Other Names dashima, dasima, haidai, kelp Description Kombu is a type of thick flat seaweed cultivated in the northern waters of Japan. Although it may sound like a plant, seaweed is technically classified as a type of algae. Kombu comes in many forms making it a versatile ingredient with uses ranging from soup stocks to …
Other Names
dashima, dasima, haidai, kelp.
Description
Kombu is a type of thick flat seaweed cultivated in the northern waters of Japan. Although it may sound like a plant, seaweed is technically classified as a type of algae. Kombu comes in many forms making it a versatile ingredient with uses ranging from soup stocks to wrappers and is even eaten as a snack. While it's rare to find it fresh outside the areas where it's harvested, it is dried, salted or vinegared and distributed all over the world.
What's it taste like?
Because of the high concentration of glutamic acids, a building block of MSG, kombu is filled with umami. It's not fishy at all, with a briny, almost mushroom-like flavour. The white powder on the outside is where much of the flavour is, so don't wash it off.
Where do I get it?
You can find kombu at almost any Asian grocery store in bags. Dashi kombu typically comes in small rippled sheets about half the size of a credit card. Look for uniform sheets with lots of white powder on the outside. The bigger sheets are typically for rehydrating and wrapping around things such as fish. Salted kombu comes in thin strips and is covered in salt. If in doubt check the label. Most imported foods in the US have labels translated in English. If not you can look for bags with the following symbols either 出汁 or だし
When is it best?
There's no season and dried kombu will keep for a very long time.
How do I use it?
Kombu is most commonly used for making dashi and other soup stocks. The broth it produces is very mellow with a briny umami-filled flavour that bolsters other more flavourful dashi ingredients such as katsuobushi or niboshi. In larger sheets it can be rehydrated and used to wrap seafood or meat for stewing. The salted variety can be mixed with hot rice, or be added to porridge. There are also some snack varieties that are either dried or salted and vinegared and make a good accompaniment for alcoholic beverages.
Nutrition
Kombu is high in Iodine, Vitamin K, Folate, Magnesium, Calcium and Iron.
jwu student says
love using different sea weeds in my cooking good to see some one give it a little publicity:-)
Peter Howie says
Great article. There's a lot of good info here, though I did want to let you know something - I am running Mac OS X with the circulating beta of Firefox, and the look and feel of your blog is kind of funky for me. I can read the articles, but the navigation doesn't function so great.
Thomas Abraham says
I am on a blood thinner and I must restrict my consumption of vitamin K daily. What is a serving size of kumbu?
Marc Matsumoto says
I suppose it depends on how you use it. For dashi, you don't use a lot since you don't eat the kombu itself. But if you use it in a way that you actually eat the kombu it would depend on how much eat.
Wasi says
Hi thanks for the article. Ones the kombu is rehydrate how long can I keep it in the fridge? Thanks
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Wasi, I've never tried to see how long it keeps, but I would say no more than a few days. Usually when rehydrating konbu you use the liquid as dashi, and then either throw away the konbu, or use it in a cooked dish right away so there's no need to store it for long periods of time.