Dashi

Classic ichiban dashi ("first dashi") uses just two ingredients and a few minutes. A strip of konbu (昆布), dried kelp, is steeped in water and warmed, but lifted out before it boils, or the broth turns bitter and slimy. Then a generous handful of katsuobushi (鰹節), feather-thin shavings of dried, smoked, and fermented bonito, is added off the heat, allowed to steep for a minute, and strained. The result is the synergy at the heart of Japanese cooking: glutamate from the kelp and inosinate from the bonito multiply each other into a savour far greater than either alone.

Other bases exist for other needs: niboshi (煮干し), dried baby sardines, give a stronger, fishier stock loved for miso soup and ramen; dried shiitake mushrooms make a deep vegetarian dashi; and katsuobushi alone or kelp alone each have their uses. The spent kelp and flakes are often not wasted but simmered again into a weaker niban dashi ("second dashi") for humbler dishes, a small everyday act of mottainai.

Few foundational techniques are this easy. Soak a palm-sized piece of konbu in a litre of cold water for thirty minutes, heat gently to just below a boil, remove the kelp, add a large handful of bonito flakes, turn off the heat, wait one minute, and strain through a cloth. You now have the backbone of a hundred dishes. Today many households use instant granules (hondashi), but the fresh version takes only minutes and tastes cleaner.