Roast asparagus with white miso

William Faulkner is said to have once remarked that he preferred to write about women in lieu of men in his novels.  I think women are marvelous, he said, and they are wonderful, and I know very little about them. I think that Japanese food is marvelous and that it’s wonderful. I know very little about it.

I understand that a sauce based on sesame and miso (goma miso) is quite classic in Japanese home cooking. I don’t know what this means, really, or whether it is true. But this sauce is very good on a variety of green vegetables—green beans, leafy things, that asparagus, et cetera—in addition, incidentally, to steak. But I like it on a spoon as well. It’s that good. To make it, one needs two to three ingredients and about forty-five seconds. Cue the hallelujah girls.

Of those two to three, one ingredient is ‘specialty.’ I hate to be an ingredient futz, but there are many, many different kinds of miso with many, many different kinds of flavors. Saikyo miso is a white (as opposed to red) variety, and is very sweet. I’ll be including at least one more recipe that uses Saikyo miso in the next several days, so rest assured that this is not a one hit wonder! The best way to find Saikyo (or any other kind of) miso is to go to a Japanese market and arrange your features so that they look both friendly and confused. It works every time, and will be much cheaper than your supermarket, too.

On dashi: It is optional here, but pretty great. Though I do not like making Western-style stocks at all, I think that dashi—Japanese sea stock—is very rewarding. It is made with kombu (a kind of dried seaweed, or rather sea plant) and bonito (dried tuna) flakes. Kombu and bonito both have lots of glutamates—the naturally occurring versions of MSG, that is—and therefore make everything taste better, without the headaches. Crucially, dashi takes no time at all and includes only these two ingredients beyond water. (Cue the hallelujah girls again.) I like to keep leftovers stored in covered ice cube trays in the freezer, so that when I just need a spoonful or two, I have it. Some chefs will tell you not to do this, as the stock may lose some of its delicacy and nuance in the cold. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could only cook fish or eat carrots within 3.1875 hours of when they were caught or picked? I am happy freezing dashi. I am also very happy with this dish. I hope you will be, too.

Roast asparagus with white miso

The sauce will keep for at least 1 week in your refrigerator.

For the asparagus:  1 bunch asparagus  |  neutral oil, like grapeseed or canola  |  salt + pepper

For the goma miso, equal parts of:  white miso paste, preferably Saikyo miso  |  sesame paste, preferably Japanese -style (or just tahini)  |  dashi or water  –  perhaps 2 T each to start

Heat oven to 375. Clean the asparagus, and snap off the tough bottom bits. Toss with a bit of oil, and season with salt + pepper. Roast until you are happy with it. The cooking time will depend upon the thickness of your asparagus, but start checking after about 7 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix together the ingredients for the sauce. It will look a little funny as you are stirring the dashi/water into the other 2 ingredients. This is normal.

Serve however you like.

Serves 2