The fifth, most
recently defined taste is umami, which is loosely the "savoury"
taste. Humans taste sweet, salty, bitter and sour flavours. Umami,
which is dominant in parmesan cheese, cooked tomatoes, miso and
seaweed, means "delicious" in Japanese (Krulwich, 2007). It
is certainly a valid flavour profile, and has been recognised since
2002. Chemically, umami exists as L-glutamate, which can be found in
its purest form as MSG or monosodium glutamate.
Following this
awareness of umami, it seemed appropriate to add seaweed to some
mushroom stock to make a Pie from tempeh, butternut squash and
mushrooms. Tempeh is an Indonesian fermented soybean cake, which is
much tastier than it sounds. It is made by inoculating cooked
soybeans with a spore from the mycoprotein Rhizopus Oligosporus,
similar to the spore used to grow the popular meat substitute Quorn.
The tempeh added to the deep mushroom element of the dish, while the
butternut squash provided a sweet counterpoint. The soy sauce and
seaweed-based stock combined to create an umami-rich flavour base.
Tempeh, mushroom
and butternut pie
2 portobello or
field mushrooms, chopped (reserve the stems to make stock)
1 punnet of
chestnut mushroom, sliced
1 onion, chopped
finely
2 cloves garlic,
minced
1 knob of butter,
approximately 25 grams
1 piece of fresh
seaweed, rinse (or dried rehydrated seaweed)
1 pound cake of
tempeh, cubed
Soy sauce
Red wine
Thyme and
rosemary, removed from stems and chopped
1 Block Puff
Pastry
Combine the
mushroom stems, seaweed and about 400mL water in a small saucepan and
bring to a simmer.
Sweat onion and
garlic in butter until they begin to colour. Add mushrooms and cook
for two more minutes. Add tempeh and cook for about four minutes.
Deglaze the pan with soy sauce and red wine, a healthy splash of
each. Add half the stock and turn down the heat. Add thyme and
rosemary. Continue to simmer and add stock as needed, until the sauce
is fairly thick and the mushrooms are soft. The tempeh will break
apart but that is normal. Taste and check seasoning.
Pour tempeh
mixture into an oven-proof casserole. Roll the puff pastry out and
cut to size. The top can be decorated with slashes and leaves, and if
desired, can be glazed with an egg yolk before baking. Bake for about
40 minutes at 190 C.
