Simple basic Japanese Dashi Broth

[Saviolo]

This week is a very simple and basic Japanese dashi broth! This is the cornerstone of much of Japanese cuisine, including miso soup (which we will be doing next week!) It's simple and delicious and has a lovely rich ocean aroma, and unlike the shrimp stock we made for the gumbo a few weeks ago, it doesn't really lose its aroma or flavour right away, so you can store it in your fridge for a while! The shrimp stock you really need to use right away.

Like any other broth or stock, you really don't want this to get up to a rolling boil, and you definitely don't want to boil the kombu at the beginning. It makes the seaweed very bitter and sort of slimy. There are many different kinds of katsuobushi or bonito flakes, so find the ones that work best for you! They can get very expensive to get the highest quality, but you can make very nice dashi with the cheaper ones, too.

[WhiteTara]

1. Thanks. I've been wanting to

make a good miso broth, and here it is.

[Saviolo]

2. We're doing the whole miso soup recipe next week!

It was really good!

[WhiteTara]

3. Fab!

I have a tub of miso waiting for this

[The Polack MSgt]

4. Dashi is the secret ingredient in a salad my wife makes

for summer get togethers -Tomato Cucumber and sweet onion in a dashi/mirin/soy sauce dressing.

When she explains what dashi is, people usually say that they're glad they tasted 1st and asked later.

Americans can be such wimps about food

[Saviolo]

5. Right!?

I mean, I get it: Never ask what's in the sausage, but still. We do a lot of fermenting at home, and most people would throw out about 80% of the fermented products we make and love.

And what's so scary about dashi? It's just fish broth!