Japanese Secret Ingredient ‘Dashi’
Dashi means ‘Japanese soup stock’. It's the most important element of the authentic Japanese taste and many Japanese dishes include dashi.
Dashi is usually made from kombu (dried kelp) and katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes), or dried shiitake mushrooms or niboshi (small dried fish).
Here I'll show you how to make basic dashi (ichiban dashi), as well as how to make kombu dashi and shiitake dashi for vegans.
If it's difficult to get these dashi ingredients in your town, or if you are a busy person, then it's possible to make authentic-tasting dashi with instant dashi powder, which is available in most oriental grocery shops or online. Vegans should look for kombu dashi powder.
Usually, 1 teaspoon of dashi powder is used for every 2-3 cups (400ml to 600ml) of hot water.
Hopefully you've got a better idea of what this secret ingredient is. The next thing is to learn the recipes (see below), and start making and enjoying so many different kinds of Japanese dishes at home. Itadakimasu! (That's “bon appetit” in Japanese).
Dashi ingredients
How to make dashi
Ichiban dashi
‒ Ingredients (for 1 litre) –
- 10cm square of kombu
- 20g katsuobushi
- 1 litre water
- Place the kombu in a pan with the water and leave to soak for 30 minutes.
- Heat until it just reaches boiling point, then remove the kombu.
- Immediately add the katsuobushi, simmer for just 10 seconds, turn off the heat.
- Strain the dashi through a cotton cloth.
- Your dashi is now ready to use!
Kombu dashi
‒ Ingredients (for 1 litre) –
- 10cm square of kombu
- 1 litre water
- Place the kombu in a pan with the water and leave to soak for 1 hour.
- Heat until it just reaches boiling point, then take the kombu out.
Shiitake dashi
‒ Ingredients (for 1 litre) –
- 30g dried shiitake mushrooms
- 1 litre lukewarm water
- Place the dried shiitake mushrooms in a bowl with the lukewarm water.
- Leave for at least 1 hour, then strain with through a fine meshed sieve.
