Every cook wants to serve flavor sensations. Most cooks that I know are also pressed for time. Are there ingredients that will easily give a dish the oomph it needs to warrant oohs and aahs? Or at least not moans and groans? Yes.
In her newly released cookbook “Umami Bomb” (Workman, $19.95), author Raquel Pelzel explores the magic of umami, also known as the fifth taste. Chapters focus on Parmesan cheese, tomatoes, mushrooms, miso, caramelized onion, smoke and soy sauce.
“When you have a great soy sauce, you can just tell,” she writes in the introduction to the soy sauce chapter. “It’s round and sweet and has a mushroomy, fermented quality that is almost like sherry.”
She puts soy sauce to work with red wine as a sauce to be poured over soba noodles, broiled tofu and veggies brightened by rice wine and lime juice.
This savory, room-temperature dish is a belly-filling flavor sensation. It doesn’t require heavy lifting and makes for a lovely meal in early autumn.
Excerpted from “Umami Bomb: 75 Vegetarian Recipes That Explode With Flavor” by Raquel Pelzel (Workman Publishing). Copyright © 2019.
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