Comments on: All the Greens that Grow: Umami in Vegetables http://www.tigersandstrawberries.com/2006/01/10/all-the-greens-that-grow-umami-in-vegetables/ Cook Local, Eat Global Wed, 29 Aug 2012 23:26:54 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Barbara http://www.tigersandstrawberries.com/2006/01/10/all-the-greens-that-grow-umami-in-vegetables/#comment-1836 Barbara Wed, 11 Jan 2006 18:00:10 +0000 http://www.tigersandstrawberries.com/2006/01/10/all-the-greens-that-grow-umami-in-vegetables/#comment-1836 Thank you, Lizzymommy–I am glad that you are enjoying the blog!

Try putting kale in soup sometime–it adds a lot of flavor and it is how I slip kale past Zak on a semi-regular basis!

]]> By: Lizzymommy http://www.tigersandstrawberries.com/2006/01/10/all-the-greens-that-grow-umami-in-vegetables/#comment-1833 Lizzymommy Wed, 11 Jan 2006 16:15:20 +0000 http://www.tigersandstrawberries.com/2006/01/10/all-the-greens-that-grow-umami-in-vegetables/#comment-1833 So what you’re saying is that my dinner tonight of good ol’ vegetable soup was full of umami? Sweet!

:)

Cabbage, potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, plus lots of other stuff, topped off with a good shaving of parmiggiano reggiano (yes, I know I butchered the spelling of that). I think I’ll toss in some soybeans (given that I’d not gotten around to putting in the beans yet) for tomorrow and have me an umami feast!

This post was really just me dropping in to say how very much I enjoy your posts…

]]> By: Barbara http://www.tigersandstrawberries.com/2006/01/10/all-the-greens-that-grow-umami-in-vegetables/#comment-1829 Barbara Wed, 11 Jan 2006 04:02:36 +0000 http://www.tigersandstrawberries.com/2006/01/10/all-the-greens-that-grow-umami-in-vegetables/#comment-1829 Actually, that above comment is from Jennifer, who was having trouble getting it posted, so she emailed it to me. And I posted it and it still came up under my name.

But, in answer to her question–broccoli and cauliflower are both brassicas–in the same family as the leafy greens and cabbages, so my suspicion is that they, too, are endowed with natural umami.

As for the minced up mushrooms under the skin–that is a French trick–a mixture of minced up, sauteed mushrooms is called duxelle, and they are commonly used as stuffings or forcemeat (farsi) in meat cookery, terrine, pate and the like. I can’t take credit for the idea at all, just so you know.

Most duxelle, however, are made from fresh mushrooms. I think that a combination of fresh and dried mushrooms that had been rehydrated in red wine or sherry would be the best. The juices and wine from the mushrooms would bathe the flesh of the chicken, and enrich the pan drippings, which are already making the vegetables underneath them a thing of beauty.

As for your Kentucky grandma–both of my grandmas were from West Virginia, and I bet they cooked a damned site like yours still does. Feel free to let her know that science has proven how her food is so good.

All of this umami business has started really showing me that all the old ways of the kitchen–the way that grandmothers around the globe in fine homes and sometimes, especially, in poor ones–the frugal ways were really on the right track, and it would be a shame to lose all of that in the name of fast food.

Not only is peasant food good food, but slow food is good food, too.

]]> By: Barbara http://www.tigersandstrawberries.com/2006/01/10/all-the-greens-that-grow-umami-in-vegetables/#comment-1828 Barbara Wed, 11 Jan 2006 03:54:23 +0000 http://www.tigersandstrawberries.com/2006/01/10/all-the-greens-that-grow-umami-in-vegetables/#comment-1828 As the proud owner of a Grandma from Kentucky, I have to say Best. Post.
Ever. :-D I ought to print it out and show it to her. “Hey Grandma, some
food researchers told me why your food is so good!” Hee.

“A chicken which you have loosened the skin, and stuffed ground up sauteed
mushrooms underneath it.”

I think my head just exploded from the delicious. My good god. Wow. Now
the roasting root veg under the chicken, I knew that, but…mushrooms under
the skin. Wow.

I might have missed it in a previous post…how about broccoli, then? Seems
like it would have lots of umami. I ask because I just roasted some, and
it’s fabulous.

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