The CC just adores the name mostly because it totally lies about the underlying subject — well, maybe not about the "fruit" part — but this ain't no bloody salad!
This Indian dish has so much amazing science and trickery inside of it that it's worthy of the slipperiest of slippery gods. (Oh, Agni! Oh, Loki!)
What is it?
Fruits in a milk reduction with complex spicing.
When stated like that, it sounds so boring which it totally is not. It's a masterpiece of complex chemistry with that assured magician's sleight of hand which veers it towards genius.
One day the CC returned to his apartment where his roommate greeted him sheepishly, "I'm sorry. I ate it all. I couldn't resist."
The CC knew even back then the kinda effect this dessert has on people so he just said, "Why don't you go shopping? We'll make it again, and we'll make a party of it on Friday?"
And we partied.
He grilled the steaks, his girlfriend (now wife) cooked the rest of the meal, and the CC had already spent his time earlier reducing milk for dessert. We were poor graduate students but we had a blast.
How does it work?
You reduce whole un-homogenized milk until it resembles a thick soup. You add cardamom, saffron, and slivered almonds. Then you cool it down till it's really ice-cold. You add fruits in a bowl, pour the soup all over it and eat it.
When the CC added the citrus fruits to the bowl, the roommate yelled, "It's gonna curdle." Logical thinking but dead wrong! That's the magic trick.
When the proteins are denatured and the final product ice-cold, the citrus doesn't have enough time to make the milk curdle. Eat it right away or GTFO, as the kids might say these days.
The more variety of fruits you add the better. The CC prefers apples, oranges, pomegranates. You may prefer something else. Go nuts!
(The citrus fruits must be peeled. The tannins in the skin have a higher probability of making it curdle.)
What's the problem?
It's hard work. It's an insane amount of work specifically since the kinda burners that we have in apartments are rather puny.
All you're doing in the most important step is "reducing" milk i.e. you're removing the water from the milk and simultaneously denaturing the proteins.
This is one of the truly rare cases where the CC is going to talk about specific equipment. You are best off with a enamel-coated cast-iron pot — something like a Le Creuset.
There's a reason for this. The CC grew up with this dish. It took hours and hours and hours and hours of stirring. It always does. Back in the day, the CC thought that having a book would be an antidote which was logical until he dropped the book into the flames and the house almost caught on fire. Not so great after all.
What's so great about the enamel-coated iron pot is that it heats the milk uniformly. From the sides as well as the bottom. The milk bubbles away at a uniform rate. You stir occasionally and try not to worry too much.
You'll worry anyway.
You want the milk to reduce by half. It'll change color because the water goes away and the bright white milk turns cream-colored.
The CC wants to point out that most Indian desserts involve reducing milk into various levels of submission. When looked at in that light, this is the easy end of the spectrum!
Ingredients
(serves 6)
2 gallons whole milk
sugar
6 cardamom pods
saffron
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1 orange - segmented, skin peeled
1 apple - cut into cubes
1 pomegranate - seeds separated
Note 1: The product itself is not amenable to storage but the milk mixture absolutely is. You can make more and just pour it over the fruits right before serving.
Note 2: When you serve it, it's great if you can chill the bowls ahead of time. It's not strictly necessary but it's nice.
Recipe
Heat up the milk in a pot. When it comes to a boil, reduce the heat and start stirring. Keep stirring. This is gonna take the better part of two hours or so.
Add the sugar to taste. The CC prefers less but your tastes may vary.
Keep stirring.
Seed the cardamom pods and crush them to a powder in a mortar and pestle.
The milk should reduce by half and the color changed from bright white to almost cream-colored.
You didn't miss the memo about keeping on stirring, right?
When reduced by half, add the cardamom powder, the saffron, and the almonds and take off the heat. When it has cooled down, stick it in the refrigerator till it is ice cold.
Put the fruits in a bowl. Pour the milk mixture all over it. Serve at once.
Showing posts with label fruits. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fruits. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 3, 2017
Monday, December 21, 2015
Getting Medieval on the World's Tastes
The format of medieval cuisine has waned over the centuries but if you squint hard enough, you can still see its antecedents reflected in modern food.
Medieval cuisine — at least in the European sense — was characterized by its use of exotic spices and ingredients. Meat was expensive with game being even more so. There's heavy use of black pepper, saffron, cardamom and ginger and a reliance on a sweet-sour taste. Nuts make their way into most dishes either in the native form or as a thickener – almond milk is practically a cliché.
Most cooking was hard not just from the point of the expense of ingredients and firewood but labor as well. There were no modern conveniences. Everything was done by hand. When we talk about "medieval cuisine", we end up inevitably talking about the nobility because that's what's documented and they're the only ones who could afford to do so.
Most cooking was hard not just from the point of the expense of ingredients and firewood but labor as well. There were no modern conveniences. Everything was done by hand. When we talk about "medieval cuisine", we end up inevitably talking about the nobility because that's what's documented and they're the only ones who could afford to do so.
The modern conception finds some of these dishes to be strange. Meat cooked in sugar syrup or honey is relatively alien to the modern palate – even though it tastes terrific. Our tongues are still the same but our trained response seems to be a little off-center. (You can still see it in dishes like pork chops with apple sauce except the sauce is now served separately.)
Even the format of the meal is a little strange. The stomach needed to be "opened" with an apéritif (literally from Latin: aperire - "to open"), then followed by vegetables, then "heavy meats", then "closed" with aged cheese and a digestif.
If you recognize the above as the slightly modified format of a classic French meal then you will understand the medieval roots of modern eating. (The placement of the salad has been moved around a few times by the French and Italians – and the Americans – but that's fodder for another post.)
Medieval cuisine in its traditional sense but with New World enhancements is most clearly seen today in Persian and Indian cooking. Indian is not that surprising because most spices originally came from India and classical Indian cooking borrows heavily from the Persian format so they are joined at the hip. In fact, most cooking styles borrow heavily from the Persian format given that they were the original Empire spread over vast swathes of modern-day Asia, Africa and Europe. You can see the same formats spread with the medieval Arabic Empire over Northern Africa into Spain and all the way to Sicily.
The point is that these cooking styles have still maintained their "medieval nature" — there's heavy use of spices, saffron, black pepper, ginger, nuts, and a marked preference for sweet-sour tastes.
A slight detour must be made at this point about why spices lost their use in Europe as opposed to modern-day Iran and India where they are still as popular as they were a millenia ago.
Most spices were imported from India to imperial Europe. The spices were a province of the nobility and both Constantinople and Venice were founded on the basis of taxation of the spice trade. In modern economic terms, the middlemen made the spices expensive. This was the whole basis of trying to find a new sea route to India – disintermediation – a way to bypass the taxation. Once these routes were found, and the New World accidentally discovered, the price of spices went down precipitously because of the lack of taxation and the fact that alternatives were found to grow spices in the newly discovered Hispaniola (modern-day Haiti and Dominican Republic), various islands in Indonesia, etc.
After that we come to a cliché of human nature. Anything that the hoi-polloi discovers is anathema to the upper-classes just like the old money on Fifth Ave. would disdain the Brooklyn hipsters. And so, spices fell out of favor with the upper-classes in Europe in favor of a "purer cleaner taste" — reverse snobbery at its very finest.
The critical point is that these ideas never did fall out of favor in the places where the spices were grown where the distinction between "expensive" v/s "cheap" simply didn't exist. Spices were always cheap across the growing areas and the swathe populated by traders traversing routes that were not subject to taxation. Places like Sicily are more like the lands that "time forgot" — they had no strategic value and they kept the formats even though their neighbors did not.
This is what explains meats cooked in cashewnut milk with heavy spices in classical Awadhi cuisine even though the cashews are New World – they would've been almonds originally — or the love of almond granita in Sicily. Sicilian dishes like sardines cooked in a sweet-sour sauce or the very Persian "Jeweled Rice" (javaher polow) are all modern-day embodiments of medieval cooking.
The past bleeds into the present — and in a very aggressive format. It's just hard to see until you squint just right.
Even the format of the meal is a little strange. The stomach needed to be "opened" with an apéritif (literally from Latin: aperire - "to open"), then followed by vegetables, then "heavy meats", then "closed" with aged cheese and a digestif.
If you recognize the above as the slightly modified format of a classic French meal then you will understand the medieval roots of modern eating. (The placement of the salad has been moved around a few times by the French and Italians – and the Americans – but that's fodder for another post.)
Medieval cuisine in its traditional sense but with New World enhancements is most clearly seen today in Persian and Indian cooking. Indian is not that surprising because most spices originally came from India and classical Indian cooking borrows heavily from the Persian format so they are joined at the hip. In fact, most cooking styles borrow heavily from the Persian format given that they were the original Empire spread over vast swathes of modern-day Asia, Africa and Europe. You can see the same formats spread with the medieval Arabic Empire over Northern Africa into Spain and all the way to Sicily.
The point is that these cooking styles have still maintained their "medieval nature" — there's heavy use of spices, saffron, black pepper, ginger, nuts, and a marked preference for sweet-sour tastes.
A slight detour must be made at this point about why spices lost their use in Europe as opposed to modern-day Iran and India where they are still as popular as they were a millenia ago.
Most spices were imported from India to imperial Europe. The spices were a province of the nobility and both Constantinople and Venice were founded on the basis of taxation of the spice trade. In modern economic terms, the middlemen made the spices expensive. This was the whole basis of trying to find a new sea route to India – disintermediation – a way to bypass the taxation. Once these routes were found, and the New World accidentally discovered, the price of spices went down precipitously because of the lack of taxation and the fact that alternatives were found to grow spices in the newly discovered Hispaniola (modern-day Haiti and Dominican Republic), various islands in Indonesia, etc.
After that we come to a cliché of human nature. Anything that the hoi-polloi discovers is anathema to the upper-classes just like the old money on Fifth Ave. would disdain the Brooklyn hipsters. And so, spices fell out of favor with the upper-classes in Europe in favor of a "purer cleaner taste" — reverse snobbery at its very finest.
The critical point is that these ideas never did fall out of favor in the places where the spices were grown where the distinction between "expensive" v/s "cheap" simply didn't exist. Spices were always cheap across the growing areas and the swathe populated by traders traversing routes that were not subject to taxation. Places like Sicily are more like the lands that "time forgot" — they had no strategic value and they kept the formats even though their neighbors did not.
This is what explains meats cooked in cashewnut milk with heavy spices in classical Awadhi cuisine even though the cashews are New World – they would've been almonds originally — or the love of almond granita in Sicily. Sicilian dishes like sardines cooked in a sweet-sour sauce or the very Persian "Jeweled Rice" (javaher polow) are all modern-day embodiments of medieval cooking.
The past bleeds into the present — and in a very aggressive format. It's just hard to see until you squint just right.
Friday, October 12, 2012
Would You Rather Be a Fruit or a Vegetable?
Humans are a fairly omnivorous species.
We eat roots and tubers, stems and stalks, leaves, flowers, seaweeds, and fungii and call them all vegetables.
We also eat fruits.
Most interestingly, we eat some fruits and call them vegetables†.
A substantial reason for this is the United States Supreme Court decision from 1893 in the matter of Nix v. Hedden. And like all momentous events in the United States, it all comes down to a matter of taxation.
The Tariff Act of 1883 required a tax to be paid on imported vegetables but not fruit. The "intuitive" notion, which of course is not the botanical notion, was that fruits were sweet and were "mostly eaten as is" and vegetables were not and were "cooked".
It all came down to a matter of dueling dictionaries.
Common parlance‡ won and the tomato "became" a vegetable!
† tomatoes, eggplant, bell peppers, chillis, tomatillo, squashes, cucumber, legumes, peas, avocado, corn, okra and olives.
‡ If you really want to freak your vegetarian friends out, when you're eating fruit, be sure to say loudly, "Mmmmmmmmmm ... tasty ripe ovaries!" (because that's what they actually are!)
We eat roots and tubers, stems and stalks, leaves, flowers, seaweeds, and fungii and call them all vegetables.
We also eat fruits.
Most interestingly, we eat some fruits and call them vegetables†.
A substantial reason for this is the United States Supreme Court decision from 1893 in the matter of Nix v. Hedden. And like all momentous events in the United States, it all comes down to a matter of taxation.
The Tariff Act of 1883 required a tax to be paid on imported vegetables but not fruit. The "intuitive" notion, which of course is not the botanical notion, was that fruits were sweet and were "mostly eaten as is" and vegetables were not and were "cooked".
It all came down to a matter of dueling dictionaries.
Common parlance‡ won and the tomato "became" a vegetable!
† tomatoes, eggplant, bell peppers, chillis, tomatillo, squashes, cucumber, legumes, peas, avocado, corn, okra and olives.
‡ If you really want to freak your vegetarian friends out, when you're eating fruit, be sure to say loudly, "Mmmmmmmmmm ... tasty ripe ovaries!" (because that's what they actually are!)
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Indonesian Food Festival : Part 1
The CC goes to this monthly Indonesian food fair in Queens. The money goes to charity.
As the CC has repeatedly mentioned, if you are willing to hop on the subway, you can live like a God in modern-day New York. Something that Roman emperors would've envied. (Not that many of them would've hopped onto the subway.)
First up, a salad with an "edge".
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As the CC has repeatedly mentioned, if you are willing to hop on the subway, you can live like a God in modern-day New York. Something that Roman emperors would've envied. (Not that many of them would've hopped onto the subway.)
First up, a salad with an "edge".
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Monday, March 15, 2010
India : Day 5 : Post 1
The fruit markets in Chandni Chowk at dawn.
Possibly the only "unknowns" are the guavas (first picture in the foreground) which might be "exotic".
Sharper viewers will note the Japanese in the background (hawking engine oil, if you read carefully.) There can't be too many Indians with a demand for engine oil who also happen to know Japanese. Which tells you that "exoticism" always sells.
On a related note, in his wasted youth, the CC once hung out with a buncha drunken Italians in a square in Florence. The CC found Florence exotic. The residents of fair Firenze found the CC (who lived in Chicago at the time) endlessly exotic. (Chicago!!!)
The movie being shown in the square was Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Grosstadt. (German!!! Silent!!!)
The drink of choice on that lovely summer night was Long Island Iced Tea (not making this up.)
You takes your exoticism where you can find it.
.jpg)
.jpg)
Possibly the only "unknowns" are the guavas (first picture in the foreground) which might be "exotic".
Sharper viewers will note the Japanese in the background (hawking engine oil, if you read carefully.) There can't be too many Indians with a demand for engine oil who also happen to know Japanese. Which tells you that "exoticism" always sells.
On a related note, in his wasted youth, the CC once hung out with a buncha drunken Italians in a square in Florence. The CC found Florence exotic. The residents of fair Firenze found the CC (who lived in Chicago at the time) endlessly exotic. (Chicago!!!)
The movie being shown in the square was Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Grosstadt. (German!!! Silent!!!)
The drink of choice on that lovely summer night was Long Island Iced Tea (not making this up.)
You takes your exoticism where you can find it.
.jpg)
.jpg)
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Climacteric Fruits
Say what?
When understanding fruits, there are two terms to understand -- maturity and ripening, and they are distinct.
Maturity refers to the development of sugar in a fruit.
Ripening refers to the process which makes the flesh softer and makes the fruit develop aroma and complex flavors.
Maturity stops the moment you pluck the fruit. There is no mechanism to make the fruit sweeter after that but climacteric fruits are ones that continue to ripen on their own off the tree. They give off ethylene which is basically a natural signal from fruit to fruit to start ripening.
In this modern world of homogenized agriculture, you are well served by memorizing the names of these fruits. Leave them to develop in a moderately warm environment. (Not too hot, they'll spoil.) Just wash and dry the fruit, and turn it once a day to prevent "spoil spots". You can put them in a paper bag to trap the ethylene but it's not really necessary. (Different fruits ripen at different rates. And tomatoes are included because they are technically fruits.)
The key point is that you can get great results with your supermarket produce if only you understand the process.
apples
apricots
avocados
bananas
muskmelons
figs
guavas
mangoes
nectarines
peaches
pears
persimmons
plums
quinces
tomatoes
When understanding fruits, there are two terms to understand -- maturity and ripening, and they are distinct.
Maturity refers to the development of sugar in a fruit.
Ripening refers to the process which makes the flesh softer and makes the fruit develop aroma and complex flavors.
Maturity stops the moment you pluck the fruit. There is no mechanism to make the fruit sweeter after that but climacteric fruits are ones that continue to ripen on their own off the tree. They give off ethylene which is basically a natural signal from fruit to fruit to start ripening.
In this modern world of homogenized agriculture, you are well served by memorizing the names of these fruits. Leave them to develop in a moderately warm environment. (Not too hot, they'll spoil.) Just wash and dry the fruit, and turn it once a day to prevent "spoil spots". You can put them in a paper bag to trap the ethylene but it's not really necessary. (Different fruits ripen at different rates. And tomatoes are included because they are technically fruits.)
The key point is that you can get great results with your supermarket produce if only you understand the process.
apricots
avocados
bananas
muskmelons
figs
guavas
mangoes
nectarines
peaches
pears
persimmons
plums
quinces
tomatoes
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