Dashi

Dashi is essential to Japanese cooking. It can be made from instant dashi, or substituted with beef stock or base, but those products are entirely inferior in flavor and feel. Moreover, unlike traditional western stocks, which can be made with little effort inch takes hours of slaving over to produce, dashi minutes.

Ingredients:

1 piece kombu (seaweed)

a handful of bontio flakes

4 cups water

Place the kombu in a pot, cover it with water and let it soak, cold, for twenty minutes. Turn heat to high, bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add bonito flakes. Soak for five minutes. And you're done!

Alternately, you can place a kombu oiece, handful of bonito flakes, and 4 cups of cold water into a pitcher and place it in the refridgerator for 6 hours, and you'll get... the same thing. Dashi's that simple.