Dashi Disaster

Dashi is a staple in the Japanese diet, and a delicious flavor i have yet to recreate successfully. I promised I would post my cooking failures (though there are not many of them lol).

Photo: The Japanese Kitchen

After a long day sitting at my desk at work, I usually make a basic clear broth with some buckwheat or udon noodles, tofu, mushrooms and cabbage for dinner. But rather than using my packeted soup stock I wanted to make something with less preservatives, so decided to make this stock.

Dashi stock consists of dried bonito flakes, seaweed and sometimes some dried shitake mushrooms. But I was trying to make the basic stock containing just the bonito flakes.

First, where to buy the bonito flakes? I made a trip from Uni especially to pick up a bag of these flakes, not sure exactly what I was looking for or the cost of such an odd incredient (dried fish) it took me a while to find it at my favourite asian s/m, found in a big bag filled with air. The bag was about $6 - the next step: find an appropriate evening to make this stock.

Finally a thursday night came when I could make my stock when it was only me who had to eat it. I followed internet-searched recipes and procedures to no avail. The stock smelt amazing, yummy and fishy but upon taste testing, it tasted like diluted fish sauce water; not very appetizing at all.

Not wanting to waste my precious stock, I decided to add another cup of dried bonito flakes and let soak for another 20 minutes. This did not improve the taste one bit. Wondering what to do, I decided to experiment with some sesame seeds, sesame oil and soy sauce. It did nothing. Still too diluted. Next, I tried some fish sauce before remembering that I actually hate fish sauce.

But again, I did not want to just throw away the stock nor did I want to waste the 45 minutes spent trying to make the friggin stock! Reluctantly I added a packet of my store bought soup mix and settled in front of the couch to watch the remainder of Bondi Vet.

Disaster. Any suggestions? Tips? I am determined to master this.

Here is a good recipe for making dashi - give it a go and tell me what I'm doing wrong!?