00:0010 minutes on a Sunday that is all it takes to fill your freezers with homemade dashi packets
00:05that brew in to stock cleaner than anything store-bought. Think you can't pull this off?
00:10Watch and find out how easy it is. You can find a printable recipe on my website,
00:15just type homemade dashi packets that you into google and I'll see you there.
00:20So here's the thing about dashi, making it from scratch every single time is incredible,
00:25but honestly, carefully measuring our konbu and kasubushi on a Tuesday night, not happening.
00:32And those instant granules you'll find at the store taste, well, a little what I call junky,
00:38there's really no other word for it. It contains way more than just dashi ingredients.
00:44Store-bought dashi packets are a solid option that I've been recommending, but the good ones cost a lot,
00:50and even the ones labelled additive-free usually sneak in extras like powdered soy sauce or seasoning blends.
00:58And the reason is pretty straightforward. By adding seasoning to the packet,
01:04the manufacturer shapes the flavour profile for you. So when you brew it, you get this immediate
01:10wow this tastes amazing moment right out of the back. Absolutely nothing wrong with that, but just saying.
01:17If you know me, I like customising and building flavours myself, so I start making my own packets at home.
01:24One batch on a lazy Sunday morning gives me enough for weeks.
01:29I drop one into water before bed, and by the next morning, the clean stock is just sitting there in
01:35my fridge, ready to go. Let me show you how to put these together.
01:39We're working with 4 ingredients, 5g of dried konbu, 12g of katoobushi, 3g of niboshi, and 2g of dried shiitake
01:52mushrooms.
01:53Let me quickly talk about each one. Konbu is your umami foundation. Different varieties produce different
02:00stocks. Ma and Rishiri konbu give you something refined and elegant. Great for delicate soups.
02:06Hidaka konbu is more affordable and brews a bolder stock.
02:11For bonito flakes, I specifically recommend thick cut shavings over thin if possible. The thin ones are
02:18super light and fluffy, so they take up a ton of space in the processor and just fly around instead
02:24of
02:24getting caught by the blade. Thick cut shavings are denser, they drop right into the blade, and they grind
02:32evenly in one go. Much less hassle. Niboshi are small dried sardines, and they bring a bold,
02:39briny punch that is especially good in miso soup and udon broth. The key thing here is preparation.
02:45You absolutely need to snap off the heads and pull out the dark guts before grinding. Those parts contain
02:51compounds that will make your dashi bitter and fishy. And finally, dried shiitake mushrooms. I recommend
02:59the sliced kind over the whole caps for one simple reason. Whole dried shiitake can be rock hard,
03:06and can be tough on a small food processor. The sliced ones are thinner, they break down easily,
03:12and they distribute more evenly through the blend. Now grab your food processor or small blender,
03:19we're going to grind the konbu first. And here is a detail that matters more than you might think.
03:25You want to pulse the konbu into coarse chips, not a fine powder. If you grind it too fine,
03:32it releases slimy, stringent compounds too quickly when it hits water, and your dashi ends up cloudy,
03:40maybe even slimy. Keeping it chunkier slows down distraction rate, which is exactly what we want for
03:48for a clean stock. Next, add the kasobushi, the cleaned niboshi, and the dried shiitake into the processor.
03:55If you're using thin bonito shavings instead of thick cut, you will probably need to do this in batches.
04:03Thin shavings are so light and fluffy that they take up a lot of space and tend to fly around
04:09rather
04:09than getting caught by the blade. Pour the ground mixture into the container with your konbu chips,
04:16and give it all a good stir until everything is evenly distributed. Now we portion. Spoon 4g of the
04:25blend into each empty tea bag and seal it up. Each 4g packet is designed to make about 500ml of
04:35cold
04:35brewed dashi and then another 500ml of simmered dashi from the same packet. So roughly 1 litre total
04:43from one tiny bag. If you want to make a larger batch in one go, just double it to 8g
04:51per packet
04:52for 1 litre of cold brewed plus 1 litre of simmered. This recipe gives you about 22g of total blend,
05:00which works out to 5 full grams packets. If you want something lighter or to save money,
05:07try 7g per litre. If you want it more concentrated, bump it up to 9g.
05:15Alright, let me show you the cold brew method. Drop one full grams packet into a container with
05:21500ml of cold water or a full litre if you are using an 8g packet. Cover it up and put
05:30it
05:30in the fridge for at least 12 hours. That is it. No stove, no flotting, no fussing.
05:37One quick note about water. If you live in an area with hard tap water, it is worth using filtered
05:43or bottled soft water for this step. Hard water contains calcium and magnesium that bind with
05:50glutamic acid and basically lock it away so your dashi ends up weaker no matter how good your ingredients are.
05:59Look at this. This is a finished cold brew Ichibandashi, the first extraction,
06:04the purest expression of those ingredients. Now take the packets out and set it aside,
06:11but do not throw it away. We're going to extract even more flavour from it. Transfer that used packet
06:18into a pot with another 500ml of fresh water. Bring the heat up to medium-low until the surface of
06:26the
06:26water just barely trembles. We want a gentle simmer just below boiling and hold it there for about 10
06:34minutes. This is Yonibandashi, the second extraction. It is a bit more rustic than the cold brew.
06:42So think about it. From one little 4g packet, you get about 500ml of Ichibandashi and another 500ml of Nibandashi.
06:53I mean a bit less after some evaporation. That is nearly a litre of homemade stock from this little teabag.
07:01And we're still not done with the packet. Even after 2 rounds of extraction, the spent ingredients have a
07:08little more to give. Empty the contents of the used packet into a dry frying pan and heat it on
07:15low.
07:16Stir continuously until everything is completely dry and toasty.
07:21Then add a splash of soy sauce, a drizzle of mirin, and a pinch of sugar.
07:26Mix it all together and you have got yourself a simple frikake. A rice seasoning you can sprinkle
07:32over a hot bowl of rice. Zero waste. For storage, make a batch of packets on the weekend and keep
07:39the ones
07:40you are not using right away in a sealed freezer bag in the freezer. They will stay good for 2
07:46-3 months,
07:47but the aroma does fade gradually so I personally try to use them up within the first week or 2
07:53for the best flavour.
07:55And that is your homemade dashi packets. A batch takes about 10 minutes on a quiet Sunday,
08:02and from there you have got effortless clean dashi whenever you need it.
08:08Want even more delicious recipes? Grab my free cookbook from the link in the description.
08:14That's a wrap. You can find the full printable version of this recipe on my website linked right
08:19here on the screen. It has all the extra details to help you get it perfect every time.
08:25If you enjoyed this, check out my ultimate playlist. And next week, I'm making easy ponzu salmon.
08:31Hit subscribe so you don't miss it. See you then.
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