Japanese Soup Recipe: Niki Nakayama’s Owan Bone Broth Soup
Written by MasterClass
Last updated: May 27, 2022 • 4 min read
Owan is a warm Japanese soup recipe made with dashi broth that can serve as a light cleanser between other courses. Learn how to make Japanese American Chef Niki Nakayama’s owan bone broth soup.
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What Is Owan?
Owan soup is a type of kaiseki dish. A traditional Japanese multi-course meal, kaiseki centers around shun, a philosophy in which you should enjoy ingredients at peak freshness. Chefs in Japan or chefs at traditional Japanese restaurants typically plan kaiseki meal courses around the availability of seasonal ingredients.
Like most Japanese soups, an owan soup recipe features a flavorful broth as its base—in this case, a cooking stock called dashi. Chef Niki Nakayama's version of the appetizer also calls for rockfish, shiitake mushrooms, and scallions.
How to Taste-Test Owan
Chef Niki suggests that you taste owan (and other Japanese soup recipes) with a saucer instead of a spoon. “You want to get more than a spoonful of it,” she says. “It really helps you understand where the soup is at when you take a couple of sips versus just one taste.”
How to Serve Owan
When you serve owan, you can skip the spoon and choose soup bowls that you can hold comfortably, so you can lift the bowl to your mouth one-handed and enjoy the aromas as you sip the owan slowly. Lidded bowls work well because they keep the soup heated as it arrives at the table.
5 Common Ingredients in Owan
The most crucial part of owan is the broth, which should serve as a flavorful base to complement the other components and vice versa. Here are some common ingredients to include in owan:
- Daikon: A white radish that is native to Asia and widely used in Asian cuisines, particularly Chinese and Japanese, “daikon” means “big root” in Japanese.
- Dashi: Referring to a group of Japanese cooking stocks, dashi is much lighter than other soup stocks, like chicken broth or bone broth, which rely on long cooking times to extract as much flavor as possible from the stock’s contents.
- Ginger: Fresh ginger root can add a vibrant spiciness to countless Asian dishes. The sharp bite of raw fresh ginger comes from gingerol, an aromatic compound that transforms into the sweeter zingerone when heated or dried, making ginger an especially versatile ingredient.
- Green onions: Also called scallions, green onions are fresh young onions identified by their slender shape and mild flavor. The white stalk has a sharp, sulfur-y taste, while the dark green leaves have a fresher, grassy flavor.
- Shiitake mushrooms: Easily recognizable for their brown, (umbrella-like caps, off-white gills, and tan stems, shiitake mushrooms are rich in umami and known for their strong, earthy flavor. When cooked, the caps of the sliced mushrooms have a velvety, meaty texture, while the stems can be tough—or pleasantly chewy, if cooked long enough.
Niki Nakayama’s Owan Bone Broth Soup Recipe
makes
prep time
25 mintotal time
1 hr 40 mincook time
1 hr 15 minIngredients
- 1
Blanch the rockfish bones and collars. Bring a small pot of water to a boil and remove it from the heat. Set the pot next to the sink.
- 2
Line a rimmed baking sheet or plate with parchment paper and place the rockfish bones and collars flat on top. Hold the baking sheet over the sink and ladle the hot water over the entire surface of the rockfish bones, tilting the baking sheet or plate to allow the water to run off into the sink.
- 3
Ladle the hot water over the bones and collars two more times, then turn the bones and collars over and ladle hot water over them two or three times. Remove any scales from the collars. Blanching the bones helps to remove any impurities so that the soup will be as clear as possible.
- 4
Place the blanched bones in a pot, breaking them as needed so they fit, along with the sliced onions.
- 5
Pour the dashi into the pot. Heat the broth over low heat, bringing it to a low simmer and skimming as needed. Simmer on low (this helps prevent it from clouding) for about 40 minutes; the onions should be translucent.
- 6
Meanwhile, sake-steam the collars. Place the blanched collars into a steamer and pour a ½ teaspoon of sake over each collar. Steam for 4 minutes. Turn off the heat and keep the collars warm until you’re ready to plate them.
- 7
Using tongs, carefully remove the rockfish bones from the pot and discard them. Set a cheesecloth-lined strainer over a large bowl, and pour the broth through the strainer.
- 8
Once the broth is strained, return it to the pot and bring it back to a simmer. Add a few pinches of salt, taste, and adjust the seasoning accordingly. Continue to simmer for 2 minutes.
- 9
While the broth is simmering, prepare your soup bowls. Put one piece of daikon in each bowl, then one piece of carrot, and finally, one piece of shiitake. Place the ingredients next to each other rather than on top of one another so that you can see each vegetable. Top them with the rockfish collar.
- 10
Carefully ladle the broth into the soup bowls, pouring it to the side of the ingredients so that you don’t disturb their placement. Top them with the julienned ginger and sliced scallions, then serve the soup immediately.
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