Dashi

Adapted from Japanese Home Cooking: Simple Meals, Authentic Flavors by Sonoko Sakai, which we reviewed in June 2020. The recipe for bonito and kombu dashi — the broth that’s the basis for much of Japanese cooking — varies little from cook to cook. The ingredients are always the same: kombu (a type of dried seaweed), katsuobushi (bonito flakes) and water. What not every recipe tells you is that after you strain the kombu and bonito flakes out of the broth, you can use them again for a secondary dashi; Sakai provides instructions for both. In Japanese, Sakai tells us in her headnote, primary dashi is ichiban dashi, literally “number one dashi.” The recipe for the secondary dashi (niban dashi) follows the first.

READ: Katsuobushi (bonito flakes) will put a spring in your step and umami on your plate

We love keeping dashi around; if you have miso, you can make miso soup in a flash. Just heat the dashi and whisk in miso. The Ichiban Dashi keeps about five days in the fridge, or you can freeze it (we freeze it in ice cube trays, then pop out the cubes and store in a zipper bag) and keep it frozen a month, or even a couple. The Niban Dashi keeps for a week in the fridge, or a month or two in the freezer.

Makes about 4 cups.

Ingredients

5 cups filtered water

1 piece kombu, about 3 X 3 inches

3 to 4 cups (20 to 30 g) bonito flakes (see recipe notes below)

Instructions

1. Combine the water and kombu in a medium saucepan. Heat over low heat until bubbles begin to form around the kombu, 5 to 10 minutes. Remove the kombu before the water comes to a boil.

2. Bring the water to a boil, turn off the heat, add the bonito flakes and let the mixture stand for 2 minutes, without stirring, to steep the bonito flakes.

3. To strain the dashi, pour the liquid through a fine-mesh sieve or a sieve lined with cheesecloth or a paper towel. Do not press the bonit flakes while straining, as it will cloud the dashi. Use immediately, or cool completely and refrigerate for up to 4 or 5 days or freeze up to a month. Use the spent kombo and bonito flakes to make a secondary dashi.

Secondary Dashi

Niban dashi is lighter than the primary ichiban dashi. It is great for miso soups and seasoning.

Makes about 2 cups.

Ingredients

3 cups filtered water

Spent kombu and bonito flakes from a batch of primary dashi

Instructions

1. In a medium saucepan, bring the water and the spent kombu and bonito flakes to a boil over medium heat; boil for 1 minute. Lower the heat to low and simmer until the dashi is reduced to about 2/3 the original volume.

2. Strain the liquid through a sieve lined with cheesecloth or a paper towel. Use immediately, or cool completely and refrigerate for up to 1 week.

Recipe notes

In Sakai’s original recipe for Secondary Dashi there is an editing error: It says to reduce the liquid by two-thirds, which would result in only about one cup of dashi. Presuming she meant reduce to 2/3 the original volume (or reduce by one-third), we tried that and the result was perfect.