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
