GASTRONOMICAL*MOLECULAR PHYSICS for Indian Gourmet Cooking

 

GASTRONOMICAL*MOLECULAR PHYSICS for Indian Gourmet Cooking

 

After spending more than four decades of time in Indian cooking led by passion, I was always taunted by my wife Rekha, “Hari you still don’t know how to cook Indian food as I had failed to remove raw smell from some of the recipes I prepare.  The blemish did not disturb me but compelled me to find the demon & fix it.

Forty years of work, standardising hundreds of Indian recipes flashed like a movie in my mind. Few frames of the fast forward movie got separated like a SPOILER ALERT from the rest, as a secret treasure & sounding it as spoiler alert with loud background music. Like a TAROT CARD READER, I was holding tarot card as the key indicating spoiler alert.

 

MOLECULAR PHYSICS –

What makes every living organism in the world of flora & fauna, a unique object?

Every molecule of a living matter is embedded with its unique moisture with oil which differentiates one organism with the other.  Only in the presence of heat the moisture & oil evaporates. Reduction in moisture steals the freshness & reduction in oil, reduces the fragrance, as oil gets vapourised by filling the aroma around.

 

GASTRONOMICAL-MOLECULAR PHYSICS: In the culinary world it’s an accepted fact that a gourmet chef stands out as he is the one who can cook the food without burning  as per the customer’s choice - WELL DONE, MEDIUM or RARE by using and preserving the maximum moisture & oil in the food by making food tasty & nutritious through the skill of uniform cooking.

 

SPOILER ALERT

Few frames which were lying as TAROT CARD in my hand was about to be unravelled, my heart was pounding relentlessly preventing as a force to throw it away the cards into abyss. Mustering all the courage I was flipping the card to see what was in it, I was strongly inclined where I needed to fix the spoiler alert by accepting the truth to take my journey driven by passion forward. I stood confused when I saw the image first of ONION & then GARLIC GINGER PASTE

Initially nothing made sense, but mind took over the head & began scanning the knowledge stored over 56 years of experiential reality in kitchen. Silently a curved line facing downward on my face brought an immense joy. The thoughts born out of cooking experience came to fore by synergising with TAROT CARD- ONION & GARLIC GINGER PASTE.

Some of the most difficult dishes in Indian culinary experience which left raw the smell were Ambur Biryani & Mutton khorma. The problems which were spotted by Rekha & reaffirmed by me were.

 

IDENTIFYING SPOILER ALERT (UPHILL JOURNEY)

BIRYANI

Strong raw smell of Garlic- Ginger paste

 

MUTTON KHORMA

The raw smell of Garlic- Ginger paste &

Khopra, khus-khus, groundnut, sesame seed paste.

 

I investigated both the dishes thoroughly & arrived into the following conclusion

1.    In Biryani I could find lot of traces of raw onion beyond the fore ground of raw smell of Garlic- Ginger Paste.

2.    In Mutton Khorma also I found semi cooked & raw smell of khopra, khus-khus, groundnut, sesame seed paste.

Finding the problem with 3 to 4 decades experience was very easy but fixing the problem eternally was the key by bringing it down to MOLECULAR PHYSICS as a Science was the critical challenge as the foundation of Indian culinary is principally based on Onion, Garlic-Ginger Paste as a key ingredient.

 

Now I was standing on a summit of Everest & knew climbing down hill will be a bigger challenge as lot of mishaps happen not while climbing up but travelling downhill. So for me identifying the problem was easy uphill task. But now fixing it was like climbing downwards.

 

To fix the problem we need to understand thoroughly the process of both the cuisine & relate to spoiler alert of tarot cards.

Usually the Ambur Biryani process is as under:

1.    In a large container pour required amount of vegetable oil to heat.

2.    Once the oil reaches the evaporation point around  200 degree Celsius put cardamom, clove, cinnamon, shahjeera & bay leaf, Once it sputters put diced raw onions & few slit green chilly to fry, once the onion gets into golden brown colour, put garlic-ginger paste as per taste. Once it is nicely roasted put the chicken or mutton for sautéing.

3.    Once sautéed put turmeric powder, chilly powder, jeera powder, pepper powder, asafoetida is optional& salt to taste. Mix it properly. Once nicely fried, add needed chopped tomato. Once the tomato turns into paste add cup of curd. Pour few glass of water depending upon the quantity of rice soaked for biryani, usually in the ratio between 1: 3 glass of rice water ratio depending on the quality & age of rice. Once the water with meat starts boiling, check the salt to taste. Now pour the rice on high flame for ten minutes and when the water evaporates to the brim of rice being cooked, Reduce the flame after 5 minutes into sim. If needed after few minutes place a hotplate on the stove in sim & place the biryani with container for 10-15 minutes. When the Ambur Biryani is served with curd & onion diced chutney.

 

Usually the  process of Mutton Khorma  is as under:

1.    In a container put the meat in a container add few pinch of turmeric salt, few sticks of cinnamon, sliced onions, few slit chillies, ½ spoon of garlic ginger paste& few cups of water to boil everything together, Depending on the taste (well done, medium & rare), Cook it. Separate the meat from the stock.

2.    Make Khorma Paste from (by shallow dry roasting khopra, khus-khus, groundnut, sesame seed, deskinned almonds)Once the paste is made add turmeric powder, chilly powder, jeera powder, pepper powder, fennel powder asafoetida is optional & salt to taste. Mix it nicely.

3.    In a separate large container pour required amount of vegetable oil to heat.

4.    Once the oil reaches the evaporation point around  200 degree Celsius put cardamom, clove, cinnamon, shahjeera & bay leaf, Once it sputters put diced raw onions & few slit green chilly to fry, once the onion gets into golden brown colour, put garlic-ginger paste as per taste. Once it is nicely cooked. Add Khorma paste & fry till it oozes oil bringing rogan on top.

5.    Once it is nicely roasted put the meat for sautéing, fry till it oozes oil bringing rogan on top. Add Garam Masala which is a powder of  Elaichi, Patta, Lavang, Shahjeera,& optional items are karan phool, javitri, jaiphal)

6.    Mix it properly. Add separated meat from stock, fry till it oozes oil bringing rogan on top

7.    Once nicely fried, add needed chopped tomato. Once the tomato turns into paste add cup of curd. fry till it oozes oil bringing rogan on top.

8.    Pour the entire stock of water if needed add extra hot water to increase the quantity of gravy to match masala. Boiling it till the till oil oozes by bringing rogan on top.

9.    Garnish it with chopped coriander leaves & fried onion & pinch of garam masala.

FIXING SPOILER ALERT (DOWNHILL JOURNEY)

Having identified the problem, fixing it involves delicate nuance of timing, heightened sense of skill to smell & visual appetite which comes from deep experiential learning of science & cooking,

ORDER OF PRECEDENCE

Fixing the raw smell

1.    In the heated oil onion must be fried almost to golden brown colour as once oil enters a frying pan, Kadai or any cook pot, it will never allow any material to cook, the smell of onion must get infused into oil.

2.    It is then garlic-ginger paste which must be nice fried till its golden brown. Its better when we put garlic- ginger paste, instead of paste liquify it by adding required amount of water so that it will get cooked by steam instead of hot oil. Once it obtains golden granular form, it will ooze oil bringing out rogan,

3.    Now it’s the time to put the khopra kus-khus paste for roasting till rogan comes out.

4.    The above steps are the order which must be maintained in Indian culinary science where onion, garlic-ginger paste & any gravy pastes are involved.

 

 

 

 

 

HARI RAO

INNOVATOR, CEO