Umami Pasta

JC and I are getting ready for the Nutrition and Health Conference in a couple of weeks. I am so excited. We will be spending a week in San Francisco for some much needed time off. We'll be doing some of the touristy things like Alcatraz, Chinatown, and Golden Gate Park. I'm also super excited to see my friend K (thanks for letting us stay with you)!! I'm ready to foodie out and eat at lots of fabulous restaurants.

In honor of the fast-approaching conference, I bought The New Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen. She will be speaking at the conference and I'm so excited to hear her. I'm sure most of you realize I have a slight obsession with pasta, so I found a great mushroom sauce recipe that looked delicious. It also was super simple.

I stuck pretty close to the recipe, only changing it a bit with the type of mushrooms it called for. This recipe turned out much better than I expected. It had a great creamy component with a delicious earthy mushroom flavor. This is definitely a keeper and something I'll make again. According to JC after eating this sauce, "Mollie Katzen knows how to cook!" On a side note, a bit of salt and pepper go a long way in this dish. If it doesn't taste right, add a little kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper and it can make a 180 degree turn.

Now, when I think of mushrooms, one of the first words to come to mind is umami. According to wikipedia, this is the 5th taste (along with sweet, sour, bitter, and salty) and it can be described as savory. Scientifically, umami represents the taste of the amino acid L-glutamate and 5’-ribonucleotides such as guanosine monophosphate (GMP) and inosine monophosphate (IMP). These terms should sound familiar to my med school buddies--who would have thought that GMP and IMP tasted savory? Other food rich in umami are ripe tomatoes, shellfish, spinach, and (surprise) breast milk.

Enjoy this flavorful pasta rich with umami.

Stellar Mushroom Sauce
slightly tweaked from The New Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen

• 1 oz dried porcini mushrooms
• 2 Tbsp. butter
• 1 lb. domestic mushrooms, sliced
• 3/4 lb. fresh shiitake and oyster mushrooms, sliced
• 1 c. minced onion
• 1 tsp. salt
• 6 Tbsp. dry sherry
• 2 Tbsp. flour
• 1 lb. pasta
• 1 large clove garlic, minced
• Fresh ground black pepper to taste
• 1/2 c. sour cream, room temperature
• Parmesan for the top

1. Place the dried mushrooms in a bowl. Add 1 c. boiling water, cover with a plate, and let stand 30 minutes. Drain the mushrooms, squeezing them out to save all the liquid. Remove and discard the stems and coarsely chop the mushrooms.

2. Put some pasta water to boil. Melt butter in a deep skillet. Add all mushrooms, the onions, and the salt. Cook uncovered over medium heat for 10 minutes. Stir in the sherry.

3. Turn heat to low, and have a whisk ready. Slowly sprinkle in the flour, whisking steadily. Keep whisking for a minute or two after all the flour is in. Meanwhile, begin cooking the pasta.

4. Add garlic and black pepper; continue cooking/stirring for 10 minutes.

5. Stir in the sour cream and the reserved mushroom-soaking liquid from Step 1, mixing well until incorporated.

6. Drain the pasta, transfer to serving plates, and spoon a generous amount of sauce on top. Sprinkle with parmesan and serve.

Your dog looks just like a fox!

Hawaiians Love SPAM

This is a go to staple in my house. I have vivid memories of my mom cooking fried rice on a Saturday morning for breakfast. I think this was probably one of the first things I learned how to cook. I remember my mom teaching me how to measure and wash the rice. How to scramble eggs. How to test the oil to make sure it was hot enough. How to add ingredients and keep tasting until it was just right. This dish is so simple and easy to make, plus it only requires one pan. It is also incredibly versatile, you can literally add whatever you shave in your fridge. I usually make it breakfast style with eggs and bacon/SPAM, but you could easily add some frozen peas, carrots, or other veggies too. I always make sure I have the three ingredients for fried rice in my cupboard--soy sauce, oyster sauce, and sesame oil. That's it. And of course, given I'm Asian, I always have rice on hand.

Now, you will notice that I use SPAM in my fried rice. I need to preface this recipe that this is not the same fried rice you'll get from your neighborhood Chinese takeout joint. This is Hawaiian style fried rice. It has a very different flavor and has the addition of the miraculous wonder meat SPAM. I know most of you have already started judging me because I east this mystery meat. I bet many of you are thinking "what is that stuff anyway," "is it even meat," "why is it shaped in a cube," "how does it have such a long expiration date?" These are all very legitimate questions, but if they stop you from trying the stuff, I think that's a huge loss. Don't judge it until you tried it. So far, my record is converting three haters/skeptics to lovers. I'm being serious, you need to try the stuff, prepared in the right way, and I promise you won't think it is half as bad as you expected.

Enjoy this breakfast fried rice for a hearty start to the day!

Hawaiian Fried Rice

• 3 c. rice, cooked
• 3 eggs
• 1 can SPAM (I like to use the lite version)
• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 1/4 c. light soy sauce
• 3 Tbsp oyster sauce
• 3 tsp sesame oil
• Salt and fresh cracked pepper
• Sriracha (optional)
• Chopped green onions (optional)

While your rice is cooking, scramble and cook your eggs. Set aside in a medium bowl. Cut the SPAM into bite-sized cubes and fry in the same pan. Once finished, mix in with the eggs in the bowl. Heat the vegetable oil in the pan, you know it is hot enough when you add a few grains of cooked rice and they begin to sizzle. Once the oil is hot, add the rice and stir to coat. Add the soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, and sriracha if you'd like (the measurements I listed are rough approximations, I just add to taste). Once all the sauces are mixed, stir in the eggs and SPAM. season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle on some chopped green onions and serve.