Slow-cooked Chicken in a Clay Pot with Winter Vegetables

Taste: clean, strong chicken flavor, herbal, fresh from the lemon, slightly earthy from the paprika, buttery from the potatoes, sweet and rich from the carrots

It’s not in my nature to slow-cook food, I’m too spur of the moment and I like to fiddle with my food too much, but every once in a while, it’s nice to be able stick something in a pot and let it do its thing for a few hours.

Slow cooking leaves the food incredibly juicy and tender, and because it usually requires a tightly sealed vessel - you can’t afford to loose moisture otherwise your food will dry out or burn - this method effectively concentrates flavor and preserves more of the nutritional value of the food. Cooking things over the course of a few hours also has the added bonus of gradually steeping your whole house in luscious aromas, drawing the occupants to peer longingly through the oven door like a troupe of slightly sad zombies. Continue reading »

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Marjoram Chicken Soup

Taste: Chickeny, bursting with umami, herbal flavor from the marjoram, slightly lemony and caramel-y from the onions.

Apparently there are certain dishes which you’re not supposed to use when ‘entertaining.’ I’ve got several cookbooks which caution that certain recipes aren’t for guests. Well, I wasn’t aware of this distinction until recently and I’ve been serving non-guestworthy foods to my guests for a long time, shockingly no one has ever called me out on it. Continue reading »

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What is Umami?

When you eat something and it feels and tastes rich and luscious and you sort of want to swirl your tongue along the roof of your mouth to get the full intensity of the flavor, that’s umami. Umami is the fifth taste, it’s less obvious and more difficult to capture than the other four. Foods rich in umami have a satisfying, almost addictive quality, foods lacking it taste watery, thin. When you are cooking something and you find that something is missing, but you can’t quite put your finger on what, likely you’re missing some umami. A bit of parmesan, some ground up anchovies, some tomato paste or a dash of soy sauce - depending on which cuisine you’re dealing with - will usually do the trick. Continue reading »

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