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As many of you know, I have been working with my good friend and podcasting enthusiast Chris Mears on an Internet-based cooking show we call UmamiTV. Chris has put an enormous effort into making us look professional, handling all the techincal aspects of producing the show, and personally filling the roles of camera man, producer, sound man, and, of course, chief taster.

We decided to kick off this project for three reasons: share our love of food, learn about video production, and Internet Superstardom. (still working on the last part)

We completed our principle photography in September of 2007 in which we shot 3 separate recipes.  After four months of post-production, web site building, and little bit of marketing preparation, we are finally ready to release our very first pilot episode, which is entitled "Episode #0A: Marjoram Chicken Soup / Stew."

This being our "pilot" episode it is more of a concept video in which to show friends, family, and potential business partners.  We've learned an obscene amount making this video and are quite proud of the final cut.  However, with any project, there is always room for improvement and we welcome feedback for our future episodes.

My long-windedness aside and without further ado, here is where you can find us on the web:

Website - http://umamitv.com
Episode #0A - http://umamitv.com/shows/episode0a/
Facebook - http://ohio.facebook.com/group.php?gid=22859919464

I made the same recipe again a few days ago, but I used a meat and onion filling instead. It turned out great! This is what it looks like :)

Taste: rich, complex, sweet and acidic, aromatic from the bay leaf and the herbs, tomatoey, good bit of fat from the pork, the eggplant also lends the quality of fat from the texture of its meat, starchy from the potatoes which balance out the acidity and intensity of the filling and keep it from being overwhelming, the crust is mellow and creamy and more about texture and balance than flavor.

 You will need:

• a can of crushed tomatoes (the fire-roasted ones are super yummy)
• tomato paste
• ground pork
• a few roasting potatoes
• an eggplant, or two, depending on how much you’re making, you want the balance of potatoes to eggplants to be about even
• a couple of bay leaves
• Greek oregano or summer savory
• crushed red pepper
• chopped onion
• minced garlic
• yogurt
• flour
• 1 egg
• salt and pepper
• olive oil

The day ahead you’ll want to take the eggplant and slice it into 1/2 inch thick pieces and salt it well to leach as much liquid out as you can, just layer it in a container and leave it in the fridge overnight. When you take it back out rinse the salt off and pat it dry then slice it into smaller pieces for cooking. (It wont be the end of the world if you don’t do this, you can use the eggplant as is, but it wont absorb as much flavor from the dish.)

In a wide skillet (not non-stick) pour some oil and add the eggplant, leaving it alone for a little while so the pieces can brown properly, stir only a few times, it will smell slightly nutty when it starts to brown. Don’t worry about cooking it through, you’re just trying to pull out the flavor. Set it aside, you can leave it in the pan.

Peel and chop the potatoes into even sized pieces, so that they will cook evenly.

Preheat the oven to 350 or thereabouts.

Saute the onion and garlic in a medium saucepan along with the bayleaf, some salt and the crushed red pepper, you want the onion to soften, not brown. Once it’s translucent, add the pork and break it apart well and integrate with the onion. Let the meat brown before adding the tomatoes and the tomato paste, you might have to dissolve that in a bit of water first to make sure it integrates well. Let it simmer for a bit, add the dried herbs, then taste it and see if it needs more salt or pepper, or maybe something else I haven’t thought of. You want some of the liquid to evaporate, so that it has the consistence of a hearty meat sauce.

Coat the bottom of the a casserole dish with oil and then layer potatoes, filling, eggplant, filling potatoes, filling, etc., You’ll want to end with either eggplant or potatoes on top, and hopefully an inch or so of room to the top.

Put it in the oven, you may want to put a cookie sheet underneath in case some drips. Cook it for about 35 mins, keep your eyes and nose on it form time to time, you can poke at a potato to see if it’s soft enough to crush with a fork, once the potatoes are tender, its time for the crust.

Mix together the yogurt, the egg and the flour, add the baking soda last (Don’t do this until you’re ready to use it.) You’ll want about a teaspoon of baking soda, it will interact with the acidity of the yogurt and make the crust nice and fluffy. Pour the mixture over the top of the moussaka and put it back in the oven. It will turn a golden brown in about 15 or so minutes, depending on the balance of flour to liquid, (you can play with this and make a more solid or more fluffy crust) I usually use about a cup of yogurt to a 3rd cup of flour and one egg.

Once the crust is golden brown pull the dish out of the oven and let it sit for 15 mins or so, then serve and enjoy!

note: I don’t like to give exact amounts because I never measure when I cook, and also because I think people should adjust the balance of a recipe according to their taste. In this case, use your common sense and if you want more potatoes, you can drop the eggplant altogether or use much less, you can make it super-saucy and meaty if you prefer, and you’ll end up with a much saucier dish which you might need to serve with bread, but if that’s what you like, that’s ok. You can even leave out the tomatoes, just increase the amount of meat and you’ll have a potato and meat dish, you’ll just need to add some water so that it doesn’t get too dry, but tomatoes are loaded with umami, so you’d be missing out!

Reprinted from UmamiTV

It is very tasty :) you should definitely give it a shot!

This is a traditional Bulgarian pastry which uses hand-made filo dough and can be stuffed with all manner of things, both sweet and savory. I made it for New Year’s Eve and it was a smashing success, if I do say so myself. My uncle went so far as to say that it was better than my grandmother’s, an honor of which I would never suspect myself to be worthy. (My grandmother being the queen of banitza, and of cooking in general.)

The traditional filling for this pastry is made from feta cheese and eggs, some people add whole cumin seeds, I like to add a bit of black pepper instead. Buy your feta from a Mediterranean or other ethnic market if you can, otherwise you will likely get a substandard product for a high price. Feta should smell slightly briny and salty, but not like old socks. It is a ‘fresh’ cheese, like ricotta and cottage cheese and should have a similarly mild odor. Look for Bulgarian Sheep’s milk feta. (They have French and Greek varieties which are saltier and less rich tasting.) If you are not getting it pre-packaged, but cut to order, take a look at how it is stored, it should be completely covered in the brine, some places only cover it half way and you end up with a faint smell of socks, which isn’t good.

Banitza is made from a few basic ingredients, but the method can be tricky to master. The key is to be patient and make sure you leave yourself enough time to prepare this dish.

Special equipment:

• go to your hardware store and buy a 1″ wood dowel

You will need (for the dough):

• 1 kg. / 6.5 -7 cups of bread flour (I like King Arthur unbleached)
• 1 tbsp. salt
• 1 tbsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 250 ml. / 1 cups sparkling lemonade
• 1 packet active dry yeast
• warm milk (to bloom the yeast)
• 3 eggs, whisked together

For the filling:

• 500 g. / 4-5 cups crumbled feta cheese
• 4 eggs
• 1 packet of butter (technically you could use olive oil, but don’t)

Sprinkle the yeast into the milk (If you stick your finger in the milk it feels should feel hot, but not enough to burn you.)

Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt and sugar (a mesh colander will do the trick for this, you don’t need a sieve.) Make the dough by combining the eggs, yeast, milk, and lemonade. I use my Kitchenaid, mixer, which is handy, because I’m not a very strong person, but my grandma has always done this by hand. The final dough should be smooth, elastic and not too soft, similar to pizza dough. If it looks like you need more flour or water, add it a tablespoon at a time.

Knead the dough: Place the ball of dough on an even surface, cradle it with your left hand from the bottom, then fold the dough over onto itself with your right hand and press the heel of your right hand into it. Turn the dough slightly and repeat. Do this about 40-50 times. If you hands start to stick sprinkle a bit more flour on.

Preheat the oven to about 450ºF / 235ºC

Place the dough in a glass or plastic bowl that is big enough to contain it as it expands, cover it with a damp tea towel and place it in a warm cozy place… like on top of a preheated oven, or on top of the dishwasher during the drying cycle. Let it sit until it doubles in size.

Mix together the crumbled cheese and the eggs for the filling, melt the butter in a little bowl and place both within easy reach.

Here is the tricky part. Separate the dough into balls roughly the size of a large orange (pull and twist), keep the balls you’re not using covered with the damp towel so they don’t develop a crust.

Roll the dough ball around a bit to make sure it’s fairly round. Then flatten it out slightly with your hands, and start rolling it out with the aforementioned wood dowel, which is really your rolling pin. The goal is to get the dough to be as thin as possible without tearing.

Once you have it flattened to about 3/4″ or so, start rolling the dough over onto itself using the rolling pin and gently start to apply pressure with the middle part of you fingers pushing the dough outward and down, spreading it out. Rotate the sheet of dough and roll it up from different directions to keep it relatively round.

Keep doing this until you have a sheet about 1/8″ thick, or thinner. Then drizzle a good bit of butter over the sheet, and spread the feta-egg mixture over the sheet, getting as close to the edges as you can and being careful not to tear it. Roll it up and place it into a buttered pan twisting it gently rolling it up into a spiral.

Repeat the above procedure until you run out of dough, arranging all the sheets into a continuing spiral. Once you’re done, pour the remaining butter over the top, smooth it over the whole banitza, and place it in the oven. Bake for about 35 minutes until it’s golden brown. Cover with a slightly damp towel, let it sit for 5 minutes then cut into pieces and serve hot.

This article was originally published at umamitv.com 

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 or a dash of soy sauce - depending on which cuisine you’re dealing with - will usually do the trick.

To me, it’s more than just a reference to a chemical compound, it describes the enjoyment of food on a carnal and sensual level where you are delving deeply into the flavor, allowing yourself to properly enjoy it, for it’s own sake. It means to distill the essence of your main ingredient and capture it’s core. It means cooking out of love, for people you care about. It means eating what you like, and discovering new things that surprise you and tickle your palate.

Read this: Sweet, Sour, Salty, Bitter… and Umami - I couldn’t really explain it any better than that.

This article was originally published at www.umamitv.com