“Umami” has been the food buzzword everyone seems to be using nowadays when describing a dish or flavors. We taste salty, sweet, sour and bitter; now, umami is known as the fifth flavor and is described as having a savory taste.
Normally, at the end of most recipes you might see, season to taste with salt. Salt is sodium, and there are so many substitutes for salt, of which when added gives the dish more complexity and now you are beginning to build flavor.
I often add whole anchovies to a dish. It goes in the beginning so it dissolves, you won’t see it or smell it. It not only brings sodium to a dish, but adds great body and depth, similar to what fish sauce can do in the right amounts. I also look at miso and soy sauce as flavor builders the same way. I also use sake, Chinese rice wine, dried shiitake mushrooms and kombu to help build flavor in a dish.
The Japanese say “kakushi aji,” which literally means hidden flavor, or adding a small amount of some ingredient to help bring out the flavor of the main ingredient. For example, in some Japanese curries some cooks will use honey as their secret ingredient to enhance the flavor of the curry or balance out some of the heat from spicy chilies with some sweetness.
Umami is not restricted to Japanese ingredients. It includes Italian dishes that contain Parmesan cheese, tomatoes and cured ham.
What’s funny is that the word umami has a positive connotation, and the words monosodium glutamate, not so positive. When you dig down into the subject of umami, you will see glutamates that naturally occur in foods of all kinds and ethnicities. Our own bodies produce glutamates.
I originally started to explore how to use less salt for my own well-being. If you look up how much sodium is in one tablespoon of kosher salt, table salt, soy sauce, fish sauce, miso or anchovies, you will be surprised. Instead of seasoning 100% with salt, I might use only half of what I would normally use and then add a combination of some of these umami ingredients to finish seasoning the dish.
It’s fun to discover new ways to season a dish and if it helps you reduce the salt you eat, that’s great.
One of my favorite ways to eat poke is to add moromiso to the raw ahi cubes. Moromiso is a soft solid mass that is in a stage of fermentation that is prior to becoming soy sauce. Its sodium content per tablespoon is approximately one third of table salt.
A vegan alternative is to season a chickpea salad full of vegetables with moromiso. Since it is not a paste like miso, it will be easier to mix into your salad and you get little bits of the moromisoto taste along with all of the salad ingredients.
So the next time you make beef stew, chili or anything like a soup or sauce, try adding some miso and/or anchovies to the pot. Instead of shoyu on your eggs, try it with moromiso.
Season dishes with “miso water.” Add this to dishes to finish seasoning. Take one or two tablespoons of miso and add to one cup of cold water or cold kombu dashi and blend. No need to cook; use as you wish. It will become your hidden flavor.
Just imagine chile pepper water without so much chilies and not so much vinegar. In its place use a combo of umami ingredients and get creative and think about different ways to season your dishes.
Chef and restaurateur Alan Wong has wowed diners around the world for decades, and is known as one of the founders of Hawaii Regional Cuisine. Find his column in Crave every first Wednesday. Currently, Wong is dba Alan Wong’s Consulting Co.
