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Corrine Trang's Essentials of Asian Cuisine lists 3 types of dashi -- ichiban (primary) dashi, made with konbu and bonito; niban (secondary) dashi, made by cooking the solids from ichiban dashi in fresh water; and konbu dashi, made only from konbu for use by vegetarians. Her method for konbu dashi is very simple -- soak 2 ounces of dried konbu in 2 quarts water for 12 hours, then strain.
She also suggests sautéing the rehydrated konbu with some soy sauce, a sprinkle of sugar, and a little mirin and serving it over sushi rice.
Since she's covering a lot of different cuisines, she doesn't offer many soup recipes, just a miso soup and this mushroom soup --
Fresh Autumn Mushroom Soup
8 cups konbu dashi
1/2 cup mirin
1/3 cup Japanese dark soy sauce
8 oyster mushroom caps, trimmed, cleaned, and halved or quartered lengthwise
8 medium fresh shiitake mushrooms, stemmed, caps julienned
8 fresh small cloud ear mushrooms, any hard knobs trimmed
2 scallions, root and dark green ends trimmed, and 6-inch stalks sliced into thin rounds
1 1/2 ounces fresh ginger, peeled and grated
3 ounces daikon, peeled and grated
Bring the dashi to boil in a stock pot over high heat. Reduce the heat medium-low and add the mirin, soy sauce, and mushrooms. Cook for 3 minutes. Ladle the soup into individual bowls and garnish with scallions, ginger, and daikon.
serves 4-6
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