Homemade Shrimp Bouillon Powder Seasoning

Homemade Shrimp Bouillon Powder Seasoning

If you are familiar with me, you will understand the reason I use my own bouillon. I am not vegan but just sensitive to some ingredients, and since store bought bouillon is full of ingredients with names I couldn’t pronounced, I just started experimenting on my own. 

It you are Togolese of love using bouillon the number one bouillon alternative you can get in most places is the Africube.

I’ve tried several bouillons that claim they are msg ( Monosodium glutamate) free, but I realized there is no such good bouillon that taste like the good Maggi Cube my people cannot cook without.

Some bouillon will say they are MSG Free, but a little verbiage will say: contains naturally occurring msg free!

Most store-bought bouillon has seed oil and other things that are not beneficial for your body.

Seeds oil may cause inflammation in some people.

One thing I do not like in some of our restaurants is serving a good plate of homemade meal Attieke (West Africa Cassava couscous) and putting a wrapped bouillon cube on a side of it. To me it defeats the purpose of a natural homecooked meal!

The issue most have is getting used to the taste of artificial bouillon with msg that you cannot enjoy a delicious flavorful plate without that msg taste.

Getting into MSG effect on some people is a whole other route I do not want to take right now.

 How to let go of chemical Bouillon with MSG

Personally, it is so easy to win yourself off the chemical bouillon stronghold.

You can start by diminishing the amount you usually use for your soup, boiling and grilling your meat.

Most importantly stop putting storebought chemical msg bouillon cube into your hot pepper sauce (piment de table), salt should be enough,

Also incorporate more fresh vegetables condiments into your cooking like more onion, bell peppers, celery, sweet pepper, scotch bonnet, and more fresh herbs like basils, parsley, oregano.

When cooking meat, the choice of meat makes a big difference, fresh poultry always tastes better than a frozen one that was in the freezer for months.

 Trust me once you go without the chemical msg bouillon your food will taste cleaner and fresher and you will not enjoy other people food much.

 If you fear cooking for your guests without bouillon, don’t be! The addition of shrimp powder, smoke fish powder, lanhoin (salty fermented fish), dawadawa…those ingredients our grandparents used to cook with before the epidemy of chemical bouillon!

 You only need one week of cooking without chemical msg bouillon, and your family taste bud will get adjusted.

Yes, it is all about our taste bud Afterall!

Unfortunately, we wait for when we are diagnosed with some type of chronic disease before making those changes to our diet.

Enough talking there are several ways you can make your bouillon.

How to make this shrimp bouillon powder

You can have it frozen cubed or pressed dried cube or paste or powder.

Powder is my preferred way as it helps my kids when they are cooking.

The ingredient for this bouillon is versatile. Any vegetable that is laying in the fridge can be added, but for this specific one, the below is what I used:

Ingredients

Tomato (my own from my summer garden)

Celery (from farmer market)

Leeks (from farmers market)

Carrots (From farmers market)

Salt

Turmeric

Dried shrimp powder

 For the vegetable an equal part of each is desirable but not necessary as tomatoe can be a little inflammatory for some people’s bodies.

Instructions

Salt, Turmeric powder and dried shrimp can be added at the end of the whole process to taste.

If you do not like the smell of shrimp powder in your cooking, add herbs and garlic to cover the flavor, but you can’t even smell the shrimp in the bouillon, but you should for sure taste it.

Please note that ingredients can be adjusted to taste, and herbs can be added.

This bouillon is perfect for soup, stew, grilling and more…

Once you puree all your vegetables, preferably without water, start with the tomato and its liquid will help blend in the rest of the vegetable.

The reason I boil the mixture is to potentially kill any food pathogen and to help in the evaporation of some liquid.

You can add the shrimp powder, salt, and turmeric during the boiling part.

Once the mixture is well thickened and enough liquid has evaporated, transfer it onto a large platter lined with parchment paper. Spread the puree in thin layer and let it dry up under the sun with mesh cover to avoid insects and dust.

If you own a dehydrator, you can use it at this point if you cannot dry it up under the sun.

Ounce dried up (mine usually takes about 5 days under sun), Finely blend it in a food processor and store if in a dry clean jar for use.