Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 7, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM ● C3 WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 2025 Hearty salad with eggs, olives eats like a meal ROMAINE-CING THE RADICCHIO T HIS crisp, colourful salad gets meaty, briny flavour from oil- cured olives and fruity tang from pomegranate molasses. It’s light and fresh, but hearty enough to serve for brunch or a light supper. In this recipe from our cookbook, Milk Street 365: The All-Purpose Cookbook for Every Day of the Year, we supplement sweet romaine lettuce with pleasantly bitter radic- chio and also toss in some parsley (or mint, or a combination of the two) for added aroma and herbal notes. Don’t forget to pull off and discard the bruised outer leaves from the head of romaine. Closer to the core, the leaves are sweeter. Hard-cooked eggs cut into wedges lend substance to the salad. When cooking the eggs, be sure to add them to already boiling water, let them simmer vigorously, then shock in an ice bath. The eggs will emerge not only perfectly cooked, but the shells will peel away cleanly and easily. Either whole-grain or Dijon mus- tard works nicely in the dressing, bal- ancing the sweetness of the pome- granate molasses, so use whichever you prefer or what you have on hand. Orange juice adds citrusy brightness. Plate the salad on a serving platter and top with the quartered eggs. Garnish with pomegranate seeds for extra pops of sweet-tart flavour. — The Associated Press CHRISTOPHER KIMBALL Romaine and Radicchio Salad with Olives, Eggs and Pomegranate Vinaigrette MILK STREET Olives, eggs and pomegranate vinaigrette elevate romaine and radicchio in this salad. Umami’s an old flavour but still a new concept for many cooks. Here’s what to know Oooh… mami! YOU know that burst of flavour you experience when you take a bite of cer- tain savoury foods, such as meat, fish, mushrooms or miso? That sensation of “Whoa, that is just delicious!” In all likelihood, you are tasting umami. Umami, which translates to “deli- cious savoury taste,” was identified as a distinct flavour in 1908 by Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda. It’s now recog- nized as the fifth taste, joining sweet, salty, bitter and sour. The concept of this fifth taste has been embraced in the East for a long time, before it had an official name. But it’s still a relatively new idea to many home cooks in the West. If you’ve ever wondered why sprin- kling Parmesan on your pasta made it just so much more satisfying, why the exterior of a roasted pork shoulder has so much flavour, why miso soup tastes so luxurious, why bacon is so freak- ing delicious, why an anchovy-laden Caesar salad dressing makes you want to wriggle with joy — the answer is umami. Umami flavour comes from gluta- mate, a common amino acid or protein building block found in many foods. The most familiar is monosodium glutamate, or MSG. In the U.S., it was once believed that MSG wasn’t good for you, but it’s now generally recog- nized as a safe addition to food. Many Asian chefs have worked to reintro- duce MSG into daily cooking. Foods rich with umami flavour include: Aged cheeses: Blue cheese, gouda and cheddar are some of the most umami-packed cheeses due to the breakdown of proteins that takes plac- es during the aging process. Parmesan cheese is widely recognized as an umami bomb. Tomato products: The more cooked down, the more concentrated the uma- mi — think tomato paste, sun-dried tomatoes and ketchup. Mushrooms: In particular, shiitake, oyster and portobello mushrooms. Also, make use of dried mushrooms. Meat and meat broths: Roasted and grilled meats are examples of umami richness. A roasted chicken, pan- seared steak. Cured meats such as prosciutto and bacon are also umami powerhouses. So are ramen, udon soup and other foods made with rich savoury broths. Fish and seafood: Especially vari- eties such as sea urchin, shrimp and scallops. You will also find high levels of umami flavour in fish and fish broths, especially little oily fish such as sardines and anchovies. Bonito flakes: These tissue-thin, fluffy shards of cooked and dry- smoked tuna are used as the base of dashi, a seasoning blend at the base of much Japanese cooking. Dashi also usually includes shiitake mushrooms and kombu (seaweed). Many fermented things have umami taste Soy sauce, or shoyu, is one of the pillars of umami flavour in Asian cooking. Fermentation breaks down the proteins in the soybeans and wheat used to make soy sauce into amino acids, glutamic acid in particular. Tamari is a gluten-free version of this condiment. Fish sauce is another source of umami, used often in Southeast Asian cooking. The basic ingredients are an- chovies and salt. The salt pulls out the liquid from the fish and creates a dark, potent amber sauce. This is one of the reasons that Thai, Vietnamese and Philippine food, to name a few, taste so distinctively and pungently savoury. Non-meat options Vegetarians and vegans might think that elusive fifth taste is hard to achieve without meat or other animal products, but there is much good news. Seaweed: Another big source of uma- mi (and not coincidentally the other main ingredient in dashi). Yeast enhancers and spreads: Umami is the leading flavour note of marmite and nutritional yeast. Miso paste, made from fermented soybeans, is high in umami, whether you are using white miso, brown rice miso, red miso or yellow miso. A few of many interesting accents from the pantry… An online store called Umami Mart makes an umami salt that contains salt, black, garlic and shiitake mush- rooms. Red Boat makes excellent fish sauce and also has as a seasoned salt made with anchovies, a dry way to add pun- gent flavour. Fan favorite Kewpie Mayonnaise is rich in umami thanks to the combo of egg yolks, vinegar and MSG. Now that you know what you’re tast- ing, you’ll be looking for ways to incor- porate more of this fifth taste into your cooking. It’s truly as easy as knowing what ingredients to reach for. — The Associated Press KATIE WORKMAN ATSUSHI KAWAZU PHOTO Ramen is known for a wide variety of umami flavours. It is made with miso, salt or pork broth. KATIE WORKMAN / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Dashi, flakes of dried tuna, creates a rich, flavourful — or umami-ful — broth. Start to finish: 20 minutes Servings: 4 to 6 45ml (3 tbsp) orange juice or white wine vinegar 30 ml (2 tbsp) pomegranate molasses 30 ml (2 tbsp) extra-virgin olive oil 20 ml (4 tsp) whole-grain mustard or 1 tbsp Dijon mustard Kosher salt and ground black pepper 1 small head romaine lettuce (about 350 g, or 12 oz), cut crosswise into 5- to 8-cm (2- to 3-inch) pieces 1 small head radicchio (about 230 g, or 8 oz), quartered lengthwise, then cut crosswise into 2.5-cm (1-inch) pieces 225 g (½ cup) lightly packed fresh parsley or mint or a combination, torn if large 80 ml (1⁄3 cup) pitted oil-cured black olives, chopped 2 hard-cooked eggs, peeled, each cut into 6 wedges IN a large bowl, whisk together the orange juice, molasses, oil, mustard, 2.5 ml (½ tsp) salt and 1.25 ml (¼ tsp) pepper. To the bowl, add the romaine, radicchio, parsley and olives; toss until well combined. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a serving platter and top with the eggs. Optional garnish: Pomegranate seeds ARTS ● LIFE I FOOD ;