You can issue the default configuration process by running make xxx_defconfig and that make target is a file in the folder arch/arm/configs/. These default configurations are not designed to exactly fit your target, but are rather meant to be a superset so you only have to modify them a bit.
The make xxx_defconfig creates your initial .config, which you can now edit through make menuconfig and make your changes. After that, you can run make which will then compile the kernel using your settings.