Culina

The Kitchen

[tariniculina]

When I started my phd in 2017 at University of California Davis, I was bursting with excitement over digital models of food and then models of cooking and models for sensory perception.Thank god for that excitement, to persevere through the many adversities of a phd.  I have published my first paper - T. Naravane, J. Youn, I. Tagkopoulos 2020. Using word embeddings to learn a better food ontology. Frontiers Artificial Intelligence. 

And now I am really on the path to design and create a model for cooking, which is continually inspired by all my challenges in the kitchen. (cant reveal it here)! 

[tariniculina]

Creating a Flavor Model

Taste, or more accurately Flavor as we know it affects a basic need of life to eat and extends to a sensual or celebratory experience. In other mammals, it has played a role in evolution while serving as a vital survival mechanism indicating need for nutrition even signaling danger or sniffing out mates. Yet our understanding of how taste works in these numerous ways has been complicated to decipher in comparison to our understanding of other senses, such as vision.

In this article I reference past research work in olfaction that is of interest to me, and describe how this forms the basis for the concept of a project I wish to undertake.

Gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GC/MS) accurately separate the odorous compounds in a sample and identify concentration. The next step was to associate aroma detection with each compound, hence termed Odor active compound, and to relate the detection to human perception. Instrumental approaches to the characterization of odorants using GC/MS is termed GCO. There has been constant refinement in the set-up conditions and human detection experiments of this technique for greater accuracy.

The inverse to the above method is if the spectral information can uniquely identify the odor. This research describes an Artificial Neural Network trained on spectral data and has a 60- 70% accuracy.  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4915715/#pone.0157030.ref022

The sensory approach to detecting and identifying odors was pioneered by Linda Buck and Richard Axel. They discovered a large gene family that gives rise to an equivalent number of olfactory receptor types. These receptors are located on the olfactory receptor cells, which occupy a small area in the upper part of the nasal epithelium and detect the inhaled odorant molecules. They found that instead of dedicating an individual OR to a specific odor, the olfactory system uses a combination of receptors to create a specific smell response within the neurons of the brain. Hence individual receptors are capable of associating with several structurally related ligands, albeit with different affinities.

Stereochemical models of olfactory recognition in mammals (Amoore, 1982) (based largely on psychophysical rather than biophysical data) have suggested the existence of several primary odor groups including camphoraceous, musky, pepperminty, ethereal, pungent, and putrid. In such a model, each group would contain odorants with common molecular configurations that bind to common receptors and share similar odor qualities.

I am working on creating a datamodel for compounds , gathering the data and training a Neural Net to recognise odors.

[tariniculina]

Meals under 5

The best things in life are almost free :-)

Pumpkin Mash, Eggplant with Sesame, Beef (slow cooked Chuck makes a great affordable option ), Sauteed Chicory,

The secret to making it under 5 is : Diverse tastes, good fat and herbs.

[tariniculina]

Meals Under 5

[tariniculina]

Meals under 5

Every day food should be about this price. Firstly it has a feeling of simplicity and humbleness. Secondly these ingredients are easy to buy and cooking takes under 20 minutes.

The secret is to invest in some healthy fat and herbs. These pack a flavor bomb. The combination of simple ingredients and flavor gives immense satisfaction. The best things in life are indeed under 5.

Recipes

Spinach with Onion, Bacon bits and Nigella Seeds Spinach Onion Bacon Nigella Seeds Olive oil or Ghee

Heat pan and add Ghee. Slice onions in half rounds and add to pan and sweat for few minutes. Add Bacon and fry . Finally add spinach and nigella seeds and cook till wilted.

Pumpkin with coconut milk and spices Pumpkin - Cut in cubes Spices - All spice, cardamom, nigella seeds, sage (mixture of earthy, sweet, piquant) Ginger - chopped fine Coconut Milk Lemon juice Ghee

Add ghee to pan. Add all other ingredients (besides lemon juice) and cook.  Add lemon juice to finish.

Rice with Tomatoes and Nigella Seeds Tomatoes - chopped fine Rice Nigella seeds Ghee

Add ghee to pan and cook tomatoes till soft.Add all ingredients and water and cook.

Onions with Bacon, Rosemary

Add Ghee to pan . Add all ingredients and cook on slow heat till golden and very soft - 30 minutes.

Green and Brown Lentils

Cook lentils with water, thyme, salt and Ghee.

[tariniculina]

Challenges of everyday home cooking

So my friends like eating vegetables, no gluten, simple and easily digestible and I above all think food should taste like an experience everyday. Oh and my friends include entrepreneurs on a budget and living in small city apartments.

You need:

- A mixing bowl, two pans , a chopping board and a knife. - Oil, and Salt, pepper at the very least. Garlic isnt asking for too much either ! - The fresh vegetables, meat and cheese will need some shopping but you will use it all in a meal for 4 or meal for 2 with leftover for a packed lunch to work! - 20 minutes to prepare and 2 sq metres of kitchen space!

So this is a sample meal. 1. Take any fish or chicken. Cut into cubes. Add minced garlic and green onions. Season with salt and pepper and dust with gluten free baking flour. Al the moisture in the chicken/fish with the green onions will make the flour into a stiff batter coating the pieces. Add a thin layer of oil into a frying pan and add in one layer and cook and turn over until crispy and cooked. A knife tip should meet no resistance when poked into a piece. This takes 5 minutes for fish and 6-7 minutes for chicken. 2. Pan fried vegetables with crumbled soft feta. Slice eggplant and fennel into slivers. Some shallots taste nice too. Pan fry with salt. Add crumbled feta (fresh is the best) and a drizzle of good balsamic. (or your average balsamic and a bit of honey) Illustrated :

Fennel and Eggplant. Salmon and Prawns with rocket, organic baby potatoes.

[tariniculina]

Can you count the cakes ?

I baked about 100 - 150 cakes of 10 inches each everyday for 2 weeks.

This isnt remarkable in itself but I made this as a pop-up for an event so it meant setting up from scratch and taking down. Also I didnt have any trained bakers working with me and every piece had to be perfect , so I set myself up for a challenge.

And every piece was perfect and the execution was flawless too!

As my blog is about the love of food and teaching and making consumers believers in perfect, freshly made products , I achieved more than just baking.

[tariniculina]

Almond Pannacotta - A revelation

The Recipie

300 ml  freshly made Almond Milk

100 ml Cream

2 leaves gelatin

1 tbsp honey

1 tsp tahitian vanilla

Soak Gelatin in cold water until soft. Squeeze and add to almond milk and cream mixture in a saucepan. Heat until dissolved.

Add vanilla and honey off the heat and pour into glasses. Set for 2 hours.

Basil Syrup

Crush basil and sugar in a mortar and pestle until like a thin syrup. Squeeze and then discard the fibre which will ball up quite easily.

Pour over the panna cotta just before syrup. Add any seasonal fruit as garnish.

The Revelation

It has a silkyness (not sliminess) which cannot be obtained using dairy. I am still researching why that is. So if you read this and have some thoughts please do let me know. Otherwise try this and see. You wont be disappointed and might even start to do , without having to for dietary reasons.

[tariniculina]

Native Cooking Inspires Contemporary

This is a series of posts about native cooking in various parts of the world and food made by home cooks. It is not very inventive and hasn’t changed for decades. But it contains living history which is a combination of the physical setting, season, mood .. etc and this inspires and influences the taste.  All this details lends itself to invention in the contemporary style of cuisine- plating, seasonal ingredients and indigenous flavour pairings, accompaniments.. etc

The one very important aspect of history is being able to integrate the ‘experience’ into the dish.

Beate works to restore heritage buildings, furniture, decorative artifacts. She knows interesting bits of history and art. So while cooking a pot of soup, I wanted to ask her about it. It is a beef and barley which is not unusual but I wanted to know why she was making it.

I know as do many well experienced cooks that barley is a nutty tasting grain with a nice bite and is difficult to overcook. But what are its origins and how was it traditionally cooked? What flavour combinations work with it and can a barley dish give an ‘experience’ ?

So barley grows on mountain tops and is used often for hearty soups. When one is hiking up the mountains in Germany , there are refuge huts along the way that have their own cattle and make cheese and offer soups to the hikers. And this is one of the origins of the barley soup.

How this inspires my creativity is to make this on a rainy day, or a one pot meal at the end of a long working day and it gives instant succour.

[tariniculina]

Making Menus # 2: Guests for dinner

We want to make a menu showcasing flavours. We also want:

Easy Assembly Cook ahead Balance between starters and dinner - Neither should be heavier or more overpowering Savory starter to complement cocktails Classics with well balanced flavours and seasonal ingredients. Fresh figs are at their best.

The menu is :

Cream cheese and anchovy spread Rosemary and Black Olive Crackers Salt and Pepper crispy prawns Coq Au Vin Crisp Lightly Toasted Baguette Spinach salad with Blue Cheese and Fresh Figs

Apple Tart

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Whats in a masala?

A masala is the base for a curry. It just means a mixture of spices.

In all the centuries since man evolved and discovered food, every ingredient is probably already known. All we do now is create combinations. Sometimes we invent new techniques like the pressure cooker and sous vide. Masala is one such creation.

Every family has its own masalas. Since I know , my grandmom would grind a whole years worth of spices. A classic one is a mixture of coriander seeds, cumin and fennel. Its one reason why the same ‘Gujurati’ cuisine would taste different in every household. Also the sources of the whole spices were local. Since I have a background in global trading, I am sometimes amazed at Futures on food commodities. How does one ever know the source of the ingredient and since a Futures contract could include many sources, how can one know the quality and consistency? I dont know the answer but it makes me wonder. So I digress...

I made a masala yesterday for Duck breast.I will explain this in stages clarifying what the inclusion of every ingredient does. I think it is important to understand the effects because ingredients taste different in every country and I made this in India. I dry roasted until lightly toasted and fragrant. The colour should only slightly darken.

-1 teaspoon Coriander seeds -1 teaspoon Fennel seeds

Then I ground these with a teaspoon worth of each of these fresh herbs .

-Thyme -Oregano -Rosemary -5 Black peppercorns

The overall flavour was dominant of fennel and in contrast had an earthiness to it. However it was slightly dull . So I zested an orange and added it to Masala.

- 1 Egyptian orange zested . Sweet ones like like mandarin , clementine will do.

The rest is as one does with a crispy skin seared Duck breast. Score the skin and rub all over with the Herb mix and salt. Leave overnight.

Heat a cast iron pan hot. Add the duck breast skin side down and cook for 6 minutes. Turn over and put lid on and cook for 6-8 minutes for medium-rare or rare.

[tariniculina]

Making Menus # 1- A birthday

Its the reason tasting menus and plated entrees became the coolest thing. The perfect combination of sequence, ingredients used and dishes along with the atmosphere is what comprises a meal that is pleasurable and leaves an long lasting impression.

Its my brother in laws birthday on April 1st. And he hasn’t had Duck breast in a while and lives in India. So this is already a good start.

The weather is about 40C. So the dinner should really be cooling and fruity, while being spicy and salty at the same time. Its the description of what would just ‘hit the spot’ for this occasion. This is the menu :

Gin and passion fruit cocktail/ Champagne with strawberry puree Homemade black olive rosemary crackers. (provides a saltiness which is refreshing with the tangy fruity drinks)

Duck breast seasoned with orange zest, ginger, fennel,thyme and corriander with orange sauce Green Beans, Arugula, Ripe Figs, Goat Cheese and Honey-Balsamic Reduction dressing Potato Puree with Roasted Garlic

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Delicious ways to aide Digestion

What I love is the natural properties that foods have. And when any given  property or benefit is what the body requires it affects the perception of taste. India is well known for Ayurveda. And this knowledge is integrated into the cuisine and Indians have knowledge of this to some extent.

Its simple to understand that cooling foods like cucumber and watermelon taste great in summer. Even the light translucent colour is soothing.

These recipies are from Hindustan Times are are probably already done at juice and smoothie bars. However all its properties may not be fully known.

Banana yogurt Smoothie Banana - Reduce inflammation and bloating caused by the stomach as a response to certain foods Yogurt - Contains tryptophan which is relaxing The combination has a certain amount of heft which makes movements of the interstines’ smooth.

Lemonade with Aloe and Mint Aloe - Cool and soothe irritation of the stomach lining and controls spasms and colic pain Mint - relaxing and relief from reflux Lemon - Alkaline post digestive effect The combination relives an inflamed stomach.

Celery, Ginger, Fennel and Apple Juice Celery - Detoxing, weight management, reduce hunger and control acidity Fennel - Soothing to the interstine Ginger - Rids stomach of gas Apple - Taste and sweetness, besides containing Vitamins and Minerals

[tariniculina]

Smoothies - Creamy and fruity start to the day

I recently made upto 1000 smoothies at one time. This for was an event on the weekend of 12 - 13 th March. I have never really done anything like this before.

Apart from having accomplished this with relative ease as I will explain, my use of freshly pureed cashew nuts as a replacement for almond milk was  a revelation. First it makes the smoothie creamy but dairy free, any nut milks are expensive, and cashew is a soft nut and blends easily to a creamy consistency. Its commonly used in raw desserts for these properties.

For equipment I had a large stick blender from RobotCoup, a domestic blender and a soup pot.

For 1000 smoothies (works when scaled down)

Blueberry Banana Ginger Smoothie

30 kgs Bananas 8 kg Blueberries 2 kg Cashew nuts 1/2 kg Ginger Grind Cashew nuts and ginger till you get a smooth puree. This was my substitute for the nut milks used in smoothies. It would be too expensive for this occasion and anyway it doesnt get better than freshly ground nuts anyway! Blend bananas and blueberries adding water as needed to get the mixture smooth and homegenous. Add cashew and ginger puree.

Its simple but the creaminess and heft of cashew is hard to identify as an ingredient.

Strawberry Melon Rose Smoothie (my test version which I then scaled up 10 times)

1 kg Strawberry 3 ripe Musk Melons 2 Bananas 2 teaspoons best quality Rose Jam (from my garden in this case) 50 gms Cashew Nuts

Blend cashew nuts till creamy. Add all other fruits and rose jam.

The secret: Whenever I use ingredients that are not at their peak, I fall back to the flavour profile as a way to enhance the ingredient. In this case both melons and strawberry would benefit from a musky floral flavour. The Rose jam gives it a fragrance that strawberries in peak season would have and it was also had a hint of muskiness that matched the melon very well. And it is to subtle that with the creamy cashews it doesnt stand out at all and instead just enhances.

Strawberry , Quark, Tahitian Vanilla, Flaxseeds

8 kg Strawberry 1/2 kg Flax seeds 2 best quality vanilla beans 10 kg Quark 1/2kg Light floral Honey diluted in some warm water 5 L Water

Blend flax seeds and vanilla beans into as fine a grind as possible. A normal domestic blender can do this. Blend Quark and strawberries. Add the dry mixture above and honey. Add water till pouring consistency and thin it further. The flax seeds will continue to thicken the smoothie as it rests for even 15 min.

[tariniculina]

Discovering Curries #1

I find I can always discover curries and chutneys and I will still not know them all. So I will write a series on curries and this is the first of them,

Mathematically, the number of combinations given n number of ingredients is some multiple of n!. This means n x (n1-) X (n-2) .. x1.It essentially means you can use any of n ingredients and then one of the remaining and then one more from what’s left and so on. This is about a few billions.

Last night I wandered into the tail end of a street festival and had a very interesting run in with a lady running a food stall. It smelt very good, but unlike a ubiquitous curry smell this was one where you could identify the separate ingredients. This meant that the spices were freshly roasted and ground and the curry was very likely an authentic creation.

This was a recipie and I cannot wait to try it myself.

1 yellow onion

1 inch piece ginger

handful of cashew nuts

handful of pumkin seeds,

1/4 tsp freshly ground garam masala (separate post explaining this)

Oil to sautee

Puree the onion and ginger and sautee in oil on gentle heat till golden and sweetly fragrant. Puree the nuts and seeds till smooth and add. Add water till you get a thick saucy consistency and bring to boil. Add garam masala and salt.

You can now add any of these - chicken, boiled eggs, sauteed paneer.

[tariniculina]

Quince

Quince is a rather odd looking fruit. The shape is in between an apple and pear , it is more oblong than an apple but less than pear. The surface is unlike the smooth apple or pear, instead it is has an irregular puckered or indented surface. It could almost look ugly, but its has a beautiful golden yellow colour and a sweet perfume like honey, roses and even reminiscent of mango or apricot. However when raw it is hard and astringent with an off-white coloured flesh which quickly discolours when cut.

So it is a very interesting fruit. If it wasn’t native one might not know what to do with it. And even for a native fruit, it not seen much in supermarkets and is underused.

It just so happens that there is a tree with hundreds of quince on it in my garden. So a wonderful chance to try and make as many Quince recipies as possible.

A quince jam is easy.

But what is more tempting in Autumn is to combine this with something meaty and savory.So with this basic inspiration , I googled and found a few recipies I want to try. 

I often like to round out my inspiration and make a full menu.

Chutney with Bacon Wrapped Chicken Breast

Side Vegetables - Cabbage and Leek Stir Fry

Carbs - Millets

2 pounds quince, peeled, cored, and chopped 2 pounds tart cooking apples, peeled, cored, and chopped 3/4 cup water 2 tablespoons vegetable oil 1 tablespoon Ghee 2 tablespoons mustard seeds 1/2 tablespoon fennel seeds 1 tablespoon fenugreek seeds 1 tablespoon ground cumin 1 teaspoons turmeric 3″ piece ginger, grated 2 dried red chilli cider vinegar - To taste 1 tablespoon himalayan salt 1cup light brown sugar

1. Peel, core, and chop your quince into chunks roughly 1-inch square. Put them in a pan and add the water. Bring to a simmer and cook, covered, until the quince is soft for an hour. Strain and set aside the quince chunks. Keep the liquid to add to a cocktail or another jam/jelly.

2. Chop the apples and grate the ginger.

3. Put the ghee and oil into a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. Add the mustard seeds and cook until they start to pop. Then stir in the rest of the spices and lower the heat.

4. Add the ginger, and chiles and cook for 2 minutes more.

5. Add the apples and stir well to combine with the spices. Then add the vinegar, salt, sugar, and quince cubes to the pot.

6. Cook for an hour or more until it looks jammy and glistens. As I intend to serve it with an entire meal , I will not cook it till it thickens too much.

7. To finish, you can heat 1 tablespoon ghee . Add another dried red chilli snapped in 2 or 3 pieces until the ghee just starts to smoke and pour it over the chutney.

Inspiration for this recipie came from http://hitchhikingtoheaven.com/2010/11/spicy-quince-and-apple-chutney.html#comment-21405

[tariniculina]

Ripe Fragrant Quince in November