I really, really love Japanese food. It's my favorite, and a lot of the philosophy behind washoku (Japanese home cooking) has influenced my cooking and eating style greatly. I'm big on simplicity of ingredients, seasonal cooking, using meat sparingly, and
umami over sweet, all of which can be largely attributed to my deep love for washoku. Dashi is one of the cornerstones of Japanese cooking, and with it's simplicity and versatility, you can definitely see why. You can use dashi anywhere you would use stock, and it's a great, healthy alternative to chicken or beef broth. There are many different kinds of traditional dashi, made from dried shiitake mushrooms, seaweed, etc, but this recipe is the most basic. All you need is kombu (a dried kelp) and bonito (or katsuobushi), which is flakes of dried, smoked skipjack tuna. Any Asian market will have these ingredients, and you should buy a big bag, because once you make dashi, you're gonna end up using it in everything. Also, from a cat lady standpoint, dried bonito flakes make a great cat treat.
