All text and pictures of dishes are the intellectual property of Coquinaria and may not be reproduced without permission and acknowledgement..

Updates		Searchpage
Sitemap		Printout version

Dashi
Dutch version of this recipe

Dashi is the basic stock of Japanese cuisine. You can make it in several manners, but mostly dashi is made with seaweed and dried bonito. Below there are several recipes for making dashi. The two main dashi's are ichiban dashi and niban dashi, otherwise known as dashi I and dashi II. Unlike Western stock dashi only needs little time to prepare. You only need two ingredients (katsuoboshi=dried and smoked bonito flakes and kombu=dried seaweed), and water. 
Dashi I must always be made freshly, at the most a couple of hours in advance. Dashi II will keep up to three days in the refrigerator, and can be frozen. But the flavour will become less. 
Because fish (the bonito) is used for making dashi, this is not a vegetarian stock. Buddhist monks in Japan have invented dashi made with shii-take mushrooms instead of bonito. 

The Japanese cuisine has several dishes with the so called "fifth flavour". In Western cuisine there is sweet, sour, salt and bitter. But how to describe the taste of truffles? They taste umami. Umami is a Japanese phrase meaning something like bliss, deliciousness. Well-made dashi, whether made with katsuoboshi or shii-take, also exudes umami.

Why the difference between dashi I and dashi II? 
Dashi I has a subtle favour and is used for elegant, clear soups which are served as one of the first courses in an elaborate menu. 
Dashi II is more robust, is used for sauces and miso soup. Miso (a kind paste of fermented  soy beans) has a very recognizable odour and taste (I like it). The triad rice-miso soup-preserved vegetables is the basis of the Japanese meal. In a menu with more courses, this triad is served last, before dessert (if any).
If you only need a few tablespoons of dashi II for a sauce, you can use instant dashi (like Western stock cubes), or your own frozen ice cubes of dashi II.
When you're preparing an elaborate Japanese menu add up all the amounts of dashi I and II, and prepare the total amount in one go.
By the way, dashi is not vegetarian. Bonito is a tuna-like fish. The fish is dried, and then shaved to flakes. You can use shii-take mushrooms instead of bonito. The dashi will taste differently, but it is usable. Dashi made with just kombu tastes rather bland. 
Important when you strain dashi:mUse two strainers with a cloth or kitchen paper between them. The cloth or paper won't be clogged, if you use cloth it will be easier to clean, and most important when you want to re-use kombu and bonito for dashi II: you can easily remove them from the upper strainer.
See my page on chopsticks to find out how to eat your soup with sticks.

The recipes for Dashi:

All text and pictures of dishes are the intellectual property of Coquinaria and may not be reproduced without permission and acknowledgement.