FOOD:There's a fifth taste you can get from things such as Parmesan, rich tomato sauces and soy sauce
I WAS CHUCKLING away at a comment I overheard in a coffee shop, made by a mum, bragging about how advanced she thought her young daughter's palate was. "She just adores sushi!" she gushed to the other mums, who had been enjoying their cuppa. I looked around and saw their disappointed, glum faces, contemplating their own children's inferior palates. Just when I thought they couldn't look any more miserable, an older, wiser mum stepped in to set things straight. "She's just after the soy sauce, you spanner." (Okay, I made up the spanner part.)
It was great to hear such wise words, and although some kids do enjoy the taste of raw fish and plain, lightly seasoned rice, mostly it is the soy sauce they're after. I've actually heard of kids trying to drink soy sauce, which isn't very cute, as it's pretty much liquid salt.
However, soy sauce is unique in that its blended bunch of flavours and amino acids all merge to create something more high-blown than just plain old salt. Fancy-pants food scientists and gastro-mugs call this flavour "Umami", which sounds fantastic if you say it slowly, with a sinister and mysterious air. It's basically a fifth taste that has been added to the original four: sweet, sour, salt and bitter. It's associated with things such as Parmesan, rich tomato sauces, soy sauce and monosodium glutamate: things that are both savoury and satisfying on the taste buds. I have often joked that you could deep-fry cardboard and after a dunking in soy sauce, it would probably become palatable.
Both of these recipes are bastardised versions of staple Asian dishes. Metal skewers are great for the BBQ, but they can burn guests' hands. And no matter how long I soak wooden skewers, they always seem to burn. I reckon a good way to solve this conundrum is to grill or pan-fry hunks of meat and then skewer them just before serving. You get the grill effect and no shards of burnt bamboo threaded on to your meat.
These pork balls can be a bit dry, so they are good served with satay sauce. You could also serve them with something rich and creamy, such as guacamole, or mayonnaise seasoned with sweet chilli sauce and some soy sauce, chopped garlic and loads more chopped coriander. If you find it hard to get minced pork, use sausage meat, but cut down on the salt quotient and remove the soy sauce from the recipe.
Both of these dishes are perfect fodder for partying.
Chicken satay (serves eight as a starter or four as a main course)
The brother of my assistant, Maisha Lenehan, has to be credited for this recipe. Geoff - you rock.
4 chicken breast, skin removed
6 tbsp sunflower oil
2 red chilli, de-seeded and finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
Big knob of ginger, peeled and grated
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tin coconut milk
4 tablespoons peanut butter
1 tbsp caster sugar
Slice the chicken into strips and put them into a bowl with half the sunflower oil, half of the chilli and half of the garlic. Season well. Marinate for 10 minutes, or a few hours. Even overnight would be great.
Heat up the rest of the oil, chilli and garlic, along with the onion, and sweat it until the onion is soft. Add the soy sauce, turn up the heat and reduce slightly. Add the coconut milk and peanut butter. Season with the sugar and more salt or soy sauce, if necessary. Heat up a grill and bring the chicken up to room temperature before grilling until cooked through and starting to caramelise in parts. You can also pan-fry it.
Serve with the satay sauce and, if you like, a little garnish of strips of cucumber, coriander and a few pieces of chilli.
Minced pork balls (serves eight polite people as drinks nibbles)
If you don't have chilli sauce, add a teaspoon of sugar. If you have no herbs, add more garlic or ginger, or even a bunch of spring onions.
1 kg minced pork
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
Knob ginger, peeled and grated
1 red chilli, finely diced, seeds and all
Handful of coriander, finely chopped
1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
Have a large baking tray ready. Mix everything together and then shape into small balls, which you can put on your baking tray. When you're done, wash your hands before touching kitchen doors, and so on. Cover the balls loosely with a layer of cling film and chill for an hour or so. When you're ready to cook, take them out of the fridge. Heat up a splash of sunflower oil in a large saucepan and fry them in batches until well browned on all sides and cooked through. They can be served straight away, or else chilled fully, refrigerated and re-heated in a hot oven (180 degrees) for about 10-15 minutes.
