Japanese Breakfast! Dried Shrimp Dashi Miso Soup with Egg and Yellow Sunburst Tomato

     Miso soup is a very popular breakfast item in Japan.  With a breakfast like miso soup, it is no wonder people in Japan are healthier than the average bear!  Much of the western society eats sugary sweet starchy breakfasts that deliver a quick energy boost.
     A starchy sweet breakfast has only a temporary effect of making a person feel good.  A sugar or corn syrup "hangover" from a sweet breakfast can be diagnosed as an early warning sign of diabetes.  The combination of highly refined starches and sugar do not do much more for a person than to put a layer of blubber around their waste line!  Small portions and moderation helps, if sweet food is eaten for breakfast.  The worst breakfast from a health standpoint, is a sweet breakfast that is made from corn syrup products.
     The best breakfast is light, easily digested proteins and nutrients.  Fruit is a great for carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and energy, but there is not much protein in fruit.  An egg that is not cooked "greasy" is one of the easiest to digest high protein items that there is.  The same goes seafood broths and miso paste.  Lipids (fats) are necessary for a balance diet, and the amount of sesame oil in miso soup is miniscule.
     Eggs that are scrambled or hard boiled are less healthy than eggs that are cooked so that the yolk is soft or runny.  Cooking the yolk hard only hardens cholesterol and transforms cholesterol to an unhealthy state.  Hard cholesterols are not healthy, but soft cholesterols are good for the body.  Just like a rare cooked steak is healthier than a well done steak, a soft cooked eggs is best from a health standpoint.
     Keep in mind that drug manufacturers are also tied in with food producing corporations.  Media health announcements are messages from the powerful paid sponsors, so when a health reporter states that undercooked meat or eggs is bad for you, keep in mind that some drug company that produces expensive anti cholesterol medicine is probably paying that media company to report such a thing!  Soft eggs yolk also boost the immune system and this fact is something that drug companies prefer to dumb down. 
     Keep in mind that carbohydrates are digested best if they are eaten as an evening meal before the next day.  It takes time for fibrous carbohydrates to digest.  Athletes that "carbo load" can vouch for this fact.
     I watch no television at all.  I use my own judgement when it comes to deciding what is healthy and what is not.  I am very active and I look 20 years younger than I really am!  My views on dietary nutrition are working good for me.  The lesson is to use your own judgement for deciding what is good and healthy to eat for breakfast!
   
  
     Dried Shrimp and Wakame Dashi:
     Place 2 1/2 cups of water in a sauce pot.
     Place the sauce pot over medium high heat.
     Add 3 tablespoons of coarsely chopped wakame seaweed that is packed in sea salt.  (Rinse the salt off of the seaweed first.  This type of seaweed is very fresh tasting after it reconstitutes.  The seaweed has never been fully dried when it is packed in salt.  After reconstituting, salt packed seaweed looks like it is magically still alive!)
     Add 3 tablespoons of tiny dried shrimp.
     Boil the dashi broth for ten minutes.
     Strain the dashi broth through a fine mesh strainer into a second sauce pot.
     You can leave the dried shrimp and seaweed in the soup if you wish to.  For this recipe, I strained the dashi broth.  The dried shrimp and wakame can be saved for another recipe.
  
     Dried Shrimp Dashi Miso Soup with Egg and Yellow Sunburst Tomato:
     Return the strained dried shrimp dashi broth to the sauce pot over medium high heat.
     Add 1/2 of a minced garlic clove.
     Add 1/4 teaspoon of ginger paste.
     Add 1 pinch of Szechuan pepper.
     Add 1 pinch of sea salt.
     Add 2 to 3 drops of sesame oil.
     Add 1 teaspoon of soy sauce.
     Boil for 2 minutes.
     Reduce the temperature to low heat.
     In a separate pan, boil enough water over medium high heat to poach an egg.
     Add a pinch of sea salt to the water.
     Poach 1 egg in the gently boiling salted water.
     Note:  Never use vinegar in egg poaching water like most second rate chefs say to do!  The vinegar gives an egg an unpleasant flavor and it changes the texture of an egg to a rubbery texture!  If you poach an egg in a shallow saute pan, then you will have a pretty poached egg with a yellow "eye" on top.
     Add 1 1/2 tablespoons of light red miso paste to the dashi broth, while stirring with a whisk.
     Note:  The broth must be a low temperature and not boiling when the miso paste is added!  Too high of a temperature will cause unwanted changes in the flavor of the miso paste.
     Stir for one minute.
     Pour the miso soup into a shallow soup bowl.
     Use a slotted spatula to place the poached egg in the middle of the soup.
     Place 3 thin sliced yellow sunburst tomatoes next to the egg in the soup.  (Sunburst tomatoes are the size of cherry tomatoes.)
     Place about 10 cilantro leaves on one side of the soup.
     Place some very thin sliced green onion slivers on the other side of the soup.
  
     No kidding!  This miso breakfast soup is very delicious and healthy tasting!  This soup has all the necessary ingredients for getting a healthy feeling start in the morning.  This miso soup broth has a rich and tasty flavor!  ...  Shawna