Tsukudani of kombu is an excellent way to use left over kombu from dashi. It’s a tasty snack to help the beer go down at the end of a hard day’s work or a simple meal to enjoy atop a bowl of rice. There is something about the sweet/savoury/salty goodness that makes it very moreish. Although there are many commercial ready made kombu no tsukudani I have never been able to find one as good as homemade.
Kombu no tsukudani recipe
Ingredients
- 15g kombu left over from making dashi
- 500ml water
- 1 tablespoon high quality Japanese soy (shoyu)
- 2 tablespoons cooking sake
- 2 tablespoons Japanese sugar
- 1 1/2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar (we use genmai vinegar for extra punch)
* Adjust the shoyu/sugar/vinegar balance in the recipe to your liking
sliced kombu ready for tsukudani
Slice kombu into strips, squares or diamonds and place in heavy bottomed pot with all other ingredients. Put on a low simmer until the liquid is gone and you are left with slightly sticky semi translucent pieces of ‘al dente’ kombu.
You will need to simmer for 2-3 hours in total so if the water has evaporated beforehand you will need to top the water up a little.
Best enjoyed cold as a condiment or on top of a steaming bowl of white rice.
1 Comment
I love blog articles like this one – not being Japanese myself, I am always on the lookout for what a true Japanese would eat on a day to day basis (not just sushi and sashimi!). It’s simplicity at its truest, what a busy person would whip up for themselves for quick lunch, but also delicious enough as a little accompaniment for a dinner party. Japanese comfort food, that’s what I would love to learn more of. This is so easy to add to my repertoire!