Hon-Dashi? :)
Bethany Tomkins
connoiseurs in this group, so wanted to just toss this question out there...
can anyone recommend a simple at-home recipe that incorporates Hon-Dashi
(bonito soup base) for.. well, ANYTHING? we bought it, know it'll be nice,
but kind of hard to find anything to really put it in.
any suggestions welcome!! anyone I aggravated by asking non-sushi question..
I sowwy - =(
Bethany
James Silverton
Here are my notes on miso soup.
About one tsp dashi for 2 cups soup. Dissolve the dashi in water, add
vegetables needing cooking and possibly a ½ tsp grated ginger. Soy sauce
is always needed (IMHO) … about 1 tab for two cups soup. Dashi is made
from dried tuna but the old-fish taste goes after cooking for 10
minutes. Suspend 1 tab miso in 1 tab water and stir in. Heat but don't
boil. Add chopped green onions and serve.
(It's horribly untraditional and cross-culturally contaminated but 1 tab
vinegar and ¼ tsp chili-garlic sauce does no harm at all! Seven-spice
powder also is good. I guess my tastes were contaminated by having
saimin in Hawaii.)
You can enjoy almost any vegetable with this soup, from lettuce to snow
pea pods. Here's a list of vegetables you might want to try in the miso
soup.
Vegetables (gu) and preparation suggestions
. Chinese cabbage, cut into bite-size squares or triangles
· Cabbage, cut into bite-size squares or triangles
· Lettuce, cut into bite-size squares or triangles
· Green onions, sliced
. Very thinly sliced garlic can be added at end like green onions
· Onions, sliced
· Leeks, sliced or chopped
· Okra, chopped
· Snow pea pods
· Mushrooms, sliced (possibly cooked as a "hard veg.")
· Bean sprouts (remember to blanch first)
· Tofu, cut into small cubes
· Wakame seaweed
· Natto beans (minced?)
...............................................
· Butternut squash*, thinly sliced
. Green beans*
· Daikon*, thinly sliced
· Potatoes*, thinly sliced
· Sweet potatoes*, thinly sliced
...............................................
* These hard vegetables must be cooked for ten minutes or so.
Not recommended: green pepper, celery (vegetables with strong flavor)
Jim.
--
James V. Silverton
Potomac, Maryland.
Dan Logcher
> Bethany Tomkins wrote:
> >
> > Not *quite* sushi related, but I know there are many Japanese food
> > connoiseurs in this group, so wanted to just toss this question out there...
> > can anyone recommend a simple at-home recipe that incorporates Hon-Dashi
> > (bonito soup base) for.. well, ANYTHING? we bought it, know it'll be nice,
> > but kind of hard to find anything to really put it in.
> >
> > any suggestions welcome!! anyone I aggravated by asking non-sushi question..
>
> Here are my notes on miso soup.
>
> About one tsp dashi for 2 cups soup. Dissolve the dashi in water, add
> vegetables needing cooking and possibly a ½ tsp grated ginger. Soy sauce
> is always needed (IMHO) … about 1 tab for two cups soup. Dashi is made
> from dried tuna but the old-fish taste goes after cooking for 10
> minutes. Suspend 1 tab miso in 1 tab water and stir in. Heat but don't
> boil. Add chopped green onions and serve.
James! For shame. Dashi is made from bonito (katsuo), not tuna.
Bonito (Sarda Sarda, Euthynnus Alletteratus) are not part of the
Scombridae family.
--
Dan
Trinker
James Silverton wrote:
>
> Bethany Tomkins wrote:
> >
> > Not *quite* sushi related, but I know there are many Japanese food
> > connoiseurs in this group, so wanted to just toss this question out there...
> > can anyone recommend a simple at-home recipe that incorporates Hon-Dashi
> > (bonito soup base) for.. well, ANYTHING? we bought it, know it'll be nice,
> > but kind of hard to find anything to really put it in.
> >
> > any suggestions welcome!! anyone I aggravated by asking non-sushi question..
>
> Here are my notes on miso soup.
>
> About one tsp dashi for 2 cups soup. Dissolve the dashi in water, add
> vegetables needing cooking and possibly a ½ tsp grated ginger. Soy sauce
> is always needed (IMHO) … about 1 tab for two cups soup. Dashi is made
> from dried tuna but the old-fish taste goes after cooking for 10
> minutes. Suspend 1 tab miso in 1 tab water and stir in. Heat but don't
> boil. Add chopped green onions and serve.
>
> (It's horribly untraditional and cross-culturally contaminated but 1 tab
> vinegar and ¼ tsp chili-garlic sauce does no harm at all! Seven-spice
> powder also is good. I guess my tastes were contaminated by having
> saimin in Hawaii.)
You've already put soy sauce and ginger into the miso soup, and
you're worried about untraditional?!
> You can enjoy almost any vegetable with this soup, from lettuce to snow
> pea pods. Here's a list of vegetables you might want to try in the miso
> soup.
>
> Vegetables (gu) and preparation suggestions
>
> . Chinese cabbage, cut into bite-size squares or triangles
> · Cabbage, cut into bite-size squares or triangles
> · Lettuce, cut into bite-size squares or triangles
> · Green onions, sliced
> . Very thinly sliced garlic can be added at end like green onions
> · Onions, sliced
> · Leeks, sliced or chopped
> · Okra, chopped
> · Snow pea pods
> · Mushrooms, sliced (possibly cooked as a "hard veg.")
> · Bean sprouts (remember to blanch first)
> · Tofu, cut into small cubes
> · Wakame seaweed
Careful, it expands a great deal when reconstituted!
> · Natto beans (minced?)
Bought pre-minced.
> ...............................................
> · Butternut squash*, thinly sliced
> . Green beans*
> · Daikon*, thinly sliced
> · Potatoes*, thinly sliced
> · Sweet potatoes*, thinly sliced
> ...............................................
> * These hard vegetables must be cooked for ten minutes or so.
> Not recommended: green pepper, celery (vegetables with strong flavor)
Also not recommended: putting in all these ingredients. Just
choose one or two!
You left out some of my favorites. Spinach, Japanese eggplant,
a bit of white-fleshed fish...
Classic combinations are potato and onion, or tofu and wakame.
Trinker
Hon-dashi can be a nice addition to tempura dipping sauce, or
any of the noodle dipping sauces. I've made "eel sauce" using
hon-dashi. Cook carrots, potatoes, and onions with soy sauce
and sugar and sake along with the dashi.
I highly recommend Shizuo Tsuji's book on Japanese cooking.
James Silverton
>
>>>>>>>>>>Not too much snipping, I hope<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
>
> > >
> > >
>
> You've already put soy sauce and ginger into the miso soup, and
> you're worried about untraditional?!
>
Thanks but I'm not very "worried" about tradition. If it tastes good, it
is good for me! If I couldn't put soy sauce in I would give it up but
you can also add it after serving. The comment made me go to my major
source, "The Book of Miso" by Shurtleff and Aoyagi where there is lots
of very useful information interspersed with remarkable claims like miso
being good for radiation poisoning. The authors allow ginger-root juice
as a flavoring. I was surprised to be reminded there that the fish in
hon dashi is not always bonito but may be dried sardines (niboshi) and
all of the many types of miso can be used.
> Also not recommended: putting in all these ingredients. Just
> choose one or two!
Perfectly right; I must have missed a sentence or two when copying my
notes! The whole lot would only need some tomatoes to be something like
minestrone! In fact, the essence of the additions is to choose
seasonable vegetables.
A.K.
There is no other, active, japanese cooking group, so it seem ok to
ask here, I think. Also sushi is often served as a side dish with
many other dishes, so technically they do go together, so there.
I add dashi to freaking everything. Well, not quite, but almost.
Amlost every dipping or marinading sauce benefits by having dashi
added. If you don't have enough teryaki sauce to cover the meat you
are marinading, mix some of the dashi mix (I assume you have a mix and
aren't making this from fish flakes and kelp?) with water and use that
to dilute it instead of water. It preserves the falvor.
Add it to soften day old rice for making fried rice. Use it as a soup
base for miso, or as a dipping sauce base for soba, or as a soup base
for udon. Add it to gyoza dipping sauce. Make a soup base and add
reconstituted wakame: instant seaweed soup!
Ooh, there is also shawanmushi (I think that's how you write it) which
is a really delicious egg custard.
The main thing you need is one egg and about half a cup of hot dashi.
Things that are good and traditional to add are little shrimps, bits
of chicken, and shitake mushrooms.
You beat the egg so it's thoroughly mixed, but not frothy. It's
easiest to do this with chopsticks or a fork instead of an egg beater.
Then you strain the egg to remove any bumpy parts. The custard is
improved dramatically by this procedure. I recommend not skipping it.
Then you heat up your dashi, and then pour the dashi into the egg,
stirring constantly. Do not pour the egg into the dashi, because then
it will just turn lumpy.
Put it in a cup, cover the cup with tinfoil, and then steam the whole
thing for 15 minutes. You can steam in in your rice cooker , using
the steamer grille to place the cup upon, and filling the surrounding
area with about half an inch of water. Failing that you can fill a
pot with half an inch of water, and put the cup in there, cover, and
cook on low heat.
Save some of the dashi to pour over the custard as dressing. You can
add some soy sauce to the dashi if you want it to have a stronger
flavor.
That's all I can think of off the top of my head.
}..{
Agnieszka
Trinker
"A.K." wrote:
> Ooh, there is also shawanmushi (I think that's how you write it)
chawanmushi. Literally, 'teabowl steaming' (chawan means teabowl,
but usually these days it means rice bowl.)
Alai
news:jscU7.81228$py4.37...@news2.nash1.tn.home.com...
It'll make any soup dishes taste better. Besides, it's a yummier version of
MSG.
n_cr...@spampacbell.net
> On Thu, 20 Dec 2001 02:57:19 GMT, "Bethany Tomkins"
> <bethany...@home.com> wrote:
>
> >Not *quite* sushi related,
Inoche-wa unco-na tama des'
Shikashe . . . aji-no-moto!
In French, that's something like:
La vie et un tartine de merde,
mais il faut savoir l'aprete!
or something like that.
--
Nick, Retired in the San Fernando Valley www.boonchoo.com
"Giving violent criminals a government guarantee that their intended
victims are defenseless is bad public policy."
- John Ross, "Unintended Consequences"
AddItUp
knows which brand of Dashi-Kombu makes the best broth? And how big of a square
should you use for say 2 or 3 quarts of water? Oh, and is it true you should
score the kombu across the grain before adding it to the water?
btw- Dashi is great for a sukiyaki party, or Shabu-Shabu firepot, or even oden
if you're up for the challenge... all traditional winter-time meals.
Or use it to simmer Kinugoshi (soft) tofu. If you can get the quasi-handmade
type with the 1 week shelf-life, go for it! YUM :)
Bethany Tomkins
mushrooms and dried baby shrimp (both were formerly dehydrated, so I gave
them a good soak). Turned out *really* nice!
thanks for the recipes & suggestions, everyone!
A.K. <ak...@nyu.edu> wrote in message news:3c22404f.684313@localhost...
Nona Myers
have dungeness crab available and I like to use it to make many
different dishes. Wonderful in miso soup! Also applies to any clams
or oysters in miso soup.
Nona Shinagawa Myers
(another foodie and hapa)