COOKING TIP: Using East Indian Spice Blends

EAST INDIAN FLAVORING

Indian cooking is about BOLD flavors achieved by using a variety of spices, all used together. Curry and Garum Masala are two ofthe most popular blends. 

While each Indian Chef or housewives may have their own recipes for these spice mixtures depending on their palates, the region of India in which they live or a variety of other factors, I present a recipe for one of each of these blends below, which may be modified in any way that your taste directs. 

GARUM MASALA, known as Indian “sweet “ spice because it contains cinnamon, nutmeg and other spices which Western cooks think of as “sweet”, as well as savory spices e.g., cumin and coriander. Because some of these ingredients turn “bitter” after prolonged cooking, Garum Masala is added at the end of cooking time or even when the food is taken off the burner.

RECIPE

5 parts whole coriander seeds

4 parts whole cumin seeds

2 parts, each, black peppercorns and cardamom pods

1 part, each, whole cloves and nutmeg (freshly grated or powdered)

Except for the nutmeg, toast all whole spices in a skillet under medium – low heat until fragrant and a few start to darken. Remove from heat, cool, and grind using a spice grinder or coffee grinder, used exclusively for grinding spices. 

Add nutmeg and store in an air tight container.

CURRY POWDER, like Garum Masala, contains both whole and powdered spices, but it has a yellowish - orange color due to the use of turmeric in the blend. Curry is added during the early stages of cooking to prevent bitterness. It frequently is added to the oil used for sauteing aromatics, such as onion and garlic, at the beginning of the cooking process and is cooked for a few minutes, to ‘bloom’ the flavors, before the next ingredients are added.

RECIPE

6 parts, each, dried chili peppers, fennel seed and coriander seed

2 parts cumin seed

Dry toast the spices in a pan on medium heat until some of the seeds start to pop, about three minutes. Remove and cool.

Grind the blend in a coffee/ spice grinder with:

2 parts white peppercorns

2 parts mace

1 part ground turmeric

Store in an air tight container and use within one week.

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 [AH1]

 COOKING TIP: Rice

You need a certain number of no-brainer dishes in your life: recipes you can make with your eyes nearly closed. Rice fits the bill!

Fried rice—that's the one for me. It's quick, plays right into my fridge cleanout tendencies and besides, I always have rice around. Come to think of it, my go-to dish could easily be any number of rice dishes: risotto, Spanish rice, red beans and rice, rice pudding etc. Rice is dependable that way.

But one rice does not fit all. There are hundreds of thousands of different strains of rice, according to the USA Rice Council, which keeps tabs on such things. Thanks to Katie Maher, the council's Director of Domestic Promotion, who whittled it down for me—by color, size, shape of grain, and starch content.

Rice is a whole grain, all bran, germ, and endosperm. Remove the outer hull, the bran, and the germ, and you're left with a white kernel—white rice.

White rice is often enriched with vitamins to make up for what’s lost in processing.

Brown rice and other colored rice retain their bran (but not the inedible hull) and, thus, their nutrients. Black rice, also called Chinese Forbidden rice, gets its color from its black bran. Red rice has reddish brown bran. All the whole-grain rice’s taste chewier and nuttier than white rice.

Rice is most often categorized by size: long, medium, and short grain.

Long-grain rice is three to four times as long as it is wide. Basmati and Jasmine rice are in this category.

Medium grain has shorter kernels, two to three times as long as they are wide. Arborio and Carnaroli rice for risotto, Bomba for paella, and Calrose sushi rice are all medium grain.

Short-grain rice is squat, almost round. It’s used interchangeably with medium grain for sushi and dishes like risotto and rice pudding.

Two starches in rice—amylose and amylopectin—determine its texture when cooked.

Short- and medium-grain rice are higher in amylopectin, the so-called "sticky starch," so they cook up moist and clingy.

Long-grain rice has more amylose. That’s why its kernels stay fluffy and separate

Glutinous rice, also known as sweet rice, contains only amylopectin, which explains its super-stickiness. It's usually sold in Asian markets and used in many Asian desserts.

Wild rice really isn't rice. It's an aquatic grass native to the Great Lakes region, now largely cultivated in Minnesota and California. Like brown rice and other whole-grain rice, it's very nutrient-dense.

Instant rice. Also called quick-cooking or pre-cooked rice, this is fully cooked and dehydrated rice. It needs only a quick reheat.

Parboiled rice is rice that's been soaked and steamed before the outer hull is removed, in the process absorbing nutrients that would otherwise be lost. Parboiling also partially cooks the starch in the rice so the kernels stay fluffy but firm.

Rice is appealingly cheap and goes a long way. If you’re buying from the bulk bin or by the giant bagful, make room to store it properly.

Once opened, transfer it to a well-sealed container. Rice is a dry good and needs to stay that way: dry, cool, and away from aromatic foods like onions (it’ll pick up those aromas).

Brown rice will go rancid because of the oil content in the bran; it’s best to keep it in the fridge, similarly sealed.

While brown rice has a shelf life of about six months, white rice’s is “almost indefinite,” Maher said.

Freshly cooked rice has a shelf life, too. Use it within two hours or refrigerate. It’ll keep for three to five days—optimal fried-rice time, if you ask me.

 

FOOD TRIVIA: Drinking from Chinese Tea Cups

There are many points of etiquette associated with drinking tea in China. Some of them are:

The youngest person at the table always pours the tea for everybody from the eldest person down to the younger people.

When pouring tea, your left hand should cover the lid and your right hand deliver the tea.The person pouring tea has their cup filled last.

Tea is poured only in cups, never in glasses, and the cup is not picked up to have the tea poured into it.When tea is poured and the pot is put down, it is impolite to have have the spout pointed at anybody. Further, the handle should be facing the pourer to imply that they will always be pouring.  

 To acknowledge the person who has poured your tea, a knock on the table using the index and middle fingers is used which represents your appreciation by this symbolic imitation of a kneeling position.

FOOD TRIVIA: Can an Apple Taste like an Orange?

Obviously, apples and oranges are different but try this experiment. Slice an apple and an orange in half. Take a bite of the apple and chew while holding the sliced orange under your nose and sniff repeatedly. The apple will taste like like an orange. Why you ask! Because smell receptors in your nose work along side the taste receptors (taste buds) in your mouth to help interpret taste. Thus, a strong smell can affect the flavor of food.

COOKING TIP: Panini

Panini (plulal; singular, panino) are Italian sandwiches made on bread, other than sliced bread (eg; ciabatta, focaccio, baguette, etc) that are filled with meats, cheeses and /or grilled vegetables.While the sandwich does not need to be grilled, Americans, generally, are not aware of this. This is because American cafes usually do coat both sides of the bread with butter or oil and  grill them using a  heated grill device that grills the sandwich on both sides on, simultaneously. The device is called a grill press and produces a grilled sandwich with crisp outsides and distinctive grill marks on both sides.. If you want to make Panini but do not have a grill press, wrap a building brick in heavy duty aluminium foil. Butter or oil the bread on both sides of your sandwich(es), place on a grill pan on medium heat, and place the brick on top to weigh the sandwich down. Cook until there are distinct grill marks on the outside of the bread and then turn over and repeat the process on the other side until done. This will give you a perfect Panini every time. This procedure works just as well for making a Cuban sandwich, another great sandwich in which the bread is grilled.

COOKING TIP: All About Rice

ALL ABOUT RICE

Humans started eating rice over 5000 years ago. It has It is the second largest worldwide production after maize (corn). People all over the world eat it and in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America it is consider their premier nutritional source. Therefore, every cook, food lover and Foodie, should know something about it.

Rice is a whole grain containing bran, the germ and endosperm. If you remove the outer hull, the bran and the germ, you are left with a white kernel - white rice. Since much of the nutritional content of the white rice kernel is lost in the preparation process, vitamins are frequently added to make up for this loss. This gives you “enriched” white rice. Colored rice which has its inedible hull removed but retains both the bran and germ, while they take longer to cook, are more nutritious. See below.

Rice is frequently categorized by its size: long, medium or short.

Long grain rice is 3 - 4 times as long as its width. Examples are Jasmine and Basmati which are commonly used in Asian, Indian, and Latin American cooking. *

Medium grain rice kernels are shorter; 2 -3 length compared to width. Arborio, Carnaroli and Vialoni nana for Risotto, Bomba for Paella and sushi rice are examples of medium rice.

Short grained rice is squat, almost round and can be used interchangeably, with medium grains for risotto or rice pudding.

How rice differs in its texture when cooked is determined by the amounts of the two starches - amylose and amylopectin - that are contained in the rice.

Long grain rice has more amylose and, because of this, stays fluffy and separate when cooked.

 Medium and short grained rice are higher in the “sticky starch” amylopectin, so they cook up moist and clingy.

*Long grain white rice should be washed before cooking to remove excess starch on the outside of the kernels which will make the rice less sticky and give you fluffier and more individual kernels. However, if you are using vitamin/mineral added (enriched) rice (most U.S white rice) you may be washing some of the nutrients applied to the kernels. THE CHOICE IS YOURS!

 OTHERS

Glutinous (Sweet or Sticky) rice contains only amylopectin and it cooks up super – sticky when cooked, often by steaming. Many Asian dishes, both sweet and savory call for this type of rice.

Wild rice is not a rice, but an aquatic grass largely grown in California and Minnesota which, as brown and other whole grain rice, is very nutritious.

Instant rice is a fully precooked and dehydrated rice that recooks very quickly.

Parboiled rice (e.g. Uncle Ben’s) is rice that has been soaked and steamed before the outer hull is removed. By this process nutrients, which otherwise would be lost, are absorbed and retained. The parboiling partially cooks the grains starch so that the cooked kernels are fluffy but firm

COLORED RICES

Brown rice undergoes minimal processing, thus, most of its nutrients; protein, fiber and healthy Bran are retained. Because of the oil in the bran, however, its shelf life compared to white rice - three to five years to forever - is only six months.

Black or Purple rice, which derive their color from several chemical substances in the inner portion of the bran, add protective antioxidant properties in addition to the other nutrients in their whole grain rice kernels.

Red rice is a special variety of rice, deriving its rich, red color due containing to color producing phytochemicals called anthocyanins. These pigment producing components add protective antioxidant and anticarcinogenic activities in addition to the nutrient contents of the whole grain rice kernel making red rice the most nutritious of all the different rice.

 

 

 

 

 

FOOD HISTORY: Pina Colada

The Pina Colada is one of the worlds most favorite mixed drink. Pina Colada, in Spanish means, "strained pineapple" and it was developed in Puerto Rico.  While the current recipe is from them 1950's, some say the name didn't originate until the 1960's. However, Puerto Rican folklore suggests that a predecessor drink, consisting of rum, pineapple juice and coconut was served by the Puerto Rican pirate, Roberto Confesi as a morale booster for his crew but when he was captured and killed in 1825, his original recipe disappeared. Further, at the beginning of the 20th century, a drink called  "Pina Fria" (cold pineapple) was mentioned in the pages of US newspapers as a "Pineapple Aide" drink and in 1952, a recipe consisting of "two fingers of cold, fresh  pineapple juice blended with 1.5 oz. of rum plus 1/2 teaspoon of sugar." was published in the NY Herald Tribune. While several versions of a  rum/ pineapple juice containing beverages  appeared between Confesi's version and those  of the early1950's, it wasn't until 1954, when a key ingredient - Coco Lopez - a premade coconut cream -  was invented. Ramon Lopez-Irrizarry, born in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, was a Professor of Agricultural Sciences at the University of Puerto Rico who was given a grant to develop items to boost Puerto Rican agricultural industries. One of his projects was to find an easier way to extract the cream from coconut pulp; the coconut being an important ingredient in preparing many Puerto Rican desserts. The current extraction methods were too long and costly. Lopez-Irrizarry  discovered  an easier method by blending the cream from the hearts of coconuts with an exact proportion of natural sugar. He named his  sweetened, coconut cream product Coco Lopez. It immediately had an impact on the islands culinary scene and became very popular. The invention of Coco Lopez plus a technological advance in kitchen gadgetry - the introduction of the kitchen blender -  gave rise to the Pina Colada that we know it today. The Caribe Hilton Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico is the source of  two versions of where and by whom, the  Pina Colada was originally concocted. The first is that a bartender named Ramon "Monchito" Marrero Perez, in 1954,  worked for three months developing this as a signature drink for the hotel and he continued to serve Pina Coladas until his retirement in the late1980's.  However, Ricardo Garcia, another bartender in the same hotel at the same time, claimed that he was the one who added strained pineapple juice to the drink and gave it it's name. Garcia was the first bartender to serve the cocktail in a hollowed-out coconut. To complicate things further, the Restaurant Barrachina in San Juan, also claims to be the place where the Pina Colada was born when the owner convinced a Spanish mixologist from Argentina, Ramon Portas Mingot, to become his head bartender.  The owner  claimed  it was this bartender who first started serving the drink to their patrons in 1963. Putting aside the controversy as to where, when and by whom the first "modern' Pina Colada was developed, the Pina Colada has become the national drink of Puerto Rico, is popular in all Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries and is enjoyed all over the world.