This is a delicious light, flavoursome and healthy dish with a complex broth. We have used cod in this recipe but you can use a white fish of your choice. When buying fish look for ‘sustainable, wild and traceable’ if at all possible.
The broth recipe has no added fat and is highly nutritious as it uses seaweed and kombu (a type of seaweed used in Asian broths which adds a great depth of flavour to the broth), lots of ginger, fresh coriander and three types of Asian mushrooms.
Soak the kombu seaweed (or similar dried kelp) in 1.5 litres of water for at least 8 hours or overnight. Bring the mixture to a simmer, chop the coriander stalks and add these with 50g of the grated ginger, and the soy (or tamari) sauce. Cook the broth for 20 minutes, then add the bonito flakes. take off the heat and leave to infuse for 10 minutes
Soak the dried seaweed in cold water for 10 minutes, then drain well.
Strain the broth through a fine sieve.
In a bowl, add the rest of the grated ginger, zest of one lemon to the cod pieces and season with salt. Wrap each piece of cod tightly in cling film so that the fish retains the flavour whilst cooking.
Tear and chop the oyster mushrooms, shiitake and enoki. Chop the drained seaweed thinly. Roughly chop the coriander leaves. Bring the dashi stock back to the boil.
Put the seaweed and mushrooms into the dashi broth and cook for 2 minutes. Season with salt and lemon juice.
Lower the fish, still in the clingfilm, into simmering water for approximately 3-4 minutes.
When the fish fillets are cooked through, lift them out of the water and carefully remove the clingfilm. Divide the mushrooms and seaweed between 4 dishes, put a fish fillet on top of each, then ladle the broth over.
Ensure the kombu is soaked the night before. The recipe also uses Bonito flakes; dried, fermented and smoked skipjack tuna flakes, another main flavour player in Dashi.
Our preference is to poach the fish gently separately wrapped in cling film and then add the broth. You may wish to poach directly in the broth for added flavour but be aware that it may make your broth a little cloudy.
