This recipe goes hand in hand with my previous posts regarding the dashi stock recipes. Kaeshi is the essence of Japanese flavoring base to noodles soups and dipping sauce and can easily be used in many other dishes. My kids eat an entire broccoli head when I cook it in boiling water with a touch of kaeshi. This can be found in my fridge during the summer months mainly for my cold summer noodle dishes.

Mix one part kaeshi and dilute it with one part dashi (or more according to your taste) and you'll have yourself a homemade tsuyu sauce without MSG and with a vegetarian option (using the vegetarian dashi recipe).

Kaeshi (Japanese Noodle Sauce Base)

INGREDIENTS//Yields 500 ml

• 2 cups soy sauce or tamari
• 1/2 cup honmirin
• 1/2 cup sugar

INSTRUCTIONS

Add the honmirin to the sauce pan and bring it to a boil. Then turn down the heat to a low simmer to evaporate the alcohol.

Add the sugar and stir it around until melted.

Then add the soy sauce and bring up the heat (do not reach boiling point), stirring from time to time.

Once you see it begin to bubble, turn off the heat and let it cool.

Transfer it into a glass container and store it in the refigerator.

You can make a large batch of this sauce and store it in an airtight container for up to 3 months.

NOTE

Honmirin ("real mirin") is one of three types of mirin that you can easily find in the Japanese stores. It is a rice wine much like sake and is used for cooking. It contains the highest amount of alcohol of the three types. You can use the other mirins to make kaeshi as well.