Umami, In Plain English
The seasoning principle you already know, and the green curry I make to prove it.
Letter from the Kitchen
A Word That Belongs in Your Kitchen
A student tasted the sauce in class and was expressionless. Not bad. Not finished. Something missing. I stirred half a teaspoon of tamari into the pot, handed her another tasting spoonful. Her face changed.
That’s umami. Most of the time, you don’t taste it on its own. You taste what it does to everything else.
You taste what it does to everything else.
A Japanese chemist named Kikunae Ikeda figured it out in 1908. He was working on kombu dashi, and the existing taste categories couldn’t explain the flavor. He called the fifth taste umami — alongside salty, sweet, sour, and bitter. It took the West eighty years to take it seriously. Now we cook with it constantly and rarely say the name.
Prune juice in a beef stew. An anchovy melted into oil before the garlic. A Parmesan rind in tomato sauce. Fish sauce in a green curry. Same principle every time. You’re not adding fish or soy. You’re adding depth.
The green curry below is built on it. So is most of what’s going to be on my counter this week.
Last Week, You Answered
The Pesto Split
Last week I asked: Pesto by hand or food processor. Pick one.
The split was almost exactly even. I’d expected the food processor side to run away with it. It didn’t.
Two camps. One values the texture you only get from crushing and accepts that the mortar can only hold so much. The other either values saving time or wants volume to freeze for later.
This is for you. A green curry paste recipe, a red curry paste recipe, and a Red Curry with Basil recipe. Green Curry (shown above) is featured.
Join Me at the Table
The Schedule Is Almost Live
Summer is almost on the calendar. I’m sorting the final details on the website now.
If you don’t want to wait, the door is already open through Cozymeal. They book private and small-group classes with me directly. A good way to claim a stool in the Kitchen Studio before the public calendar goes up.
These classes are limited to 6 people and fill up quickly.
The Podcast Hook
Ashley’s Parents Met at the Market
Episode 5 airs tomorrow. Ashley Nathe — Executive Director of the Minneapolis Farmers Market.
I went into this interview thinking we were talking about the market. Which we did, but we also talked about her family. Ashley’s parents met at the Farmers Market annual meeting dance. She grew up at the market. She runs it now.
Ashley’s parents met at the Farmers Market annual meeting dance.
It’s the most emotional interview I’ve done so far. Save it for a quiet hour.
Friday, May 15 at 7:30 AM · Episode 5 — Ashley Nathe: The Season Starts Here
Friday, May 29 at 7:30 AM · Episode 6 — Josiah Christensen: What Mushrooms Are Actually Doing for You
New episodes every other Friday.
What’s Happening in the Kitchen
Mother’s Day Weekend was a shoot with Multiple recipes
One class on the calendar, the rest of the time aimed at the cookbook.
The Pistachio Gelato shot happened on Saturday afternoon. The bouquet my daughter and family gave me that morning made the shot.
I’m so grateful for the 8:30 PM sunsets! We have so much natural light that we can shoot until 8:00. After a winter of 4:00 PM shut down, it’s amazing.
The Skill: The New Basics
Umami, On Purpose
Most of us are already adding umami. We just don’t call it that. Soy sauce in chili. A Parmesan rind in red sauce. An anchovy in the Caesar. All umami. The shift is doing it on purpose, with a small amount, and tasting before adding more.
The Quick Win
This weekend, add a teaspoon of tamari or a teaspoon of miso to one of your regular soups or stews. Not a tablespoon. A teaspoon. Taste the broth before and after. The change is subtle, but it isn’t a flavor of its own either. The broth tastes deeper. Not different. Deeper.
The Most Common Mistake
Adding too much. Umami isn’t the flavor. It’s the volume knob on every other flavor. A teaspoon does work. A tablespoon takes over. Start small. You can always add another half-teaspoon.
Umami isn’t the flavor. It’s the volume knob on every other flavor.
One Brand Worth Having
Three Crabs Fish Sauce for green curry and most stir-fries. There are other great choices, but this is my go-to.
Recipe Spotlight
The Green Curry I Make for Mark
MM Blue
The Soul
This is the dish Mark requests more than any other. Comes together in about thirty minutes. Better the next day. I served it at the restaurant for years, even though most people walked in assuming the menu was exclusively Italian — the last name does that.
It’s MM Blue. Coconut milk earns its place here. The fish sauce, the curry paste, and the lime leaves do the rest.
The Bridge
Minnesota has serious Asian markets. United Noodles is my go-to — every paste, every leaf, every sauce in one stop. Summer makes it even better. I swap the vegetables in this curry for whatever the Asian vendors at the farmers markets are pulling — long beans, Thai eggplant, and pak choy. The structure of the curry stays. The vegetables move with the season.
🍽 Get the Full Printable Recipe →
The Mediterranean Edit
This Week I’m Loving…
Three picks this week. None of them Mediterranean. All of them on my counter.
Pantry
Mae Ploy · Green Curry Paste
I used Mae Ploy for years before I started making my own. Still one of the better jarred pastes — preservative-free, balanced heat, real aromatics. When dinner needs to land in thirty minutes and I haven’t made fresh paste, this is the jar I reach for.
Specialty Ingredient
Guangdong · Shrimp Paste
Shrimp paste goes into the green curry paste, the red curry paste, and into stir-fries when I want depth I can’t get from anywhere else. Half a teaspoon. The jar smells rough on its own. In the dish it disappears into the kind of flavor that makes people ask, “What is that?”
Specialty Ingredient
Kaffir Lime Leaves
Fresh kaffir lime leaves are hard to find, even at good specialty markets. I found a source on Etsy. They freeze beautifully — when I find them, I stock up. The aroma is citrus you can’t fake with lime juice. Two leaves in a curry change the dish.
Cookbook Chronicles
Pistachio, Flatbread, and a Soup Without Cream
The light stays until 8:30 now. Everything got easier.
The Mother’s Day shoot is done. Pistachio Gelato finally has its hero shot. Zucchini Lemon Soup is in the book — MM Green, creamy without cream. Grilled Yogurt Flatbread with Mediterranean Salad is in too — exactly as good as it sounded last week.
Favorite shot of the week, though, is me balling the dough while one of the students videoed the process.
Not bad for Mother’s Day weekend.
Before You Go — This Week’s Question
Grill Season Is Here
What’s the first thing going on your grill?
Reply or drop it in the comments. I read every one.
Until next Thursday — keep a good olive oil on the counter and don’t be afraid to use it.
— Chef Laura