A quiet Saturday afternoon on a sunny Winter’s day. We have been experimenting with letting the kitties outside on our upper decks when the weather is nice. So far they have been behaving, except for the one time Pandora jumped on the ledge and gave me a heart attack as she teeter tottered unsteadily for what seemed like forever.
So while I kept better watch over our daredevil kitties, the hubs carefully filleted fish and peeled shrimp to make fish balls for the dashi broth he had on the stove all morning. In between watching the kitties and tasting Sly’s broth (someone has to do it), I took photos of the slowly fermenting lemons that had been sitting on our kitchen table. Eventually we left the house for some tea and hookah with the sis and bf at our neighborhood Iraqi tea house, then came back home and ate more soup.
Sly’s simple dashi recipe:
Ingredients:
1 sheet of kombu seaweed, approx. 4×4 in size
2 c. dried bonito flakes
Directions:
- Soak the sheet of seaweed in 2.5 qts of cold water for about 30 min.
- Turn heat to medium until water starts to bubble, but not boil. About 10 min.
- Take out seaweed and bring water to a boil
- Once boilimg, add 2 cups of bonito flakes
- Reduce heat and simmer 10 min.(you can adjust the time based on how strong you prefer your broth).
- Strain the bonito flakes from the broth
- Serve plain, or with scallions, tofu, seafood, Japanese style egg, etc. Dashi is a great, delicate soup base for pretty much anything and can be eaten as a soup or poured over an entree as a light sauce.
