SALTED ANCHOVIES- MAGIC UMAMIBOMBS

Food is our common ground

A universial experience. James Beard

 
Salted anchovies contains a lot of free glutamate, the most important umami substance. This little magic fish is a very important ingredient in mediterranean cuisine, it is used as salt and in addition, you'll get the rich, complex umamitaste infused in your dish. Adding salted anchovies to a dish is an old european way of enhancing umami taste, similar to the use of fish sauce in asian food. And like fish sauce, It's not adding a fishy taste to your dish.

salted anchovies in olive oil, rich in umami!

Many known, and even more unknown mediterranean dishes include salted anchovies: Bagna Caôda is famous piedmontese dip with an abundant amount of salted anchovies.You'll find them as toppings on pizzas and in the pizza sauce, in tomatosauce for pasta. Anchovies will be used in sauces together with capers, tuna, tomatoes, but seldom together with the parmesan cheese. The famous dressing for Ceasars salat contains anchovies and/or worchestershiresauce, the latter beeing an anchovy sauce. The provencal anchoide is another example. As the name imply, this paste includes salted anchovies! 

The use of anchovies as a salty taste enhancer has ancient traditions in Europe.  The reminiscences of content in old emphoras from roman time have been analyzed and findings show they were filled with garum, a precious sauce in ancient Roman and Ottoman Empires, and produced in an almost identical way as todays oriental fishsauce!  For more information about the ancient Roman fish sauce, check this article. 

Enjoy anchovies in your food!

glass of turkish made salted anchovies

Korean style BEEF TARTARE - "yokhoe"

Beef Tartare is a dish consisting of raw beef and various garnishes, i.e. raw egg yolk, onion and pickled vegetables. In Norway we eat beef tartare with egg yolk, onion, pickled red beets, capers and pickled cornichon. Usually the beef is added some worchestershiresauce, salt and back pepper to taste.

This Korean style beef tartare is marinated and suitable as a first course or as a perfect lunch in a lowcarb diet, or why not when you're craving some proteins!

You get umami from the meat, soy sauce and fish sauce. Garlic and vinegar enhances development of free glutamate in the small meatstrips as well.

This is a recipe for 4 persons as a small appetizing first course.  

Use best quality fresh ingredients, preferably sirloin beef, cut in julienne (matchstick sized strips).

INGREDIENTS:

250g ½ pound sirloin beef from grassfed beef

1,5tbs soy sauce

2ts fish sauce

1 ts fluid neutral tasting honey  

2tbs sesamy oil (roasted)

1/2ts rice vinegar

4 cloves garlic, crushed and finely minced

Pinch of chilipepper to taste

Pine nuts or sesame seeds- roasted

Crunchy lettuce as plates

(4 egg yolks from quail with some added salt, optional)

METHOD:

Roast pine nuts or sesame seeds in a dry pan over medium heat.

Rinse salad leafs to use as plates and keep chilled in frigde or ice cold water

Chop beef in matchstick sized strips

Mix ingredients of marinade and add beef, seeds/nuts and serve immediately with a raw egg yolk as topping.

Enjoy!  

COMMENTS

If you have to roast sesame seeds yourselfes, be patient.  It might take you 10 to 15 minutes so why not roast a bigger portion. You can store them in the frigde for later use anyway!

FISH SAUCE - UMAMI IN A BOTTLE

 A bottle of fish sauce 

I'm very impressed by the taste enhancing properties of fish sauce. Fish sauce is as important in asian cooking as salted anchovies are in italian cooking, and both of them are full of umami from free glutamate.

The bottle you see on the photo is a common brand in Norway and I've also bought the same brand here in Turkey. Fish sauce is a staple condiment in my kitchen. I use it instead of salt and to add saltiness and umami in all my soups like the Tom Yum Gai, a tablespoon or two pr.litre/2 quarts in any soupstock is a magic twist.

Fish sauce is produced in several Asian countries and has about the same amount of free glutamate as the even more famous soy sauce. 900mg/100g, and  approx. 25% salt.

PRODUCTION OF FISH SAUCE
Fish sauce is made from fish i.e anchovies or sardines. The fresh fish is added salt that allows fermentation up to one year for high quality fish sauce. Enzymes in the fish as well as the salt break down the long protein chains into amino acids, where free glutamic acid is the main substance to create the savoury umami taste.  When the fermentation is done, the liquid is strained and has a transparent brownish red colour.  When you buy fish sauce, find a brand which is "naturally brewed" without any added taste enhancers.


SEVERAL WAYS TO USE FISH SAUCE
Here's one tip from Michael Rulhman,  in cookingbook "Ruhlmans TWENTY". There he shares a magic twist with 1tbs fish sauce added to the bechamel for macaroni & cheese. I tried this recipe and loved the taste, but macaroni & cheese has so much carbohydrates, I feel like gaining two pounds just by writing this down.    

I would  like to share more ideas and uses of fish sauce in western dishes with my blog readers. Do you have a creative way of using fish sauce in a dish? I can't wait to learn about that.

Tom Yum Gai - thai soup rich in umami

I'm fond of soups and this one is no exception. Since I make chicken stock fairly often, and not always know what I'm going to cook, I omit thyme and other aromatic herbs used in european stocks. The recipe below is based on the chicken stock I've posted here.

Now lets make a Tom Yum Gai, rich in synergic umami tastes.  

Tom Yum simply means "hot and spicy" and denotes a soup, the signature dish from Thailand par excellence. Tom Yum Gai is a chicken soup, but there are many variations of this soup, Tom Yam Goong is a classic prawn soup.

The first time I made this soup, I lacked both galangal, kaffir lime leaves and Thai chili paste, but nevertheless it turned out a delicious soup. The point is, as I have since experienced, to ensure balance between the spicy, sour and salty tastes in the soup, with a little sweetness and some herbs with slightly bitter notes added. Moreover, one must ensure umami from stock, fish sauce, mushrooms and tomatoes. 

I’ve discovered that the balance of primary tastes is more important than one single ingredient as long as I have good homemade chicken stock as a foundation. I’ve made lots of variations of this soup where lemon substitute lime, I’ve used parsley instead of cilantro, ginger instead of galangal, and red curry paste instead of  chili paste. If I don’t have  kaffir lime leaves, I use zest from half a lime.

And I always use good homemade chicken stock, lemon grass, fish sauce and some mushrooms. This soup is healthy, surprisingly hearty, almost fat-free, and it spreads promising scents around the kitchen. I love that!

Ingredients for 3 servings:

For the soup stock:

1 liter (2quarts) chicken stock (synergic umami)

1 stalk lemon grass, cut into quarters and knocked lightly so the fibers tear.

2-3 cm (1 inch) fresh ginger, thinly sliced

1 clove garlic crushed

2-3 kaffer lime leaves 

2 tablespoons fish sauce (free glutamate)

1tbs red curry paste or chili paste. (Red curry contains both a little fish sauce and shrimp paste, both rich in umami)

1 teaspoon sugar

The important umami rich ingredients to add

300g/ 10 oz chicken meat, breast or thighs

60g/2 oz fungi, preferably fresh shiitake or enoki mushrooms in thin slices

4 cherry tomatoes, cut into 8 wedges, or 1 tomato in small cubes

Other ingredients to provide great taste

½ - 1 tbsp peanut oil or a neutral oil with high smoking point. 

1 small onion or 2 shalotts, finely sliced

2 scallions (spring onions), finely sliced

1 fresh red chili, finely chopped 

1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro

juice of 1 lime.

METHOD

Heat the stock with the ingredients for the soup stock mentioned above and let simmer for 10 minutes. Strain.

Prepare the garnish for the soup.  If you have raw chicken meat, cut  into fine strips and fry in oil for one minute, then lower the temperature, add onions and chili and cook until soft, 4-5 minutes.  If you use cooked chicken meat, add it to the soup a few minutes before serving.

Add onions and the chili to the strained soup stock. Bring to a boil.

Add the mushrooms and the tomato wedges. Boil further till you see the mushrooms slices  are cooked through and the tomatoes are still holding their shape. Add the lime juice.

Taste.  Is there balance between the basic tastes? Is the soup salty enough, sour enough, strong enough and with a little sweetness? Can you feel the taste of umami filling your mouth?  In order to identify the basic taste properly, close your nostrils between your thumb and index finger. Now it is easier to identify the basic tastes. Adjust taste to your liking with a little more fish sauce, red curry and limejuice. 

Serve in deep soup bowles with a sprinkling of cilantro and lime wedges 
Enjoy!

COMMENTS ON THIS RECIPE

Other garnish? Yes, of course, use whatever you have in the fridge. You can add leek, chinese cabbage or various herbs.

You can also use this recipe to make a soup with fish, seafood and/or prawns
 The soup can also be served with cooked rice or noodles