Noma Projects will launch a dashi syrup reduction next week. This is yet another product to come out of the Noma Projects kitchen. The dashi syrup will be released for sale on May 11. The savoury syrup packs layers of flavour from the sea and is used to drizzle on roast vegetables, steamed fish, eggs or steamed rice.
As part of the launch, Noma Projects is also selling a tool that works with the Dashi RDX. It is a brush that is one of the favourite utensils of Noma in the kitchen to finish seasoning any dish.
“We have a huge appreciation for the attention and craftsmanship of kitchen utensils in Japan. So, for this launch we have sourced a small number of handcrafted Japanese brushes made from bamboo and horsehair to use with your Dashi RDX at home.”
Reductions are an essential part of the noma story. They are referred in the noma kithcen as RDX and start with miso. During the formative years of noma, when the fermentation lab was on a houseboat, the team had experimented with the process of making miso after some very inspiring research trips to Japan. As rice and soybeans are not native to Denmark, they tried making miso out of different local grains and legumes. They finally managedwith barley koji and split yellow peas, which came to be known among our team as peaso. “While making peaso we discovered the world of tamari, which traditionally comes from the liquid that separates and sits atop the solids of the miso base, and then slowly evaporates as it ferments over time. The “tamari” liquid extracted from our peaso was so delicious, it was a light bulb moment and kickstarted a deep dive into tamaris.”
“We wanted to see if it was possible to replicate the flavor of tamari in a quicker way than the evaporation that happens during the natural fermentation process. To speed things up, we blended our peaso with water for the base, experimented with adding the juices of every fruit or vegetable we had at our disposal, clarified the liquid, and then reduced those mixtures using very low heat until reaching a gently caramelized, syrup-like consistency. This is the process we refer to when we speak about RDX, or our series of reductions.”
The results yielded some very exciting and umami rich sauces, many of which quickly became staples on the noma pantry shelf. The team has now refined this technique, using different iterations of these reductions on the menus through the years, and Dashi RDX is the first to be bottled and share with home cooks.
Noma Projects products have often sold out very quickly. It is still possible to buy Smoked Mushroom Garum from the store but other released products like Wild Rose Vinegar, Forager’s vinaigrette, cep oil and whisky vinegar have all sold out.
Leave a Reply