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Dashi is the at the heart of Japanese cooking. It lends that subtle, but unmistakable background that grounds what many people think of as Japanese tasting. I am not even going to pretend to know 1 % of what there is to know about dashi. It comes in as many varieties as there are regions and dishes. What is sure is that the success or otherwise of much of any dish featuring dashi depends to an extraordinary degree on the quality of the dashi.

Simple plain dashi uses water - as I will use below. If you are cooking specifically for chicken or fish for example, it is possible to use a chicken or fish stock.

1 litre cold water
30 g kelp
30 g dried bonito flakes (the fresher the better)

• Place the kelp in the water.
• Bring to the boil.
• Immediately test the kelp - if it is soft enough to cut with your finger nail, it is done. If it is not done, return to the water for 2 minutes.
• After removing the kelp bring the stock to a full boil.
• Add 1/4 cup of cold water to cool back down.
• Add the bonito flakes.
• Bring to a full boil and immediately remove from the heat.
• Allow the flakes to settle to the bottom of the pot (around 10 minutes).
• Remove the foam from the top.
• Strain through a cheesecloth lined sieve and store (up to a week in the fridge).