Dam Da?

I read this article –about sneaking Vietnamese fish sauce into dishes— with interest, because learning shortcuts for how to deepen flavors in a dish is passion of mine.

A couple of years ago, I tried a “Cook’s Illustrated” recipe that promised tasty chicken pot pie in an hour and a half. One of their secrets to getting slow-simmered flavored into the pie filling was to fold in browned mushrooms and a teeny bit of soy sauce and tomato paste. You didn’t know the paste and soy sauce were there, but they were, selflessly adding a lot of flavor and taking no credit. It was a great recipe.

I also recently made a Rachel Ray umami-marinated flank steak. The marinade had stuff like anchovies, soy sauce, and sun-dried tomato paste in it. The steak was delicious.

I made a quick chicken pot pie the other night (using store-bought crusts) but forgot my flavor-boosting tricks from the last time I attempted the dish. It was good, but was absolutely missing the depth of flavor the CI secret ingredients lent.

All this has got me thinking about umami-possessing and flavor-deepening ingredients. Do you have any tricks to or techniques for lending slow-cooked flavors to quick dishes? Any flavor-boosters you swear by?