Saturday, October 4, 2008

Kombu and Katsuobushi Dashi (Dashi Soup Stock)

My family love Japanese food especially Sobah. Sharing herewith our simple homemade Jap Soba Soup Stock and Recipes.

Dashi is a form of soup base (cooking stocks) use for many Japanese noodle broths, clear soups and simmering liquids. It is use as one of the ingredients for our Hot and cold Soba.

Ingredients:
20cm Dried Kombu (dried seaweed)
20 g Katsuobushi Flakes (Dried Bonito)
4-1/2 cups of water

Method :
1) First Stock – Ichiban Dashi (Make about 4 cups of soup stock)
Clean the Kombu with wet cloth. Place them into a deep pot and sock in water for 10 minutes. Boil it on low heat. Just before water boils, remove the Kombu. When water continue to boil, add in Katsuobushi Flakes. Foam may rise to the surface. So remove the foam if any and turn off the heat. Cover the pot and let it set till the Flakes sink to the bottom. Strain the stock using paper filter or paper towel. Use the stock immediate or keep in clean container for future use. Put aside the drained Kombu and K-Flakes for making second stock.

Uses – Use for cooking clear soups for noodles. I use it as one of the ingredient needed for Hot Soba Noodles (Tsukimi Soba) and one of the ingredient needed for Cold Soba Noodles dipping sauce.

2) Second Stock – Niban Dashi (Make about 2 cups of soup stock)
Put the Kombu and K-Flakes back into the deep pot. Add another 2-1/2 of water. Heat on low heat. Again, before the water boil, add another 10g of K-Flakes into the pot. Let it simmer for a few minutes and remove foams on the surface, turn off the heat, cover and let the flakes sink (just like the first stock but this time simmer for a while longer before you off the heat). Strain the stock using paper filter or paper towel. Use the stock immediately or keep in clean container.

Uses – Use for cooking simmered dishes like chicken toufu mushroom pot (our favorite)

Where to get the Ingredients ?
You can get it from any supermarket like NTUC Fairprice, Cold Storage, Market Place etc who is having a corner selling Korean or Japanese Ingredients and Dry Food. You may be able to get ready made Dashi Soup Paste or Powder from some Japanese Outlet. But homemade is the best.

How do the Kombu and K-Flaks look like? What are they ?
Did some research from Wikipedia and link it here for your easy reference.

DRIED KELP – KOMBU




Kombu or konbu (Japanese: 昆布), also called dashima (Korean: 다시마 dasima), or haidai (Chinese: 海带 - pinyin : Haidài)
More details on : Kombu


KATSUOBUSHI FLAKES


Katsuobushi (鰹節 or かつおぶし) is the Japanese name for a preparation of dried, femented , and smoked skipjack tuna sometimes referred to as bonito.

More details on : Katsuobushi Flakes

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