1. 1

   In preparation for making the meatballs, sauté the chopped onion in a little vegetable oil over low heat in a frying pan until translucent. Remove onion from pan, set aside and allow to cool.

2. 2

   Lightly rinse the shirataki noodles. Parboil, drain, then cut into pieces about 5 cm / 2 in. long and set aside. Soak the bread in a bowl of water, drain and squeeze out moisture and tear into small pieces to total of about 2 T. Grate ginger with skin, squeeze out 1 to 1 ½ t of juice, set aside.

3. 3

   Place ground pork in a bowl, add 1/4 t salt and knead until meat becomes sticky. Add 1/2 t soy sauce, the bread and onion, and knead together. Add ginger juice and most of the beaten egg, saving the remainder. Knead well. If texture is a little stiff to form meatballs, add the rest of the egg. Add black pepper. Form a total of 12-16 meatballs.

4. 4

   Place dashi stock in a saucepan. Add 1 ½ T soy sauce and 1/2 t salt, and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce to lower medium heat and place meatballs one by one into the pan. When the meatballs rise to the surface, skim off foam. Add the shirataki noodles and bring to another boil; add shiitake and maitake mushrooms, allow to simmer briefly until they turn soft. Season with additional salt and black pepper to taste.

5. 5

   Serve the meatball soup in individual bowls. Garnish generously with chopped green onion.

Recipe by Michiko Yamamoto