Dashi “Sea Foam” | The Roasted Chicken

Dashi “Sea Foam”

Posted by driscollwineco on February 8, 2012 · 2 Comments

Okay, so foams may be a little overdone in restaurants and often times serve no purpose but to please the eater’s eye.  With that said, my resistance for cheesy melodramatic plating presentations failed me.  I recently served oysters at a dinner and I was thinking that just having a mignonette dressing wasn’t going to cut it this time.  For some reason I wanted drama.  Maybe it was the oysters.  I had seen oysters and foam before and I thought it would be fun to make something that looked, smelt, and tasted like the sea. Dashi!  Dashi is the classic Japanese base for soup.  Seaweed and the coastal air both share the aroma of dimethyl sulfide.  To make Dashi, you use kombu, a type of seaweed, and dried bonito flakes. Perfect.  I made the foam…and it was awesome.

Dried Fish Flakes and Kombu. Yummy.

Dashi

4 c water

1 4in strip kombu (Buy at Whole Foods)

15 g Bonito Flakes (Buy 30g bag at Whole Foods)

2 t soy sauce (Optional)

1 t Mirin (Optional)

Place the kombu into cold water and bring it up to a simmer.  Right when it starts to boil, remove the kombu immediately and place the bonito flakes in.  Once the bonito flakes are in, turn the heat off and let them steep.  As soon as those flakes start to absorb enough water to sink them to the bottom of the pot, strain the Dashi.  Do not over-steep the flakes, it will spoil your Dashi!

Dashi Foam

1 c (290 g) Dashi

3 g Lecithin (Get a scale)

Combine the Dashi and the lecithin and whisk till absorbed in a small sauce pot.  Place over low heat.  It is crucial that the Dashi does not come close to a simmer or it will kill the effect of the lecithin.  Place an emulsion blender into the pot and froth the Dashi.  The lecithin stabilizes the foam created from the blender and holds the form pretty amazingly.

Scoop out the foam with a spoon and place over, or beside, your oyster presentation.  It’s not quite original, and definitely not a world changer, but it certainly is a party pleaser.

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Filed under Food · Tagged with Bonito Flakes, Dashi, Foam, Kombu, Oysters, Soup Base