Basic Bonito Broth Recipe

Add noodles, meat, fish or vegetables to your bonito broth, also known as dashi, the essence of Japanese cuisine. dashi recipe
Norman Van Aken•

Bonito, Japanese skipjack, is a streamlined, fast-swimming fish, common in tropical waters throughout the world, where it inhabits surface waters in large shoals of up to 50,000, feeding on fishes, crustaceans and mollusks of all sorts. Katsuobushi (or bonito, if you like) is the main ingredient in dashi, the "mother" to miso soup and, in essence, the Japanese equivalent of a Jewish mother's chicken soup. So you know it's good for you.

I make this broth to serve as a "tea" that can be drunk with grilled fish. I also employ it to make an egg drop soup, which includes a quail egg.

Read Norman Van Aken's ode to bonito here.

Basic Bonito Broth Recipe
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Prep Time
10
minutes
Cook Time
10
minutes
Servings
2
Add noodles, meat, fish or vegetables to your bonito broth, also known as dashi, the essence of Japanese cuisine.
Total time: 20 minutes
Ingredients
  • 12 ounces Chicken stock (or water)
  • 1 2'' x 2'' piece konbu (dried Japanese kelp)
  • 1 cup bonito flakes
  • 1/2 tablespoon kosher salt
Directions
  1. Bring konbu up to a simmer with the chicken stock. 
  2. Add the bonito flakes. 
  3. Simmer 2 minutes on a very low temperature, then remove from the heat.
  4. Add salt. 
  5. Allow to steep 5 minutes. 
  6. Stir, strain and use or keep tightly covered in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
 
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