What Is Dashi? Japanese Ingredient Guide By Cooking Sun

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What is dashi?

Dashi is a soup stock which is used to cook many Japanese dishes. In Chinese cuisine it is chicken soup, and in French cuisine it is Bouillon or fonds, and in Japanese cuisine it is dashi.

What is dashi made from?

Dashi have many types. Essentially it is water with ingredients soaked into that water. It can be made from dried sardine and it can be mix of shiitake mushroom and komb kelp. The most common one is combination of kombu kelp and bonito flake. When umami tastes of both ingredients combine, the umami flavor intensifies and it makes the soup stock and dishes made of its soup stock tastier.

What does dashi taste like?

It depends what dashi is made from, but in the common combination of komb kelp and bonito flake, it takes like thin fish soup. Depending on the portion of kelp and bonito flake, however, of course the taste can be quite different.

What does dashi mean?

Dashi (だし or 出汁) refers to Japanese soup stock made by usually one to two ingredients. 出 means ‘come out’ and 汁 means soup. As the characters show, we get this soup by soaking the ingredients into water and leaving certain length of time. It is sometimes boiled and sometimes left in water for overnight or longer.

DashiAuthor: Cooking SunPrep time: 3 minsCook time: 25 minsTotal time: 28 minsDashi is a key foundation for many Japanese dishes.Ingredients

• Water
• Kombu kelp – 1% of water (ex. if water is 1L, kombu kelp is 10g)
• Bonito flake – 2% of water (ex. if water is 1L, bonito flake is 20g)

Instructions

1. Soak the konbu in cold water, heat until just before the water starts to boil.
2. Remove the konbu from the water then remove from the heat.
3. Add the katsuo bushi to the heated water and wait until it sinks.
4. Skim the white foam then filter out the katsuo bushi (do not squeeze it)

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