0:08 Today I'm going to show you how to make
0:10 mushroom garum. I'm going to keep the
0:12 recipe simple as a great introduction to
0:15 how you can make these umami rich sauces
0:17 that can add savoriness and depth to
0:19 almost anything you're cooking.
0:21 Originally, garams were fermented fish
0:24 sauces used in ancient [music] Rome. The
0:27 modern versions use enzymes from koji to
0:30 create rich savory liquid seasonings.
0:33 Just a dash in a broth or a marinade can
0:36 help to give it instant depth. This
0:38 style of garam making is inspired by the
0:40 work of a lot of other chefs and
0:42 restaurants as well as NM who really
0:44 helped popularize a lot of these modern
0:47 fermentation techniques. I'll be keeping
0:49 today's recipe simple, but there is tons
0:51 of scope to make different variations on
0:54 this. And if you want to explore more
0:56 around fermentation, I'll put a link to
0:58 some of my other videos down in the
1:01 video description.
1:04 So for our ingredients, we just have
1:07 mushroom, cooji, water, and salt. With
1:09 the mushrooms, you can use whatever
1:11 you'd like here. I've gone with chestnut
1:13 mushrooms for a nice simple accessible
1:15 version. You could easily use other
1:17 mushrooms, though, if you want to work
1:19 with other particular flavors. Next up,
1:22 we have our cooji. And if you want to
1:24 learn more about koji, I do have a video
1:27 all about it and how to make it, but in
1:29 short, it's an inoculated rice that's
1:32 used in lots of Japanese fermentations.
1:34 You can make it yourself, but it's also
1:36 increasingly easy to buy online, too.
1:38 So, that's another good option if you're
1:40 just starting out.
1:43 Then, we have the smoked salt. Salt is
1:44 important both for the finished flavor,
1:47 but also from a food safety perspective.
1:49 You could just use a plain salt. And I'm
1:52 not going for an overly smoky flavor
1:55 here, but I do like that the smoked salt
1:57 adds just a little bit more depth while
1:59 still keeping the recipe really, really
2:01 simple. And then lastly, we just have
2:04 nice fresh water. We're going to combine
2:06 these. But first, just one note on an
2:08 ingredient that I'm not using, and that
2:11 is oats. Noma does use those in the
2:13 garam that they sell and I've made
2:16 versions with it and I do think it
2:18 rounds out the flavors and can add a
2:20 little bit more body to the sauce. But
2:21 for this version, we're just going to
2:23 stick with mushrooms and do a very
2:26 simple stripped back version. So, first
2:28 off, we're going to blend our mushrooms
2:30 along with the cooji smoked salt and the water.
2:33 water.
2:35 Once that's done, we'll transfer the
2:37 mixture into jars, leaving just a little
2:40 headroom. It's a good idea to place a
2:42 food grade layer just on the top surface
2:44 here just to stop too much evaporation
2:47 during the process.
2:48 Then we're going to place these jars
2:51 into a rice cooker on the keep warm
2:55 function to hold it at about 60° C for 3
2:57 to 4 weeks. You could also use a
3:00 dehydrator or a fermentation chamber,
3:02 but for a small scale like this, a rice
3:05 cooker works great. There's no need to
3:07 stir it or touch it during this process.
3:09 Just let the enzymes do their thing and
3:11 you can start to taste it after a couple
3:13 of weeks, but I'd recommend leaving it
3:15 up to the full four weeks really to get
3:18 a nice rounded flavor. I will mention
3:19 here that this isn't really traditional
3:22 fermentation. What's happening at this
3:24 higher temperature is that the enzymes
3:26 in the cooji are breaking down the other
3:30 ingredients into amino acids and umami.
3:32 Also, because we're holding this at that
3:34 higher temperature of 60°, you start to
3:36 get some of these mayard browning
3:38 reactions happening, and those are what
3:40 give you some of those nice toasted,
3:43 warm, savory notes. After the first day
3:45 or two, you'll see that the solids and
3:47 the liquid are slightly separating. And
3:49 after 2 to 3 weeks, you'll start to see
3:51 the liquid starting to darken and the
3:54 flavors are really starting to develop.
3:56 I'd recommend trying this at about the 4
3:58 week mark. At that point, you'll have
4:00 this lovely dark liquid that you can
4:02 strain away from the solids. That
4:05 resulting garam is your seasoning. But
4:07 you shouldn't throw away the solids
4:09 either. You can dehydrate them and use
4:12 them to create spice blends or use them
4:15 in other seasoning or even as a cure for
4:18 something like the vegetables that I use
4:20 to make my cooji vegetable shakuterie. [music]
4:24 And now that your garam's ready, you can
4:26 start to have a think about how you want
4:30 to use it. It's salty and umami rich. So
4:31 in the most basic terms, you can think
4:34 about using it in a similar way to soy
4:37 sauce or tamari. I've used it as part of
4:40 a deeply umami rich marinade for tofu
4:44 before for dishes like this one.
4:46 And then also as a liquid seasoning for
4:48 things like this raggue that's made with
4:51 tomatoes really slow roasted in the wood
4:55 burning oven. It's topped with potato
4:57 confied in smoked oil and finished in an
5:00 oat cream and burger malt sauce. I'm
5:02 going to cover more about that dish in
5:04 the future I think. But this umami rich
5:07 liquid seasoning is an important part of
5:09 it. [music] In a much simpler everyday
5:11 way you can put a splash of this into
5:13 all sorts of different sauces. Even
5:15 something like a quick pasta sauce will
5:17 really get a little extra kick from it.
5:19 You can use it as a glaze for barbecued
5:22 mushrooms, drizzle it on rice, use it in
5:25 dressings. It's extremely versatile and
5:27 particularly effective in things like
5:29 marinades. If you're interested in going
5:32 deeper into fermentation, I have a whole
5:34 section on my channel where we go into
5:37 koji and miso and other fermentation
5:39 techniques. And you can also take a look
5:41 at my cookbook if you're curious, which
5:44 I'll link below. I hope you'll have a
5:45 little explore of the channel if you
5:48 found this useful. As always, thanks for
