Umami: In Fact, Not Really a Big Wave

These looks like zombie gummy bears that want to eat me

I would have to say that my least favorite kinds of food are sweets. If I was able to go back in time - a la Marty McFly- and tell my 20 year old self this, I would have never believed…me? I was diagnosed with celiac disease when I was 19, so the bulk of my first few years on a GF diet were spent navigating the tricky culinary conundrum that is the college dining hall. Therefore, at college I subsisted on a pretty strict diet of horrible dining hall salad bar concoctions, Captain Morgan’s rum, and gummy candy from the campus store. There wasn't a night that I didn’t spend in the library, writing epic history papers whilst dining on nutritious sour gummy worms, gummy peaches, and my number one favorite -- chocolate covered gummy bears!

Now in my 28th year, I can say that it was this obsessive sweet tooth behavior that turned me away from all things sweet. Now I’m more of a savory/salty kind of gal and truthfully this bodes much better with my gluten free diet. Store bought gluten free pastries not only stink, they seriously break the bank. I’m so pumped I get to spend $6.00 on a box of gluten free Snickerdoodles that taste like dehydrated cardboard, you don’t even know.

I love me some 'shrooms

Currently, my new favorite “taste” would have to be UMAMI! A lot of people don’t know about umami. It’s definitely the newest taste on the block, but I don’t think anyone can deny its amazing qualities. As defined by my bff Wikipedia, “Umami is a loanword from the Japanese umami (うまみ) meaning "pleasant savory taste". I think I first heard about umami after several years of watching Top Chef. The chefs would always use it to describe seriously amazing dishes, usually fortified with mushrooms or truffles or something. I would describe umami as a well rounded, burst of taste in your mouth that is nearly indescribable. It’s sort of meaty. Sort of salty. Sort of ‘shroomy. Sort of like if you could take a shot of heaven, liquefy it, and inject it into a meal; that’s umami.

I dreamed up this risotto recipe in an attempt to capture all things umami. A few weeks back I was in a local market that sells frozen quarts of stock. As you know, I’m a big proponent of making my own stock, but this particular market had mushroom stock! It got me thinking about how many mushrooms you would really need to make a stock, and I thought that it would probably be something better left to people who make stock for a living. Well after all that thinking, I didn’t even buy that stock, but found a neat little mushroom stock concentrate from another market on my way home from work on another day. Here is it below.

A champignon is actually a mushroom but I read this as "essence of champions!" Damn straight!

Talk about concentrated UMAMI. One blot of this concentrated stuff, and I nearly keeled over from umami overload! I also bought mushrooms to put into the risotto (shitakes are my new favs, but any little capped wonder will work) and some freshly made Italian sausage to add even more of a meaty bite! And meaty it WAS. I would say it was borderline too meaty, to the point where a small portion was just enough to satisfy me. This is unusual for risotto and I. Usually I have to keep myself from going back a third time for more, more, more! I guess one portion is a GOOD thing.

I think my food photography is improving. This looks delicious!

U-MAMI ME-HUNGRY MUSHROOM RISOTTO

3-4 sausage links, casings removed
Mushrooms, stems removed and caps sliced into strips
5 cups mushroom stock
½ medium onion, diced
1 cup risotto
½ cup wine
Grated parmesan
salt and pepper

Do ahead: If you’re using this liquid stock concentrate, boil your water ahead of time and add the concentrate. Make sure you really mix it well. I had some blobs of stock that didn't dissolve because I didn't whisk the stock enough. If you’re using store bought liquid stock, then just get it to a nice simmer on the stove while you start cooking your risotto. It’s best to add warmed up stock to the risotto when the time comes.

Place meat from sausages into hot pan and sauté until meat is browned. Remove meat from pan and use drippings to sauté mushroom strips. You can add additional olive oil if we need be. Saute until tender. Set aside cooked sausage and mushrooms.

In deep pan, drizzle a few times around the pan with olive oil and bring the pan to a medium heat. Add diced onion and saute for 3-5 minutes, till onion is transparent. Be careful not to burn the onions—keep stirring!

Add risotto and stir for 1 minute. Add wine and stir until rice absorbs all the liquid. Next, start adding your stock ladle by ladle full. If you’re really lazy like me, and hate to miss Jeopardy while you standing in front of a hot stove, I put in a bit of extra liquid each time, and then leave it cooking for a bit while I dash off to answer the Daily Double. This will really only leave you an extra minute or so, so don't get entranced by Alex Trebek's 'stache or anything. Real chefs just keep stirring and standing---so take your pick!

When the liquid absorbs, keep adding more liquid until your stock runs out. The rice should be tender at this point, with a little bit of bite. Add cooked sausages and grated parmesan and salt and pepper to taste.

Plate risotto and lay sliced mushrooms artfully on top. Se magnifique!