Shiitake dashi as a vegan dashi alternative
Classic dashi is made from kombu and bonito flakes, so it contains fish. In Japan's Buddhist temple cooking, Shōjin Ryōri, cooks make dashi from kombu and dried shiitake. Kombu supplies glutamate, the mushrooms supply guanylate. Together the two taste more savory than either on its own. The article Dashi and Dashi Powder explains the types of dashi and the ready-made powder, and the piece on umami explains the taste behind it.
The right ingredients
- Dried shiitake: For 1 liter of water, use 10 to 12 mushrooms, about 30 g. Whole caps with thick tops give a stronger broth than slices or broken pieces.
- Fresh shiitake: They are not much use for dashi. The mushrooms only develop their strong aroma through drying and soaking.
- Kombu: 10 g is enough for 1 liter. Do not wipe off the white coating, because it carries flavor. You can read more about the seaweed under kombu.
- Alternatives to shiitake: Dried porcini give a strong broth with a European wild mushroom aroma. Dried wood ear mushrooms taste of almost nothing. Without mushrooms, make a plain kombu dashi with 20 g kombu.
How to make shiitake dashi
Soak cold
Put the shiitake and kombu together in cold water. After 30 minutes you have a light broth. If you leave both to steep in the fridge for 8 to 12 hours, the dashi tastes fuller and the mushrooms are soft all the way through. Hot water speeds up the soaking, but the broth tastes flatter.
Heat slowly
Pour the soaking water slowly into the pot and leave the gritty dregs in the bowl. Warm it with the kombu over medium heat. Just before it boils, take the kombu out, because boiled kombu makes the broth slimy. Then let the dashi simmer gently for 5 to 10 minutes and strain it through a fine cloth.
Use the mushrooms
Squeeze out the soaked mushrooms, cut off the hard stems and add the caps to soups, braises or rice with shiitake. The article Preparing Shiitake shows how to slice and sear them.
Uses
- Miso soup: For 500 ml dashi, stir in 2 to 3 tbsp miso. A version with tofu is the miso soup with shiitake.
- Noodle broth: For Kitsune Udon, season the dashi with soy sauce and mirin and you have a vegan udon broth.
- Dip for cold soba: Bring 4 parts dashi, 1 part soy sauce and 1 part mirin briefly to a boil and let the mixture cool.
Common mistakes
- Soaked too briefly: The broth stays pale and thin, and the mushrooms have a hard core in the middle.
- Grit in the broth: Dried mushrooms bring dirt with them. Pour off the soaking water and leave the sediment in the bowl.
- Salted broth: Season only the finished dish. Unsalted dashi works equally well for soup, sauce and noodle broth.
Storing
In a sealed jar, shiitake dashi keeps in the fridge for 3 days. For a supply, freeze it in ice cube trays and thaw as many cubes as you need for a sauce.
