Dashi?

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SpanishCastleAle

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From what I've read, Dashi is essential for Japanese cooking (read up on umami and/or "the fifth flavor", also interesting how they make dashi). It looks like it would be a very useful cooking ingredient. But I've been to two asian markets and asked for it and they acted like they'd never heard of it (these markets are prob more Chinese/Vietnamese based).

Am I asking for the wrong thing? I didn't think to ask for umami.

I was also looking for Mirin but they acted like they didn't know what that was either. I hope to make my own soon (when I start making Sake) but I wanted to buy some for now.

I'm just looking for some help trying to get this stuff. Making my own Tempura dipping sauce is turning out to be much harder than I thought. It's just:
1/4 cup Soy sauce
1/4 cup Mirin
1 cup Dashi
some recipes add 1 TBS sugar.
 
Try using the more generic names of "fish stock" and "sweet cooking rice wine". I'm suprised they didn't know what you were talking about, but the dashi stock they have at my local market is just a powdered concentrate that you use like soup base.
 
One thing with Asian markets, is that they are not one stop shopping places. You need to have at least 2 in your area, if not more if you are looking for special ingredients. One might be good for fresh fish, another might carry your favorite Jasmine rice etc.

Not too sure about Dashi or where to find it. You wouldn't ask for umami since that is just a description of a flavor. It would be like asking for sour or sweet. One option to add umami is monosodium glutamate (msg). You can find it at Asian markets, or even Italian markets. The glutamate in MSG will contribute umami to food. Despite all of the health concerns in the US, its probably not any worse than the copious amounts of salt we use. I'm assuming this Dashi is some sort of seaweed extract. Seaweed extracts were used in Asian cooking for a long time until MSG was isolated in the early 1900's.
 
One option to add umami is monosodium glutamate (msg). You can find it at Asian markets, or even Italian markets.
You can get it at about any megamart in the world, the brand Accent is sold by all the salt and spices. Never make a spice rub without it!
 
Nowadays Mirin can be found in the asian section of most big box grocery chains. I've bought it both an Krogers and Myers. Kikomin even sells a version now. I'm sure it's the BMC of mirin, but it'll do until you can figure out which bottle is which in the asian market.

And in a pinch, I've found that fish or oyster sauce (which iirc contains Dashi) provides that nice umami experience. In fact I have been tossing a few drops into no asian cooking as well. I did a thick chicken soup/stew on saturday and added about a 1/4 tbs of it to the base stock. Again i got that in the international foods aisle at either Kroger or Myer's.

It came out nice.
 
Thanks. Yes dashi is made from edible kelp but it's the other ingredient (Katsuobushi) that's sort of...different. Basically take a Bonito fish (the whole fish), dry it, then ferment it (how I dunno), then smoke it. This gives you big log of dried, fermented, smoked fish. Then take thin shavings of this log and soak in water. Yum.:D

I know I could use MSG and I'm familiar with Accent but I want the natural glutamate. I thought there was a difference but maybe not.

EDIT: I did mention 'clear broth' but she just shook her head.
 
Thanks. Yes dashi is made from edible kelp but it's the other ingredient (Katsuobushi) that's sort of...different. Basically take a Bonito fish (the whole fish), dry it, then ferment it (how I dunno), then smoke it. This gives you big log of dried, fermented, smoked fish. Then take thin shavings of this log and soak in water. Yum.:D

I know I could use MSG and I'm familiar with Accent but I want the natural glutamate. I thought there was a difference but maybe not.

EDIT: I did mention 'clear broth' but she just shook her head.

Let me guess. You just watched good eats the other day didn't you? :rockin:
 
Asia is a big place. While a lot of the Asian stores make some effort to be pan-Asian, the vast majority of them really only have a quality selection and expertise in a single cuisine.

I would look for a Japanese owned store.

As far as I am concerned, free glutamate is free glutamate though.
 
Let me guess. You just watched good eats the other day didn't you? :rockin:
No, I do DVR it but only get around to watching some of them. I was eating tempura fried vegetables and loved the dipping sauce and did a bit of googling...

Now I'm gonna check the DVR tonight to see which recent episode mentioned it.:mug:
 
No, I do DVR it but only get around to watching some of them. I was eating tempura fried vegetables and loved the dipping sauce and did a bit of googling...

Now I'm gonna check the DVR tonight to see which recent episode mentioned it.:mug:

I think it was 2 weeks ago. The entire episode was dedicated to "umami".
 
Good link Revvy. I'll check the grocery again but if not there it might be easier for me to just order this stuff online...or marry a Japanese woman.:rolleyes:

Looks like learning Japanese cooking is like learning a whole new language. But they somehow make foods that I normally don't like taste awesome.
 
Looks like learning Japanese cooking is like learning a whole new language. But they somehow make foods that I normally don't like taste awesome.

Yeah, well there are still some aspects of Japanese Cuisine that frankly scares the bejeebus out of me. :D

I'm just re-reading Anthony Bourdain's "A cooks tour" and I just finished the section on Japan, especially him trying to stomach their idea of breakfast.

If you haven't seen them Youtube has both the "No Reservations" and "A cook's Tour" Japan segments. They are really interesting.

Here's the part ones of both;



The breakfast is on part two of this video series.

 
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I must have stood at the ethnic/asian food section of the grocery for 10 minutes looking and there is no 'instant' dashi or the stuff to make it. It's mostly premade sauces but they did have one brand of mirin hidden in there so I got that, some ponzu, fresh ginger and cobbled some sort of asiany/chickeny thing together. Between that and the Jasmine rice the kitchen had an awesome, 'new' aroma last night. Ordered dashi online.
 
I will be the first to admit to being a Good Eats fan and since one of his latest episodes was on making dashi I thought I'd post the recipe. I am actually allergic to MSG so 'instant' dashi is out of the question. This recipe now makes it possible for me to eat miso soup asuming that the miso is MSG free.


Dashi

Ingredients
2 (4-inch) square pieces kombu
2 1/2 quarts water
1/2-ounce bonito flakes or katsuobushi, about 2 cups
Directions
Put the kombu in a 4-quart saucepan, cover with the water and soak for 30 minutes.

Set the saucepan over medium heat until the water reaches 150 to 160 degrees F and small bubbles appear around the sides of the pan, 9 to 10 minutes.

Remove the kombu from the pan. Increase the heat to high and bring to a boil, 5 to 6 minutes. Reduce the heat to low and add the bonito flakes. Simmer gently, stirring frequently, for 10 minutes.

Strain the liquid through a fine mesh strainer lined with muslin or several layers of cheesecloth. Reserve the bonito flakes for another use.

Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Use within 1 week or freeze for up to a month.



If anyone is interested the episode is called "turning japanese"
 
I will be the first to admit to being a Good Eats fan and since one of his latest episodes was on making dashi I thought I'd post the recipe. I am actually allergic to MSG so 'instant' dashi is out of the question. This recipe now makes it possible for me to eat miso soup asuming that the miso is MSG free.


Dashi

Ingredients
2 (4-inch) square pieces kombu
2 1/2 quarts water
1/2-ounce bonito flakes or katsuobushi, about 2 cups
Directions
Put the kombu in a 4-quart saucepan, cover with the water and soak for 30 minutes.

Set the saucepan over medium heat until the water reaches 150 to 160 degrees F and small bubbles appear around the sides of the pan, 9 to 10 minutes.

Remove the kombu from the pan. Increase the heat to high and bring to a boil, 5 to 6 minutes. Reduce the heat to low and add the bonito flakes. Simmer gently, stirring frequently, for 10 minutes.

Strain the liquid through a fine mesh strainer lined with muslin or several layers of cheesecloth. Reserve the bonito flakes for another use.

Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Use within 1 week or freeze for up to a month.



If anyone is interested the episode is called "turning japanese"

So basically it IS just seeweed and bonito flakes. That's pretty easy.

Thanks!!:mug:

Oh it looks like the episode may be on you tube...is this the one?

 
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Thanks for posting Tsuyako! I ordered katsuobushi and kombu online last week and it should arrive Thursday. The online store I used was out of stock (no pun intended) on the instant dashi. Maybe that was a good thing.

I had been meaning to look for that GE episode on youtube but didn't know the title, thanks for posting it. It wasn't in my DVR.
 
Just in case anyone is still looking for instant dashi, it is called hon dashi, so you may be looking in the wrong place, or at the wrong thing. I think people often use the word dashi as a more generic term, so it may not always be clear that you are looking for the instant stuff. If you google the word hondashi you can see some images of what the packaging looks like.


I do like making it from konbu and katsuobushi, but katsuobushi in particular takes up a ton of space in our cabinets when we get stuff to make it from scratch, and then the actual stock takes up a lot of space as well, but only lasts a relatively short time. So, we get a big package of hondashi and keep it in a tupperware container in the fridge to mete out as necessary. It only takes a comparatively small amount of hondashi to get the right flavor for a few servings of miso soup.
 
Just in case anyone is still looking for instant dashi, it is called hondashi so you may be looking in the wrong place, or at the wrong thing. Dashi can be sort of a more generic term, and hence confusing.

I do like making it from konbu and katsuobushi, but katsuobushi in particular takes up a lot of space in our cabinets when we get stuff to make it from scratch, and then the actual stock takes up a lot of space as well. So, we get a big package of hondashi and keep it in a tupperware container in the fridge to mete out as necessary. It only takes a comparatively small amount of hondashi to get the right flavor for a few servings of miso soup.

How does it taste compared to the stuff from scratch?
 
Dashi is very easy to make all you need is dried kombu (special sea kelp) and dried bonito flakes, but you can add other ingredients for extra flavor: the best is the addition of dried ****ake mushrooms (very flavorful)

basically soak the kombu and heat until almost at a boil, then add Bonito flakes and let sit until all bonito flakes fall to the bottom. I am not sure of the exact proportions but when making a stock its generally pretty easy to guess.

I have always gotten my flakes and kombu at Mitsuwa (japenese market in nj) but you may be able to find kombu and bonito flakes at a trader joes or whole foods, i am not sure though.

once you have the Dashi it is simple to make miso soup and many other Japanese dishes
 
How does it taste compared to the stuff from scratch?

Sorry, I missed your question before. It's about equivalent to the difference between making soup with bouillon vs making it with actual stock. For stuff like miso soup, where the primary flavor comes from the miso and not the stock, I don't really notice a huge difference.
 

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