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Kombu and Shiitake Dashi

A pot of kombu seaweed and dried shiitake mushrooms in water to make dashi the essential Japanese stock.
Photo by Yuki Sugiura

This vegetarian dashi is useful in any dish that you want to make free of meat or seafood. The dried shiitake mushrooms add an extra earthy depth of flavor to the broth. The magic, umami-rich combination of both kombu and shiitake really enhances the flavor of any ingredient it pairs with. You can keep both the rehydrated shiitake mushrooms and kombu for use in other recipes.

This recipe was excerpted from 'Atsuko's Japanese Kitchen' by Atsuko Ikeda. Buy the full book on Amazon.

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What you’ll need

Cooks' Note

I wouldn’t recommend freezing any dashi, it is easy to make and the flavors would not survive.

Recipe information

  • Yield

    Makes 3⅓ cups

Ingredients

1 quart cold water
10 g (2 x 4-inch) piece of kombu
20 g dried shiitake mushrooms

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Place the water, kombu and shiitake mushrooms in a large saucepan and leave them to soak for at least 30 minutes.

    Step 2

    After 30 minutes, start to gently bring the water to the boil over a medium-high heat. Just before it reaches boiling point – when small bubbles appear at the bottom of the pan – remove the kombu. Do not let the kombu boil; if you do the flavor will be spoiled. Continue heating to bring the water and mushrooms to the boil.

    Step 3

    Once boiling, reduce the heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Skim any scum off the surface of the dashi as it cooks.

    Step 4

    Turn the heat off and strain the dashi through a muslin/cheesecloth or paper towel-lined fine-mesh sieve/strainer. The dashi is now ready to use. It will keep in the refrigerator in a sealed container for up to 3 days.

Atsuko's Japanese Kitchen-COVER
From Atsuko’s Japanese Kitchen: Home-Cooked Comfort Food Made Simple by Atsuko Ikeda, published by Ryland Peters & Small. Buy the full book from Amazon or Ryland Peters & Small.
TagsCookbooksVegetarianVeganJapaneseEast AsianAsianSoupSoup/StewShiitake MushroomMushroomVegetableStockEasy

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