Konbu
Konbu is one of the most popular forms of sea weed in Japanese cooking. It is a broad tough kelp that grows in long lengths in the seas surrounding Japan. It is harvested in summer but since most of the crop is dried it is available all year round. Konbu’s most popular use is in the preparation of dashi stock. Home made versions and commercial products both use konbu as a basic ingredient. This is understandable because surprisingly Konbu is a rich source of the chemical that most of the world knows as MSG. MSG is famous for its ability to bring out flavour in a dish and also occurs in Parmesan cheese, green tea and tomato juice, none of which taste anything like Konbu.
Konbu is also cooked and eaten in dishes like oden stew and a few special new year preparations. Old timers used to chew some form of Konbu instead of chewing gum, but I wouldn’t recommend this if you had the objective of freshening your breath.
Dry konbu will keep for a long time if it is kept sealed up and out of sunlight. A little white powder on the surface is normal as long as it stays very dry. Soak it in water for half an hour and off you go, but don’t throw out the water as you have inadvertently started making your own dashi stock as you reconstituted the konbu.
Tags: Ingredient Spotlight, JapaneseRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Ingredient Spotlight, Japanese
2 opinions for Konbu
The Cooking Ninja
Jul 9, 2007 at 7:50 am
I was told not to throw away the konbu after being soaked as it can be reused again. Is that true? If yes, how many time can we use it before its usage is over.
Tom
Jul 15, 2007 at 7:35 pm
Hi
Instead of throwing it away, a lot of people cook it into another dish. Otherwise I can’t see why you couldn’t store it again if it was thoroughly dried. When I say dried, I think it would have to be thoroughly dried and stored like it was when you bought it. There must be a limit on the number of times that it was used. Eventually it might be flavourless, but that would be after some time.
Good luck trying to explain to your neighbours why you have sea weed drying on your line with your socks.
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