Ultimate umami.

As many of you already know, the umami taste (6 taste = sweet, sour, salt, bitter, umami) is savory, often found in meats, seafoods, mushrooms, seafoods, fermented products, and even tomatoes! Foods that are high in umami taste have higher glutamate, inositate, and guanylate content. These molecules combine with sodium and potassium ions to create the umami taste that we humans love. It’s almost salty, but not quite.

Dashi is a ubiquitous Japanese stock that can be made with seaweed (Kombu), mushrooms (shiitake), dried fish flakes (bonito), and/or dried anchovies. You can make either a vegan version (delicious!) or a non-vegan version (delicious!). So what do you use it in and how do you make it? To be succinct, you can use it to make any soup, stew, or concoction that calls for some sort of stock. To make it, you just infuse cold water with the dried ingredients (any combination will do!), and set it in the fridge overnight. If you want specifics… for every 4 cups of cold water, you can add one part of each ingredient noted above — make sure you have at least two parts of something for every 4 cups. It’s really choose your own adventure with this Dashi stock!