5 Tastes in 5 Courses

Last night I hosted a Foodbuzz 24x24 dinner.  Each month Foodbuzz holds a contest for its Featured Publishers called 24x24 in which 24 special meals take place within the same 24 hours.  In order to enter the contest a Featured Publisher needs to create a proposal for a meal that will be made and enjoyed on a specific day of the month.  The winners are given $250 to make the proposal come to life.  I was lucky enough to be chosen for my proposal "5 Tastes in 5 Courses."  I was also selected a couple years ago for my dinner "A Little Feast on the Prairies."

5 Tastes in 5 Courses

My vision for this dinner was to create five courses, each celebrating one of the five basic tastes of sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami.  Four of our close friends joined us for this fun foodie evening.

Salty

We began with a selection of salty munchies including caviar, rice crackers with sea vegetables, sea weed, veggie straws, soft cheese and pretzels stuffed with peanut butter.

 

 

We enjoyed the appetizers with red wine.  

I was a paparazzo while my friends nibbled and sipped.

 

Bitter

Kale salad with lemon tahini dressing and walnuts.  This course was enjoyed with beer.

  

Sour

Ciorba (Romanian sour soup) with sour dough bread and whipped butter.

Umami  

Ultimate umami burger and french fries with truffle salt and homemade curry ketchup.

Ultimate Umami Burger

2 lbs lean ground beef

2 tablespoons Taste No. 5 Umami Paste (optional - fish sauce or soy sauce would work too)

Season with fresh ground pepper and truffle salt.

Mix the above ingredients.  Form into patties and then BBQ.  Top with bacon, Gruyere cheese, caramelized onions, mushrooms and Parmesan crisps.

 

 

 

Homemade Curried Ketchup 

2 pounds tomatoes (unpeeled and quartered)

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 T apple cider vinegar

1 T fresh ginger, chopped

3 cardamom pods

2 star anise

4 cloves

1 tsp onion powder

2 T curry powder

salt and pepper to taste

Put everything in a pot.  Simmer for about an hour (or more) until broken down and reduced.  Strain, discarding peels and spices.  Refrigerate. 

 

The truffle salt is quite potent so we put it on the table so our guest could adjust the seasoning on the fries to their liking. We also put regular ketchup, mayo and mustard out.

 

Sweet

There were three sweet desserts including red velvet coconut donuts:

Double chocolate merlot cookies:

 

Jumbo rainbow cookies:

I sent my guests home with little goodie bags - 5 Tastes to Try at Home.

Included: Pack of Smoothie Blend Jelly Bellies (Sweet), Dark Chocolate (Bitter), Dried Porcini Mushrooms (Umami), Sour Skittles (Sour), Pop Corners (Salty)

It turned out to be a great evening with yummy eats and great friends - Thanks Foodbuzz!  This dinner was the highlight of my weekend.

What was the highlight of your weekend?

What is your favourite of the 5 tastes?

 

Umami

By now most of you have probably heard of umami, the scientifically proven fifth taste.

Salty

Sweet

Sour

Bitter

Umami

Umami can best be described as savoury deliciousness, with its flavour due to in part to the amino acid glutamate. Umami was discovered in 1908 by a Japanese scientist, who wanted to uncover the source of deliciousness in dashi stock (made with kelp).  He isolated glutamate and coined the term umami to describe its distinct taste.  In the 1980s umami, found in glutamate, was scientifically accepted as the fifth taste.

Umami increases salivation, palatability, and reduces the need for salt. It has been referred to as the "perfect quality" in taste, or the reason you describe a particular meal as the "best thing I have ever tasted."

If you haven't heard of umami, you most likely have heard of MSG, which is a chemical flavour enhancer used to add glutamate to dishes.  Although the glutamate in MSG and umami is the same, umami is a natural taste, just like sweetness and bitterness, whereas MSG is artificial.

Foods with natural umami include, but are not limited to:

• Parmesan cheese (cheese is umami in general, but Parmesan in particular because it's low water content allows for concentrations of glutamate which are visible - ever notice those small white crystals in parm?  Umami at its finest and highest levels).
• Egg (especially yolk)
• Soy
• Fermented foods
• Beef (especially aged beef, like jerky)
• Pork (bacon anyone?)
• Chicken (chicken bones are packed with it - may be why chicken soup is so comforting)
• Mushrooms (both mushrooms and tomatoes appeal to our taste for protein, thus making good meat substitutes)
• Tomatoes (add parm and you have a real kicker!)
• Truffles
• Potatoes (including potato chips)
• Many sea foods

Some restaurants are catering to everyone's love for umami, and I hope to make it to one of these places in my travels: Umami Burger (LA, with one opening in NY late 2012), Umami (San Fransisco).  

Mmmmmm!

Until then, I will have to make my own umami dishes at home, and this stuff might help:

It is like natural MSG, adding pure umami deliciousness to any food I desire.  I picked it up while traveling in April but have yet to try it.   

The ingredient list includes: tomato paste, garlic, anchovy paste, black olives, balsamic vinegar, porcini mushrooms, Parmesan cheese, wine vinegar, olive oil, sugar and salt.  

What is your ultimate umami dish?