miso, steamed buns

Bison stuffed buns from yesterday. What did you expect? After all, there are nine of these puppies. Brown rice South River miso. Authentic miso, the best available, from the exotic faraway land of Conway Massachusetts where apparently there is a river in the south.

* one large tomato diced and placed uncooked at the bottom of the bowl.
* one slab of tofu off the top of the tofu package so the tub it came in could be refilled with fresh water easily without spillage and covered.
* one half a white onion sliced into slivers
* two cremini mushrooms sliced
* one clove garlic, smashed and thinly cut to bits
* one rounded tablespoon South River miso
* three cups water
* two bison stuffed steamed buns, re-steamed separately in the microwave for 30 seconds with a small amount of broth.  I didn't want to risk them disintegrating in boiling miso.

And don't tell me the onions look like worms, I'm not having it.

Frankly, this broth needed something. I used to enjoy a bowl of plain miso but now I equate it with a cup of tea. Vegetables to miso isn't cutting it for me anymore. Not even the bison completed it. I suppose I'm becoming jaded, if I'm not already. Sake, mirin, honey, sugar, chile flakes, dashi or stock. Any of those things would fill out the flavor profile more completely.

Here's an idea: take a boat-load of onions and caramelize them at length achingly slowly. Over time, a huge pot of onions reduces to a few cups. On low for hours. Even on low the onions tend to burn. Ever aware of the state of your onions, dash them with water to arrest the burning and to start over with the caramelization process. Their developing sugar begins to burn again. Dash them with water again. And again. And again. And so on until you have pile of brown fully caramelized limp shrunken material that used to be onions but now must be called something else. This is the stuff that authentic French onion soup is made (part of it, the burnt bone marrow is the other part, and the oversized crouton floating a superabundance of Swiss-type cheese are the other parts). But who has time for all that onion caramelization? Maybe it is the sort of thing that can be started in a slow cooker and left untended while one goes off on one's merry way. And then maybe the miso soup won't be so anchored in three-dimensions.  I first wrote one-dimensional but the the fact is, the miso is already much better than that.