Dashi with mushrooms and chestnuts

Begin with the dashi: put 35 g dried mushrooms, 6 roughly chopped spring onions,  4 cloves of garlic, 10 g fresh ginger,  35 g kombu and a liter water into a large pan and bring to the boil. Add a good pinch of salt, reduce to a very gentle simmer and cook for an hour

Trim 125 g mushrooms (today I only had chestnut mushrooms) and add the excess trim to your mushroom broth. Thickly slice the  trimmed mushrooms and reserve for later

Once the broth has been cooking for an hour, strain through a fine sieve and dicard the solids. 

Pour a little of the broth into a bowl and mix in 1/2 tbsp miso, 1/2 tbsp soy sauce, 1/2 tbsp mirin and 1/2 tbsp rice vinegar, then pour the mixture back into the broth (this helps to avoid lumps of miso in your soup). Taste and season the broth until you're happy with it

Peel 2 cm fresh ginger, slice thinly and then cut into mini-matchsticks. Finely dice a shallot and a clove of garlic. And slice the white of a scallion

  

Heat vegetable oil in a wok over medium heat until shimmering. Add ginger, garlic, and scallions, and cook, stirring, over until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add 125 gr halved cooked chestnuts and continue stirring for 1 minute. Add the 125 g quartered chestnut mushrooms and stir for 1 additional minute.

Increase heat to high. Add 2 tbsp dark soy sauce and 2 tbsp and light soy sauce, stirring to combine., about 1 minute. Stir in 1 tsp sesame oil, add 250 ml dashi.

Serve immediately in warmed bowls, add some beansprouts and the green of a spring onion. 

(Freeze the rest of the dashi)

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