kombu

Kombu is known as the king of the kelp because of the fragrant bouquet and its ability to produce crystal clear, mellow sweet and rich refined dashi stock. Dashi Kombu is a wide, thick dark green seaweed which grows in the cold, deep ocean waters around Hokkaido. The Kombu Road starts at Hokkaido moves thru Osaka, then Okinawa & China. 2 year old kombu is harvested between mid-July and mid-August. After the early morning harvest hundreds of large moist kelp leaves are spread out on pebbles on the beach and naturally dried in the sun. Before the sun goes down the partially dried kelp is brought into the factory barn and stacked for overnight storage. The next morning, they are laid out on the beach pebbles again. This process is repeated over several more days. Then the hard, dried kelp is left outside overnight after sunset to absorb nighttime moisture, making the kelp flexible, allowing it to be stretched and rolled up for storage. Now the kelp only weights 9% of the weight of the original material. Out of all-natural foods, Kombu has the highest one of the highest concentrations of the key Umami partner, Glutamic acid. Perfect to prepare a light dashi. Japanese chefs use it to marinate foie gras, with miso, fresh fish fillets, beans & vegetables.

These small strips come from sundried aged MA Kombu. MA Kombu is known as the king of the kelp because of the fragrant bouquet and its ability to produce crystal clear, mellow sweet and rich refined dashi stock. 2 year old MA kombu is harvested between mid July and mid August. After the early morning harvest hundreds of large moist kelp leaves are spread out on pebbles on the beach and naturally dried in the sun. Before the sun goes down the partially dried kelp is brought into the factory barn and stacked for overnight storage. The next morning they are laid out on the beach pebbles again. This process is repeated over several more days. Then the hard dried kelp is left outside overnight after sunset to absorb nighttime moisture, making the kelp flexible, allowing it to be stretched and rolled up for storage. Now the kelp only weights 9% of the weight of the original material. Next this wild sea plant is uniformly trimmed into small dashi ideal strips to finish this chef ready ingredient. Out of all natural foods, MA Kombu has the highest concentration of the key Umami partner , Glutamic acid.