Japanese Konbu And Katsuobushi Dashi Recipe

Directions:

1. Put water in a pan and soak kombu for one-two hours. Heat the water on low heat and remove the kombu just before the water boils. Add katsuobushi and turn off the heat. Strain the broth to get the first dashi, called ichiban-dashi. This dashi is often used for clear soup.
2. To make the second soup stock, put 4 cups of water and the katsuobushi and konbu, which were used to make the first dashi in a pan. Heat and let boil for a few minutes. Strain the broth. This second dashi is called niban-dashi. This dashi is used for simmering vegetables.
3. Note: Dashi is Japanese soup stock, which becomes the base of many Japanese dishes, such as soup and nimono (simmered dishes). Since dashi is often used in Japanese cooking, it's useful to know how to make it. There are different kinds of dashi. It can be made from konbu (dried kelp), katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes), niboshi (dried small sardines), or hoshi-shiitake (dried shiitake mushrooms). Konbu dashi and mushroom dashi are known as good vegetarian stocks. Japanese dashi is best used on the day it was made.