editors' tips: The Mystery Ingredient Is....Tamari
A few years ago, I was at my aunt and uncle's home for dinner and I couldn't get enough of my aunt's salad. There was something magical in the dressing that kept me licking my lips after each bite, but I couldn't quite place what it was. "Tamari soy sauce," she revealed.
Tamari gives dishes some oomph in the same way that salt does, except that tamari's richer and nuttier on the palate. It's a great ingredient to mix with olive oil and garlic, for instance, as a base for sautéing just about anything. San-J is my brand of choice, and here is one of my favorite recipes:
Salad: Place all your chopped non-lettuce ingredients (tomato, avocado, onion, pepper...) in a bowl and toss with a mild vinaigrette (I love Brianna's French Vinaigrette). Then dribble tamari over the goodies, mix, and let marinate until you're ready to add the lettuce. Before serving, just add the lettuce, toss, sprinkle chopped nuts on top (pistachio nuts work really well), and feast.
Baked Chicken: Put a bunch of chicken thighs and breasts (with the skin on so the chicken stays moist while baking) into a glass baking dish. Then pour equal parts grapefruit juice and tamari over the chicken so that it's fully covered in the liquid. Add four or five cloves of crushed garlic to the broth and bake at 350 degrees for 90 minutes. (Be sure to flip the chicken over half way through.)
Brussel Sprouts: After chopping the stems and peeling away the outer layers of the sprouts, make an X with your knife at the base of each sprout and place them in a bowl of salted water (2-3 tablespoons of salt will do), where they should soak for 20 minutes to draw out their bitterness. Sauté with olive oil, lemon, crushed garlic, and salt. Finally, drizzle tamari over them before serving.
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