Not only is dashi one of the most delicious things on earth, it's necessary for many Japanese meals and cooking techniques. Sure, you've heard of soy sauce, sake, and sushi-- but dashi, a kind of stock, is the real star of Japanese cuisine. You like miso soup? Well, that has a dashi base. What about ramen (not the crap that comes in a bag)? Dashi base. Even the sweet egg sushi simply called tamago (egg in Japanese) has dashi mixed into it.
Why is this stuff so darn delicious? Umami is the answer. Umami derives from the Japanese word for delicious, umai, and is used to describe the sensation of savory foods on the tongue. Some people don't like including it along with the tastes of sweet, sour, bitter, and salty, while others call umami the fifth basic taste. Regardless, dashi is chalk-full of the stuff, and Japanese dishes often are heavy in this department.
The most common dashi you'll encounter is made by soaking edible kelp (kombu) and katsuobushi (dried and fermented fish flakes) in simmering water to extract their flavors. Another method involves soaking dried shiitake to make a stock, but the dashi I'm using today is an instant or powdered dashi made from sardines. The sardine dashi is pretty subtle and should not overwhelm the delicate flavor of the flounder or whatever fish you choose to serve. I will also make this with scallops if I'm feeling fancy.
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| Scallops with Dashi Air and Red Pepper Celeriac Puree |
While dashi stocks and broths are perfect for those wintertime months, the temperature is beginning to rise again and maybe you want to incorporate the great flavor of this Japanese stock into a dish without it being too warm or overwhelming. The answer to this lies in a modernist technique using soy lecithin to make a dashi "air." I think the word foam better describes this technique, but modernist chefs use that for something else, so air it is.
If you don't have soy lecithin, a naturally occurring emulsifier and thickener found in things like eggs, milk, and soybeans, then you won't be able to make an air. Check the internet or health stores for powdered soy lecithin. A lot of places sell stuff that is GMO free, organic, et cetera, et cetera, so don't come at me like I'm trying to poison you and your children.
Anyway, adding lecithin to a cold dashi and giving it a buzz with the immersion blender creates a layer of edible foamy bubbles that contain the flavor of your stock, while creating an effervescent and refreshing mouth-feel. Where a halibut fillet in a dashi broth would be too heavy for a spring or summer meal, that same piece of fish with a dashi air delivers identically deep flavors while remaining light and invigorating. When it's all said and done, this is really just a fancy way for chefs to incorporate a juice or flavored liquid onto the plate in a dramatic way, so don't be intimidated.
If you've got an immersion blender and access to the internet or a Japanese grocery store to get the rest of the goods, then I promise you can make this. Don't just eat it with flounder either. Try this on other whitefish, salmon, and scallops-- and like I try to do with most of my recipes, cross this technique over for dishes that aren't Japanese. This will not only impress your guests, they'll be tricked into thinking you know what the hell you're doing in the kitchen when you place a lime air on some pescado a la veracruzana, or maybe a mushroom one to go with that steak dinner. Enjoy.
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Ingredients:
Flounder
1 fillet flounder or any whitefish or wild salmon
kosher salt
black pepper
cayenne
flour
milk or 1 egg, lightly beaten
homemade panko bread crumbs
neutral oil for cooking
Dashi Air
1 small shallot, sliced
1 clove of garlic, thinly sliced
5 slices of ginger
2 t soy sauce
2 t mirin
8 fl oz water
1 packet of sardine dashi powder, 5 grams
2 g soy lecithin
Special Equipment: Immersion or stick blender
1 fillet, 2 servings
|
Calories
|
Protein
(g)
|
Carbs
(g)
|
Fat
(g)
|
Sodium
(mg)
|
Sugar
(g)
|
Total:
|
211
|
34
|
13
|
2
|
620
|
0
|
Per Serving:
|
106
|
17
|
7
|
1
|
310
|
0
|
1. Quickly saute shallot, garlic, and ginger in a tiny drop of oil. If you use too much oil, you might have trouble making the air in the end, 2-3 minutes.
2. Add in soy sauce, mirin, and water and bring to a boil.
3. Reduce to a simmer and stir in dashi powder. You can simmer this up to thirty minutes to draw the flavor out of the ginger, garlic, and shallots, or simmer for just 5 minutes.
4. Strain the dashi and allow to cool. If you are in a rush, stir the dashi in a bath of cold water.
5. Once the dashi is cool, mix in lecithin with an immersion blender. Place mixture in the refrigerator until cold.
6. Pat fillet dry and season with salt on both sides. Season with pepper and cayenne on the side you plan to bread. I like to coat the flat side with breading. You can season both sides, or coat the whole fillet, but I like flounder's delicate flavor, and prefer to not overwhelm it with heavy breading and seasoning.
7. Dredge one side of fillet in flour (shake off excess), milk or egg wash (shake off excess), and panko (shake off excess).
8. Place the fillet in a thin layer of hot oil, breading side down. Fry for around 1:30 to 2 minutes. Flip fillet once mostly cooked (opaque) and panko is golden brown. Cook until fillet is firm and flakes to the touch. Remove fillet from pan and let drain on paper towels.
9. Remove dashi from refrigerator. The air forms best when the mixture is cold. Using an immersion blender, mix the dashi moving the blender up and down to incorporate as much air as possible. Once you've got a decent layer of foamy bubbles (say an inch), let the air sit for about a minute to fully hydrate. Use a slotted spoon when placing the air on your fillet.
10. Garnish with some chives and serve with greens and/or a puree for a composed appetizer or entree (depending on the serving size).
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