Taré

For Christmas, Santa brought me a lovely gift. Momofuku cookbook. YUM! There's going to be some deliciousness coming from this book, but first, we talk about David Chang's lovely seasoning, called taré. It's a fabulous seasoning that you can use in all kinds of dishes. It's salty and meaty. It's got that umami flavour. And it's pretty easy to make:

2 to 3 chicken necks, or 1 lb of chicken wings

1 cup sake
1 cup mirin
2 cups light soy sauce
fresh ground pepper

Put the chicken bones in a deep sauté pan.

You want to create a fond. Get the browned on the pot bits on there. So preheat the oven to 450°F, then place the the pan in the oven. It took me about an hour and a half to get the nice browned bits on the bottom of the pan, but you should start checking at half an hour. You want browned bits not burned bits. Cause browned is delicious, black is charcoal.

Deglaze the pan with a wee bit of the mirin. Then add the rest of the mirin, sake and soy sauce. Simmer on the stove for one hour.

Strain the bones out, and season with a bit of fresh black pepper. This is your delicious seasoning taré.

This is great stuff. Meaty, soyish, and super salty. As a base for a salad dressing or a seasoning for ramen broth, it works crazy well. And, I confess, after tasting this delicious stuff, I find myself wondering... What would smoked taré taste like?