Restaurants that care about the well-being of their employees make sure that their basic needs are met. At Audrey in Nashville, where I’m employed, work stops every afternoon for a half hour so the team can gather for a communal family meal. The responsibility of preparing family meal rotates through the kitchen staff. Recently it was my turn to cook for my 40 coworkers.
“What’s your favorite thing to make in that bus you live in?” asked our chef de cuisine Colin Shane. “That would be my Bertha Bus Gumbo,” I replied. “I could make a big pot of chicken and andouille gumbo for the meat-eaters and gumbo z’herbes for the veg-heads. I’ll need chicken thighs, sausage and greens, and plenty of chicken stock and vegetable stock.” Chef Colin replied: “I’ll order your chicken, sausage and greens, but we always have plenty of stock.”
The morning of my family meal I gathered my ingredients. Because I work upstairs in the R&D and Fermentation Lab, I’m often in unfamiliar territory when I’m in the downstairs production kitchen. I located the big container of chicken stock but I couldn’t find the vegetable stock, so I asked for help. “We don’t have vegetable stock. We use dashi,” I was informed. This was a big surprise. Our owner/chef Sean Brock’s devotion to repatriating the traditional Southern pantry and cuisine has earned him numerous awards, including a James Beard award for Best Chef, Southeast. Dashi isn’t court bouillon or potlikker. Dashi is a traditional Japanese soup stock.
Dashi refers to a group of broths that are made from steeping various umami-rich ingredients in water. The simplest dashi is made from a variety of kelp known as kombu. More complex versions include flakes of dried fish known as katsuobushi. Vegan versions substitute dried shiitake mushrooms. The resulting broth has an umami-rich, flavor-enhancing quality.
The word umami is derived from the Japanese root “umai,” meaning “delicious” or “good.” Umami loosely translates as a “pleasant savory taste” or “essence of deliciousness.” Though there is no equivalent English term for umami, it can be best described as “a pleasant broth-like, meaty, savory taste with a mild but lasting aftertaste that stimulates salivation and creates a coating sensation or furriness on the tongue.”
At our next weekly lab meeting with Chef Sean Brock, I asked him what dashi is doing in a traditional Southern kitchen. “Up until my first trip to Japan, my stock on the stove was always vegetable stock. It got its character and depth from the vegetables we chose seasonally. But my first trip to Japan was the most life-changing event ever in my entire life. What I was able to taste and see and live helped me understand the beauty of subtlety and balance.” He continued: “This made sense to me because I’m obsessed with each ingredient individually and my mission is to push as much flavor out of it as possible. I don’t like mixing flavors together. I like them separated out on the plate as you can taste them individually, and really think about what that ingredient can offer. So dashi for me was a way to have a broth around that didn’t impart onion, celery, carrot, garlic, herbs. It just imparted umami. It’s not that I’m trying to use something that’s Japanese because I love Japan. It’s that I want to use something that doesn’t interfere with the other flavors, and has a chance to boost them forward through the physical sensation of umami.”
I’ve always saved my vegetable trimmings in a zipper bag that I keep in my freezer for making my own stock, but making stock is pretty labor-intensive. It has to be simmered, cooled, strained, portioned out and frozen. It’s worth the effort if I’m making something like gumbo, where I want to create layers of flavor. But for many applications, dashi is a better choice. It is packed with umami, and gives dishes depth and breadth, and a soft roundness.
Making homemade dashi is quick and easy. Basic dashi requires only three ingredients: water, kombu (a variety of seaweed) and katsuobushi flakes (shavings from smoked and fermented slipjack tuna). You start by soaking kombu. Don’t rinse it first: the white specks on the surface are deposits of minerals and amino acids, which contribute to its sweetness and umami. Once the kombu has softened, slowly bring the heat to medium, during which the kombu will release its flavorful compounds. If the water boils, the dashi will be bitter, so remove the seaweed as soon as you see bubbles rising to the surface. Then add katsuobushi shavings, bring the liquid up to a boil and strain off the shavings the moment they absorb enough water to fall to the bottom. Save the spent kombu and the katsuobushi in the fridge: You can re-simmer them for a secondary dashi, known as niban dashi.
If you want to take the easy route, buy instant dashi packs from an Asian grocery store. The ingredients have been ground into a powder and packaged in tea bags for quick steeping and easy cleanup. Home cooks in Japan use these frequently. Instant is not as good as homemade, but it’s not bad.
Primary Dashi (Ichiban Dashi)
Ichiban dashi has a refined, clean flavor. It is used for clear soups, egg dishes or noodle dishes in which dashi is the primary flavor.
Ingredients:
5 cups cold water
1 piece kombu, about 3 X 3 inches
4 cups katsuobushi flakes
Preparation:
Combine the water and kombu in a medium saucepan. Heat until bubbles begin to form around the kombu. Remove the kombu just before the water comes to a boil.
When the water reaches a boil, turn off the heat, add the katsuobushi flakes and let the flakes steep without stirring for no more than a minute, until they begin to settle to the bottom.
Strain the liquid through a fine-mesh sieve lined with cheesecloth or a paper towel. Do not press the flakes while straining, as it will cloud the dashi.
Use immediately, or cool and refrigerate for up to five days or freeze up to a month. I freeze it in ice cube trays, then pop out the cubes and store in a freezer bag. The spent kombo and bonito flakes should be saved to make a secondary dashi.
Secondary Dashi (Niban dashi)
Niban dashi is lighter than ichiban dashi and is good for preparations where another ingredient is the primary flavor, like miso soup. It is also useful as a cooking liquid for rice and vegetables, or as a poaching liquid for fish.
Ingredients:
3 cups water
Reserved kombu and katsuobushi flakes from a batch of primary dashi
Preparation:
In a medium saucepan, bring the water and the spent kombu and katsuobushi flakes to a boil over medium heat. Then lower the heat to a gentle simmer until the dashi is reduced to about 2/3 the original volume.
Strain the liquid through a sieve lined with cheesecloth or a paper towel. Use immediately, or refrigerate for up to one week, or a month or two in the freezer.
This article appears in Spring Guide 2023.
