A member of the kelp family, kombu is a versatile pantry ingredient that provides dishes with umami flavor, nutrients, and minerals. Dried kombu can be used to make broth, added to beans to make them more digestible, and eaten in salads.
Most kombu comes from Hokkaidō, Japan. It is also cultivated in Korea, where it is known as dashima, and China, where it is known as haidai. (Maine kelp is similar and can be substituted for kombu.) Mildly salty and subtly sweet, kombu contains glutamic acid (the basis of monosodium glutamate, or MSG), which enhances flavor and tenderizes proteins.
Dried kombu may be found in East Asian markets and health food stores. The strips are often covered with a white powder from natural salts. Just wipe with a damp cloth before cooking. Store kombu in an airtight container away from sunlight and moisture.
Here are some of our favorite ways to use this sea vegetable:
• To make vegetarian broth. Kombu can be used to make a light broth for Asian soups like miso, noodle soup, and tofu soup. To make one quart of broth, fill a pot with 4 cups of water and a 4-6" strip of kombu. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Add soy sauce if desired. (Use the leftover strip of kombu in other recipes.)
• To make dashi. Kombu is combined with bonito to make dashi, an essential stock used in Japanese cooking.
• To soften beans. The amino acids in kombu help soften beans and make them more digestible. Add a 4-6" strip of kombu to a pot of cooking beans. After an hour or two, the kombu will disintegrate when stirred. (Any stray pieces should be tender enough to eat, or you can remove them.)
• In stews. Use kombu to enhance the flavor of vegetable stews. It is particularly good with root vegetables like carrots, parsnips, and turnips.
• In salads. Place kombu in a pot, cover with water, and simmer for an hour or until soft. Cut into strips and add to salads.
• As a condiment. Roast kombu in a dry skillet over medium heat until crisp. Crumble or grind it into a powder and use it as a salt substitute. Sprinkle it over grains, tofu, and vegetables.
Do you have any other suggestions?
Related: How To Stock a Vegetarian (or Vegan) Pantry
(Image: Flickr member FotoosVanRobin licensed under Creative Commons)
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Whenever I go to Chinatown, I see things that look similar to this, and I've longed to know what they are and how to prepare them. It takes a measure of boldness to purchase something that (in this picture) looks like a piece of tin roofing material.
I like the idea of trying it with beans (kind of sounds like adding a ham hock...) or in a stock. Maybe I'll be bold enough to try it!
Thanks for the info.
VW
www.margincomments.blogspot.com
i love kombu!
I like the above posting, however I have different information about the white salts that precipitate on the frond. These salts are the glutamic salts (glutamates) that provide the enyzmatic action that breaks down the undigestible protein in beans, allowing for a reduction in the flatulance component associated with bean cooking. Therefore, my information shows that the white salts should NOT be wiped off as the original poster suggests, but form part of the reason for adding Kombu or Kelp to the bean cooking process. I have used Kombu from Japan exclusively as their culture had provided long-standing methods of kelp harvesting. However, recently I have switched to "Atlantic Kombu", harvested in Maine, and found it, to my pleasure exceptional, as well as local from a business that has been around in the USA for 40 years. So the Japanese tradition of harvesting sea vegetables is alive and well here too.
There are other ingredients you can use to reduce flatulance, and excess foaming in cooking protein rich food. See WikiPedia for carminative. In my understanding, the way this works, is that there is a protein in dry beans that serve as a protection against the bean being "eaten" by animals, so that it can remain a seed and grow more beans. When the bean is soaked, and begins to sprout, that protein is activated, and it is undigestable to animals, who learn "don't eat that thing". By providing an enzyme that either converts starch to sugar, or by fermentation (converting sugar to alcohol), that protein can be pre-digested, to make it digestable by humans. That is why, in my understanding for the care to prepare beans with proper carminatives, including Kelp.