Udon Dashi with Shiitake & Oysters

Dashi is as fundamental to Japanese cooking as Escoffier’s mother sauces are to fine French dining. What most home cooks don’t realize, is how much stock is used in restaurant kitchens. Homemade stock is made, and simmered overnight at least twice a week and used in just about every dish. It serves as the base for a multitude of soups, sauces, and pasta dishes. In Japan, Dashi is used very similarly, flavoring miso soups, simmering liquids, or noodle dishes.

My somewhat recent dashi discovery has elevated our simple weeknight meals, offering a speedy and healthy alternative to take-out. Just like there are many different types of stock, there are numerous varieties of dashi.

Three of the most common are Kombu (rehydrated sea kelp), Niboshi (sardine heads and entrails), and Shiitake (rehydrated mushrooms). Now a days, there are instant dashi broth packets that are sold throughout Asian markets and can be utilized within seconds. The common denominator with dashi is the unusual, strong flavor that was identified in 1908 as umami, or the “fifth flavor” attributed to human taste.

With the insane popularity of soup in America, especially this time of year, I am shocked that dashi soups and noodle dishes haven’t blown up in major cities (Chinatown excluded) yet. Sushi joints are a dime a dozen, and I predict that Shabu and noodle bars are the next craze to sweep the nation.

Humorously inexpensive Asian comfort food at it’s finest… a bowl (or plastic quart container) filled to the brim with the richest, piping hot broth you’ve ever tasted and stuffed with fresh noodles. It’s cheap, it’s healthy, and most importantly… it is delicious and satisfying. The other night, I combined a few of the different dashi making methods as well as tossing in a little surprise of my own.


I started off by rehydrating some dried Shiitake mushrooms and Kombu (dried sea kelp) in some steaming hot water. You can buy Kombu at an Asian market or even Whole Foods has multiple varieties. Out of the package, it looks like a big, dark green piece of plastic that chipped off a little kid’s Big Wheel. Once you soak it in nearly boiling water for about ten minutes, it comes back to life and flavors the water. The mushrooms do the same, and before you know it… the liquid left inside the bowl is good enough to be slurped up as is.

In a large pot, I sauteed some sliced lemongrass, onions, garlic and some dried Thai chilies for the base of my dashi. Once they were soft, I added the residual liquid from the Kombu and Shiitake as well as a few more quarts of scalding hot water.

This is where you want to flavor your broth to your liking all while tasting it continuously. I just so happened to have a few packets of Bonito flakes in the cupboard from a previous Shabu Shabu meal so I ripped one open and tossed the contents into the steaming cauldron. Bonito flakes are dried fish flakes that are pre-packaged and used in Japanese cooking to flavor dishes like this. I really have no possible way to describe the flavor because it is unlike anything I had ever been exposed to. All I can say about it is that it doesn’t taste “fishy” at all (a term that has negative connotations that I don’t like using and that was probably created by picky eaters who were at one point in their lives exposed to non fresh fish. “Fishy” to me is delicious… “fishy” to someone who doesn’t like fish is terrible).

After the broth simmered for a few minutes, I added a spoonful of white miso for some protein and flavor, as well as the rehydrated Shiitakes, sliced seaweed, and some fresh mushrooms. Cooking the Udon noodles is like cooking pasta directly inside of your tomato sauce; it’s unheard of but in this case it’s perfectly normal. As the noodles were cooking, I added a few slugs of quality soy sauce for some additional flavor and salt content.

A few more stirs, and a couple more slurps and the broth was perfect! Inside my trusty, plastic quart containers (which are FREE by the way at Whole Foods salad bar… up to five per visit) I placed a few surprises at the bottom. Three fresh oysters per serving that will eventually cook when the hot broth is ladeled over them, but will undoubtedly squirm up to the surface and present themselves as a deliciously, sneaky treat.

I portioned out the noodles into each container and then ladeled the remaining dashi over the top. A handful of sliced green onions and a set of chopsticks and we were ready to dive right in. The constant steam emitting from the quarts was unbearable at first, but then became addictive once the aromatics hit your face. For something that was so simple to create, it had an insane amount of complexity and layers of flavor. Once the broth cooled slightly we sat infront of our favorite t.v show and slurped away, trying to dodge the slippery noodles that slapped across our cheeks.

Alternating between chopsticks, and soup spoons, back and forth until we reduced the contents by at least half. It was then, when my first bivalve managed to float up to the surface and weaved its way into a tangly nest of noodles. That one bite of Udon, Shiitake and a plump, juicy oyster was one that I will remember for a long time. The rich, umami broth and the briny oyster was like earth and sea coming together as one inside of a cheap plastic bucket, resting in my lap. An ice cold Sapporo beer would have hit the spot, as well as the 2009 Husch Vineyards Chenin Blanc that we chilled and popped to compliment our dashi. Chenin blanc is one of the most versatile white wine grapes that is most commonly grown in the Loire Valley France.

Chenin can produce sweet, dry, and even sparkling wines. In Mendicino County, this vineyard produces an off-dry Chenin Blanc that fresh and vibrant. The honeydew melon and white, stone fruit flavors create a luscious, round mouthfeel followed by a finish full of acidity. The wine has a mysterious spicyness to it that I can’t quite put my finger on but it compliments the rich flavors in the dashi perfectly. Now that it’s getting colder out, treat yourself to a big bowl of comfort dashi and experience what Japan has been doing for centuries. It may not be your American comfort classic and wind up on your Thanksgiving day table, but I guarantee that you will be pleasantly surprised. Slurps up!
































































