As steam began to rise from my pot, I plucked the glistening strands of kombu from the hot water and set them aside. I pulled the pot from the heat, added a handful of katsuobushi to the water, and watched the translucent fish flakes slowly sink beneath the surface. Minutes later, I poured the mix through a fine-mesh strainer to remove the fish, yielding a batch of elegantly perfumed, light golden dashi.
That simplicity is extraordinary among stocks, since many styles require loads of meat or vegetables plus hours of simmering and skimming to achieve depth and clarity. But with awase dashi, Japan’s ubiquitous stock made with kombu (dried kelp) and katsuobushi (dried, smoked, fermented, and shaved skipjack tuna flakes), it takes the barest effort to produce a limpid, savory elixir that’s delicately smoky and rich with the taste of the ocean. (There are multiple styles of dashi; “awase dashi” is the formal name for the most common style. The word “dashi” is derived from the verb “dasu,” meaning “to extract”). Many cooks
