Hi everyone! It is the blog HUJ (How Unique Japan) again! This time, let us ask you: Do you like Japanese food? If you do, THANKS A LOT!
By the way, what makes them tasty? There are several reasons. One of the best answers is the Japanese soup stock Dashi.
What is Dashi?
Dashi means soup stock. However, the Japanese one is unique because there are various ingredients for that.
They are like extraction from any ingredients with hot water, for example, vegetables and dried food.
Such a simple soup works for many Japanese foods because it has much umami flavor extracted from those ingredients.
The umami flavor can boost the basic taste instead of salt, working as a base of taste for any cooking.
*The flavor has glutamic, inosine acid, and guanylin acid. Those acids will connect the same ones in the foods and add more Umami flavor during cooking. So, it works like a basement for any meal.
That is why a simple soup would make any ingredients tasty.
Why did Dashi become popular in Japan?
Japan has a long history of vegetarianism.
Although we are, any spices or salt were expensive in old times. That is why previous Japanese managed to find more capable flavors to replace salt.
The answer was the Umami flavor from Dashi soup (soup stock).
The origin of history is ancient. One old piece of literature from 700 AD already has the words Katsuo (Bonito) and Konbu (Japanese Kelp). They are still popular as ingredients for Dashi soup. However, there was no established and stable procedure to make them around the time. They were born around the Edo era (1603 – 1867).
OK. How many types of Dashi are in Japan?
Four popular types of Dashi
Katsuo Bushi (Bonito flakes)
It looks like a piece of wood, and its hardness is similar to it as well. You might consider what that is from with just one look. (It is true. The hard one can hit a nail on a board.)
Surprisingly, it is dried bonito, which works for any Japanese meal and is a well-preserved food item in a humid country, Japan.
After the fisherman caught them, they cut the heads and testicles off.
Next, the workers put them in iron baskets to get in boiling water. It (boiling water) is in a gigantic kiln/deep pan. One or two hours later, the workers for Katsuo Bushi picked the bones out and then smoked them in the smoking kiln.
The final procedure is (catchy part) to put good fungus on smoked bonito, making them fermented. Do not worry. The fungus enhances the Umami flavor and protects against harmful fungi.
It is not yet. Those Katsuo Bushi with fungus need to get drier under the sun.
Get them dry and apply fungus. The workers have been doing this routine for over one month! So, the total procedure from row fish to the Katsuo Bushi would take half or a year. It is tough.
However, such bonito flakes can work for any Japanese menu because of their deep flavor and taste from those procedures.
It is easy to make Dashi from it. We sharpen it into thin flakes. Then, we put them into the boiled water. One warning is that we need to stop the fire before they go into the water. One or two minutes should be enough.
The left water would contain the umami flavor. It is the Dashi soup of Katsuo Bushi.
Shiitake mushroom
The umami flavor is not from only sea creatures. As it said, it is in any food. So, the mushrooms are one of them.
Thus, we utilized the Shiitake mushroom. However, we cannot simply put row one into the hot water to get Dashi.
As the Katsuo Bushi is, it needs to get dried under the sun, but it would be shorter than that. It takes one week. If it gets sliced, it would be two or four days.
It is a popular ingredient in the Dashi soup.
Besides, it is much easier to get the soup than any ingredients. We can put them into the water at about ten degrees Celsius. We leave it for about five to twelve hours. The Dashi soup would be ready in such a simple way. (We chose this as the simplest way to get the soup.)
Niboshi (Dried small sardines)
It is sea creatures again. But they are so tiny sardines. We name those small dried sardines Niboshi (Ni means boiled, and B(h)oshi means dried).
It is also popular in Japan as the right snack or side dish for any meal. Before being edible, they will be boiled and dried under the sun like previous ingredients. It would take twelve hours to be ready.
Any noodle meal usually contains Dashi soup due to its salty taste.
The simplest way to get the soup stock is simple again. They would be kept in a bottle with water and put in the fridge. After 24 hours, they extracted the Umami flavor into the water.
Konbu (Japanese Kelp)
We get the kelp around a coast in the northern part. It is one of the oldest Dashi ingredients in Japan.
The procedure to get them edible does not take a long time. It would be four or five hours if it is a fine day (good sun shining).
During this, the kelp sometimes gets a little white powder on it (as the picture below shows). Someone usually misunderstands it as a harmful fungus. It is wrong. It is the extracted/pure umami flavor.
So, if you want to get Dashi soup from Konbu, do not wash it out because the powder will be gone.
Then, what is the best procedure to get the soup?
This ingredient is capable of both ways, with hot water (before completely boiling) and cold water (in the fridge for 24 hours) conveniently.
In Japan, extraction with hot water is a popular procedure because we Japanese like Miso soup. So, Dashi soup from the kelp usually becomes the base taste of the soup.
OK. How do we get the Dashi from hot water?
First, we put the kelp in the pot with cold water and leave it for about thirty minutes.
Then, ignite the burner with a middle-size fire until the water gets hot but before boiling. The good Dashi soup is ready with it. We can utilize the soup for several menus. The stew is probably a good start.
We should avoid boiling any ingredients to get Dashi soup because boiling will extract more flavor from the ingredients, leading to a worse taste.
To close
Indeed. There are various ways to make the Dashi soup and its ingredients.
Please remember. We showed a small tip of the iceberg. Japan has multiple menus around. It is no doubt. If you can enjoy a Japanese meal with soup, try to taste it and estimate the ingredients.
Thank you so much for reading this article! It is all today!
But we still have more. If you are not satisfied yet, visit our front page! It should have four categories: Japanese lifestyle, food (today’s article comes from here), the Edo era, and religions.
Alright! Time to leave! See you in the other article!