydrated shiitake caps and reserve them with the strained dashi. The dashi is ready when it is clear, amber, and carries a clean mushroom and sea-vegetable fragrance.
2. 2
   Prepare all vegetables: scrape the gobo with the back of a knife, cut obliquely, and soak 10 minutes in cold vinegar water, then drain. Cut carrot by rangiri or hankiri, daikon and lotus root by hankiri. Tear the konnyaku by hand into irregular pieces. Break the tofu by hand into rough chunks and set aside separately. The cut surfaces should be rough and uneven — they are ready when no piece has a smooth, knife-flat face.
3. 3
   Heat the sesame oil in a heavy pot over medium heat. Add the gobo, carrot, daikon, lotus root, konnyaku, and sliced shiitake. Dry-fry, stirring continuously, until every piece is coated in oil and the vegetables are fragrant and beginning to colour at their edges. This is the step on which the dish lives or dies: without this fry the soup has no depth and is indistinguishable from plain vegetable broth; the sesame oil and dry heat together create the layered umami that compensates for the absence of meat. The fry is complete when the sesame aroma rises clearly from the pot.
4. 4
   Pour the strained kombu-shiitake dashi over the fried vegetables. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook until all root vegetables are completely tender throughout — gobo and lotus root will take longest. Test by pressing a piece of daikon against the side of the pot; it should yield with no resistance.
5. 5
   Season with usukuchi shoyu and sake. Stir gently and taste; the broth should be clean, transparent in flavour, and faintly golden. Add the hand-broken tofu and simmer only long enough to warm it through — two to three minutes. The tofu is ready when it has absorbed colour from the broth at its rough edges but remains soft and uncollapsed at its centre.
6. 6
   Ladle into deep bowls, distributing vegetables and tofu evenly. Float a small amount of yuzu zest on the surface of each bowl. The soup is correctly finished when the yuzu fragrance lifts immediately from the bowl on approach.