Endless Nagaimo (Salt-Dashi Marinated) with Lettuce and Bacon Miso Soup Set

Prepare 320g (1 yam) of nagaimo. The skin is edible, so don't peel it. To make the skin easy to eat, stick a fork in it and char the entire surface over a stove burner. This burns off the hairy roots and makes it much easier to eat, and it makes the finished marinade many times better.

Lightly rub the charred nagaimo to remove all the burnt hairs. The hairs get in the way of the texture, so this gives it a smoother mouthfeel.

Set a mandoline to 0.8mm and slice the nagaimo as thin as paper-thin potato chips. You can't get this thin cutting by hand, and the thinner it is, the far better the flavor soaks in. Use the safety holder at the end so you don't cut your fingers.

As a taste test, sprinkle a little seasoned salt on a slice of nagaimo and eat it. It can be eaten raw as is.

Add 2 teaspoons of Japanese dashi and 2 teaspoons of chicken stock powder to the nagaimo and mix well to distribute throughout. These two contain quite a lot of salt, so this alone provides the saltiness.

Add about 3 tablespoons of water and mix again. Once the liquid goes in, it takes on the character of a proper marinade and the flavor spreads throughout. Sake or mirin would work, but water is used here to emphasize the saltiness. Add dried red chili if you like for a bit of heat and brightness. The slices are thin and break apart easily, so mix gently.

Add a pinch of salt to tighten the flavor and scatter green onions over the top. No marinating time is needed — since the slices are thin, the flavor penetrates right away. Chilling it in the refrigerator makes it even better (keeps for about 4 days).

Make the miso soup. Wash 1 head (about 250g) of red leaf lettuce, tear it by hand, and put it in a pot. Use the core too if it isn't tough. No need to drain it since you'll be adding water to the miso soup anyway. Tear the bacon by hand as well without using a knife, and add it.

Add 500cc of water and put it over the heat. Since there's a lot of lettuce, add more along the way for 600cc total. The bacon releases a nice broth.

Add 1 1/2 teaspoons of iriko dashi (dashi made from dried sardines). Unlike Hondashi, it gives the flavor a sharper edge and an authentic, restaurant-like taste.

Dissolve in about 2 tablespoons of miso and taste. Keep the salt light since it's eaten together with the salted nagaimo. The amount of miso is case by case — the amount you think tastes good is the right amount.

Crack the eggs and separate the yolks from the whites. Mixed into piping hot rice, the whites go unnoticed and add protein. Pile plenty of the salted nagaimo over that rice, drop a yolk on top, and it's done. Serve with the miso soup, and sprinkle a little moshio seaweed salt (Seto no Honjio) when eating to make the umami of the dashi stand out. It's also delicious with soy sauce.