I tried making my own dashi for ramen today. It was my first time, so I'd like to get some notes on improving the technique/flavor! Here is what I did:
- Wiped 20 grams of kombu gently with a damp cloth and soaked in 4 cups water for 4 hours. At this point, the water smelled like fresh leather.
- Turned heat on high, then removed the pot just before it boiled and removed the kombu.
- Let the liquid stand for 5 minutes, then added 20 grams of bonito flakes.
- Put the pot back on high heat, brought to a boil for 30 seconds, then removed the pot from heat and let sit for 10 minutes. Then I strained the liquid.
- Put the kombu & bonito flakes back in the pot with 4 cups of water and boiled for 10 minutes, then strained for a second batch.
- I read that spent kombu can be used to make tsukudani, so I tried that. I cooked and cooked and cooked and the kombu never got more tender. I ended up throwing it away.
When it came time to make ramen, I heated the dashi and added 2 tbsp mirin, 2 tbsp sake, 3 tbsp soy sauce, & some salt.
My ramen included mushrooms, rehydrated wakame, corn, noodles, soy sauce marinated eggs, green onion, sesame seeds, gochujang, & my dashi.
I am an uncultured girl who grew up in the backwoods, so I apologize if I used any words incorrectly or completely destroyed this process, but this was the best bowl of ramen I ever had. Maybe because I've been in the kitchen all day long, or maybe because it was just that good.
Thoughts? Tips? Notes?
by Me_Beach
4 Comments
Wait, did you add an animal broth to your dashi? Typically in combination with an animal soup, you’ll amplify the flavors with that dashi.
Kind of sounds like you made a dashi soup based ramen. Your tare being the mirin, sake, and soy sauce, which is kind of like that ramen basic flavor generic blend.
I’d send you to the ramen_lord ebook. Just google it. You can make a dashi based soup, but most of the time, dashi is added to an animal bone based soup to make a “double” soup. It can work really well!
You’ve got the right idea. Making a soup, and flavoring it with a sauce (your mirin, soy sauce, and sake). What I’d suggest next is making a flavorful stock out of a whole chicken. Mix that with your dashi, then try adding an aroma oil and a tare from the ramen lord ebook. That will get you the rest of the way to beginner ramen. Let me know if that didn’t make sense. 🙂
sounds pretty good for me
I think what you described there is pretty much a normal recipe for katsuo dashi
the noodle you used was actually somen, a close relative to ramen but made using higher hydration and using extrusion instead of rolling and cutting, and without alkaline
Maybe try some decent sake, that stuff is disgusting.