The Soul of Japanese Cooking: Dashi
An intro to the essential broth of Japanese cuisine
Dashi is the mother sauce of Japanese cuisine. It’s everywhere. A mere whiff evokes the Sea of Japan itself; and you could argue that if rice is the body of Japanese food, then dashi is its soul.
Miso soup, sukiyaki, and countless other Japanese dishes rely on dashi to achieve their full potential.
But just what is dashi?
At its most traditional, dashi is a soup stock made from stewing konbu seaweed and katsuobushi — the shavings of dried, smoked Skipjack tuna. (You might know katsuobushi by its more popular name: Bonito flakes.)
However, dashi takes many forms. Though there are many spins on the stock, the following three are arguably the most popular varieties:
- Konbu dashi: This version uses only konbu, which makes it vegan. Without the smoky flavor of bonito flakes, konbu dashi has a noticeably more oceanic and briny taste.
- Awase dashi: What we call the classic broth of konbu and bonito flakes.
Awasemeans “mixed,” referring to mixing the konbu and bonito. Timeless and elegant, this is the backbone of Japanese cooking. When you hear someone say dashi, they’re usually referring to awase dashi. - Shiitake dashi: Instead of konbu and katsuobushi, this version uses dried shiitake mushrooms. As you’d imagine, this creates a very different flavor, resulting in an earthy stock.
Dashi is similar to chicken or veal stock in terms of its uses. It’s a jack-of-all-trades, used to flavor sauces, simmer meats and vegetables, or form soups.
In fact, dashi is so important to Japanese cooking that my mentor once told me “If you cannot master dashi, you cannot call yourself a Japanese chef!”
But making dashi is easy! There’s very little work involved — all you’re doing is pulling out the flavor of the ingredients.
In fact, that’s how dashi got its name! When written in kanji, its first character (da, 出) means “to extract/pull out,” and its second character (shi, 汁) means “soup.” Neat, huh?
How to make dashi
Since awase dashi is the most-used form, that’s the recipe I’ll share. All you need is a cooking pot; a liter of cold water; 5 grams of konbu; and 10 grams of katsuobushi.
1.) Put the konbu in the pot (don’t wipe off the white dust, it’s umami!), and pour the cold water over it. Don’t add the katsuobushi just yet.
2.) Turn the stove to medium heat, so the water takes some time to heat up — the longer the konbu soaks, the better.
3.) As soon as the water starts to simmer, turn off the stove, and strain out the konbu. Let the water calm down; then add the katsuobushi.
4.) After a few minutes, bring the water to a simmer again. Once it does, strain out the katsuobushi.
You now have dashi!
(For VEGAN, konbu dashi, simply end at Step 3 and omit katsuobushi.)
Don’t throw away that boiled konbu or bonito flakes just yet! You can use them for another round of dashi. While the first brew of dashi is the most delicious, the second brewing yields a dashi that is too weak for miso soup, but great for simmering vegetables.
Of course, if you want to enjoy dashi in a quicker manner, you’re in luck! Pre-made, granulated dashi is readily available in Asian grocery stores. Just dissolve a spoonful in boiling water, and you’ll have broth in an instant. It saves time, and keeps in your cupboard for quite a while.
Regardless of how you make it, dashi lends that extra Japanese oomph that really makes a difference. Maybe after reading this, you’ll start noticing too!
