Some African Umami

Chicken Yassa and the Chicken Peppersoup were a rousing success! I followed both recipes exactly and not only were they perfectly simple but Beau loved both. The peppersoup was spicy and just the right thing while I am getting over this awful cold. Plus I have been craving spicy like crazy during these last couple months of my pregnancy!

I wish there were a way to make the peppersoup ingredients more accessible. There are not many ingredients in the soup and once you had them all it is incredibly easy to make; but even in my culturally diverse little city, Beau and I had to drive around for what seemed like forever before we found the perfect little African store that carried the right spices. In the first store, the one that advertises carrying Ethiopian, African and other ethnic foods, there was not much except a few exotic looking jarred foods and a lot of very American packaged foods. Then we tried Whole Foods in the vain hope that they would carry some exotic type spices. It was finally a little hole in the wall corner store in Chinatown that Beau knew of where we found what I needed. The teeny little store carried walls of African flours, grains, fish products and yes! Spices. It ended up being cheaper to buy the pre-packaged "peppersoup spice mix" than buying the spices separate and mixing them myself. The particular blend of spices in this mix is very unique and has an earthy smell in the bag and then something a little more hearty and delicious once it starts to cook. I would not try to substitute it with anything and even if you wanted to try I would have no idea what to recommend to you. If you want to make the soup I would definitely find a way to get your hands on these spices.

The yassa had no super exotic spices and was almost too easy to make. I marinated it overnight and then most of the day. Served over white rice, this was one of my favorite dishes I have made so far in my young culinary career! I was able to make both of these dishes with one whole chicken that cost us about $6, a bag of onions and a bag of lemons. Then of course the spices. I spent about $25 all together which was perfect! That includes beans and pork bones and other things. Unfortunately our shelves are still a little barren since my budget was super small to try to work with, but at least we have hearty and yummy dinners.

These dinners were so unique and fun to make. they had flavors that you normally would not find in my "American/family-style" cooking and I think it had something to do with Umami. Umami is something that was introduced to me in my Natural chef cooking course and I have been fascinated with it ever since. I have found a number of different definitions, but it was introduced to me as a Japanese flavor element that we are not so familiar with in the USA. It is the thing that makes a dish pull together perfectly or makes something seem perfectly done. Umami is the thing that makes you go "mmm...." Maybe it is a certain ingredient that without it the dish would just be boring, or maybe it is a certain technique in the dish that blends the ingredients perfectly. Both of these dishes had a certain something, and I am fairly certain that the something is Umami!

Every culture has their own version and awareness of Umami, but it is a borrowed Japanese word and it took the rest of the world a little whole longer to catch up and put a name on it. In fact, when a popular French chef named Auguste Escoffier used veal stock in his cooking, it created such a different and more savory taste than the usual sweet, salty, sour or bitter, that people thought the flavor did not even exist. They loved the food but thought that what they were tasting was all in their head. It seems so odd to me that people are more willing to believe that they made up something in their heads than just realize there might be a fifth flavor element... anything is possible right? But to these people, having a fifth flavor sense was like saying you invented a new color that no one has ever seen before. The Japanese are more open to the "impossible". A Japanese chemist named the flavor after drinking some dashi soup. Dashi is a seaweed soup that he recognized had a different flavor that is "simply delicious" but that he did not know how to identify. He called it Umami, which translates into "delicious" or "yummy". Cheese, tomatoes, and meats are in the same category.

I am so excited I was able to create Umami in my very own tiny kitchen with no counter space! (I am not joking, I literally had to go buy a little cutting board-topped cart at Target because I have NO counter space!) Give those two recipes a try and tell me if you taste it. :) You can find them in the "Yassa..." blog I wrote before this one.