Pantry
Dashi
Also called kombu dashi, awase dashi
Japanese stock, in its classic form a brief infusion of kombu and katsuobushi (shaved dried bonito). Awase dashi is that pairing. Instant granules are a louder, saltier weeknight shortcut.
Origin
Japan. It is not chicken stock and it is not Chinese superior stock.
Flavour
Ocean, a clean smoke, round savoury — glutamate and inosinate working together. Boiled, cloudy dashi tastes slimy and bitter from the kombu.
How it is made
Kombu soaks in cold or lukewarm water and is heated to just below a boil, then lifted. Instant dashi is dried extract plus salt.
How to use it
Treat it as the water in miso soup, tamagoyaki, oyakodon, nikujaga and a ramen base you will season further. Do not boil kombu hard or for a long time — it throws off a gluey bitterness. Salt the finished dish, remembering instant dashi is already salty. Chicken or vegetable stock will make a soup, not a Japanese one; a strip of kombu in water is a closer emergency than a stock cube. Clear dashi should look like weak tea, not stew.
Storage
Use homemade dashi the day you make it, or refrigerate for a day, or freeze in portions.
Recipes using it
Checking your allergy settings…