The Wikipedia article on glutamates provides a handy list of some common savory food items and their respective concentrations of both free and compound glutamates. This gave me an idea.
Free glutamates are responsible for umami, the basic taste I have previously discussed here. My goal for tonight’s risotto was to make the most umami-saturated, savory, salty, meaty (yet meatless) and satisfying risotto ever. To this end I employed tomatoes (with 140 milligrams of free glutamates per 100 grams), shōyu, (782 milligrams), Parmesan cheese (1200 milligrams), and of course, Marmite (1960 milligrams). I also used one of the most umami fungi in the forest, porcini mushrooms, along with the juice you get when you rehydrate them – which I have been saving in the freezer for months for a special occasion. I also threw in a splash of the black tea I was drinking (black is the most umami of teas thanks to its fermentation) on a whim.
When I cook, I think of umami as a foundation; a sturdy basement upon which to build a solid home out of other, more up-front flavors. Today I built my home out of garlic, in three forms: sautéed, fried, and roasted. The result was a garlicky-but-not-too-garlicky, sweet and tangy risotto with a deep, subtle stew-like quality punctuated by the lively textures of porcinis and whole tomatoes. Please enjoy.
Triple Garlic Umami Risotto (more…)
