"Snake's Eyes" Soup

An Elizabeth Andoh recipe from At Home with Japanese Cooking, which is no longer in print. She is an American who married intoto a Japanese farming family, graduated from a Japanese culinary school, and writes cookbooks which make Japanese home-style cooking accessible for American cooks. The soup's name comes from the curled-up shrimp resting at the bottom of each bowl.

• Ready In: 20 mins
• Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 8  jumbo shrimp
• 1  teaspoon sake
• 8 -12  stalks  mitsuba (trefoil) or 8 -12  stalks  coriander (cilantro)
•  peel from 1/2 lemons or  lime, in large pieces
• 3  cups  dashi (basic Japanese soup stock)
• 1⁄2 teaspoon light soy sauce (not "lite")
• 1⁄4 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Shell and devein shrimp and sprinkle the sake over them. Blanch the shrimp in rapidly boiling water for 1 minute and drain them. Place two curled shrimp in the bottom of each small soup bowl.
2. Plunge the trefoil or cilantro into fresh boiling water until it barely wilts. Remove the greens immediately to a bowl of cold water. Knot together 2 or 3 stalks to make a single bunch and lift it out of the water. Repeat with remaining stalks. Pat the tied bunches of greens dry and lay one over the shrimp in each bowl.
3. Carefully remove as much pith from the underside of the fruit peel as you can. With scissors, cut out 4 small flower shapes, rinse them under cold water, then pat them dry. Place a lemon flower in each bowl.
4. In a saucepan, heat the basic soup stock and season it with the soy sauce and salt. Bring the broth to a boil, then carefully ladle it over the arrangements of food in the individual bowls. Serve immediately.