Chinese Beef Recipes Biography
Source:- Google.com.pk
At Tian, the literally "heavenly", rooftop restaurant at the ITC Maurya in New Delhi, rustling up a Thai Green Curry is hardly a pedestrian task. The flavours are bang on: there's that freshness of herbs one associates with the perfect rendition of this classic. And that tinge of sweetness — without cloying coconuty thickness which invariably sneaks up in restaurants in India.
Ask chef Vikramjit Roy, master chef, newly arrived from Chennai where he helmed a sprucing-up of brand Pan Asian to open this modern Asian restaurant in Delhi, what's the secret and he merely shrugs: the curry is done from scratch, in-house, he says. Well, that's the least one expects from a restaurant with an ITC pedigree and a chef of this calibre. So, I think no more about it, till one evening over Jack Daniel's and coke, the drink, the chef truly explains how it is all done.
Thai herbs — as also Japanese seafood and Chinese ingredients — are all flown in on a weekly basis. And the curry is done from scratch. But there is more to it. For one, it is finished in a coconut shell. For another, in sous-vide!
"We put the curry in a coconut shell and vacuum-pack it. For 30 minutes, it is allowed to simmer in the water bath, so that the white flesh of the coconut gently disintegrates and blends into the curry," says Roy, trying his best to explain cooking chemistry to a layman. "That's what gives it that exact body and sweetness."
I am hooked. To the food. But also to the science behind it. So, we go on chatting a bit more. It turns out that the John Dory I have eaten and appreciated the evening before does not get its gorgeous brown crust from pan or oven. It is also cooked in sousvide, and topped with a crispy layer of METIL (methylcellulose) and then finished under a salamander. The overwhelming umami in the soup comes because all the wild mushrooms have been dehydrated (it concentrates the flavour); the crispy lotus stem in spicy soy is crispy not because it has been fried but because it is dehydrated, as are all the sweet potato chips et al.
And finally, the dessert to die for that has exotic berries does not taste of tinned fruit (how else do you get blueberries in India?) because of lyophilisation — freezefrying, in which the material is frozen and the surrounding pressure reduced so that the frozen water in the material sublimates directly from solid to gas! "That is why the flavour is intense and the shape of the fruit is maintained," says Roy.
Thought for Taste
Chemistry is inevitable to cooking but fancy lab-like processes are hardly ever the best indication of the best food. And just last month, I went to hyped-up meals where the process of cooking was more raved about than the lessthan-stellar food that landed up on the table! But at Tian, the cooking processes are only secondary to taste.
"An immersion circulator is calibrated to .01 degree centigrade. Ovens are calibrated to 5-10 degree centigrade. And with many of these processes, we can achieve the same texture and better flavour without frying and still retaining the nutrients. But at the end, these are merely cooking aids, to help you cook better and with more precision," points out the chef, who was allowed by the hotel group to also research old cooking techniques and recipes in Korea, Japan and China before opening the ambitious new project.
But Tian's gourmet credentials are not founded on modern cooking processes alone. The food sits on a bedrock of research: Sichuan prawns, for instance, have a pronounced cumin taste because the food from that region bears an Indian culinary influence. And there are little nuances like starting off with a fruit/sweet element as part of the amuse bouche because the elusive and little-researched Korean Temple Food philosophy also ties-up with Ayurveda in saying that a little sweet whets the appetite.
As you break a bite off the prawns that lie on a bed of guacamole, spear a bit of the pineapple on to the fork as well, dip into what looks like some innocuous powder on the plate, and take a bite, you do a double take. Smoke fills your mouth and as you exhale, the gleeful chef claps, "So you have been smoking..."
Though that is the only bit of smoke, there is enough spectacle in the presentation to keep you gripped. Everything in the restaurant reminds you of the new direction Asian dining out is taking in the country: Luxe ingredients, the playful combinations of flavours backed by research, and yes, cooking techniques. In that the restaurant sits on the cusp of a brave new trend.
Playful Twists, Seriously Gourmet
Worldwide, contemporary Asian, where diverse Asian flavours have been combined (Aussie meats with Vietnamese ingredients, Korean BBQ in a Chinese bun — Momofuku — et al) with western cooking techniques and presentations, has been quite popular in the last few years. And now, it is beginning to be experienced in India as well at a handful of restaurants.
"This has been a way in which the often esoteric culinary traditions of the East have been made accessible to a large number of people, who have found easy ways to enjoy it," points out chef Manu Chandra, who helms The Fatty Bao in Bangalore, a modern Asian gastro bar.
Chandra's restaurant is obviously a much more casual concept but it is quirky and modern in its sensibilities and in its irreverent takes on classic Asian dishes. So, you could have bacon-asparagus fried rice for comfort (because the Chinese have so much salty meat), you could have a veg version of the popular sesame-prawn toast that borrows from a dim sum classic, turnip cakes, and you could have a very clever PB&J (braised pork belly with miso jam).
Chandra's take on 'modern' Asian is a trifle different, though. Not only does it encompass a clever combining of diverse and authenticated regional flavours it also boasts gourmet-level detailing. "Instead of using sauces and pastes out of bottles that most chefs have got used to, it could also mean doing things from scratch: how to do miso from rajma or how to do interesting things with noodles," he quips.
The Third Wave
Contemporary Asian seems to be the third wave for the cuisine in India. We have all, of course, grown up on Indian-Chinese, the red-lanterned restaurants with doused-insoy, fried bites and indigenous creations like the Manchurian. But more recently, a wave of much more authentic and sophisticated pan-Asian flavours has hit the metros.
In fact, this year alone, Mumbai seems to have been flooded by Asian flavours: From Mekong and Oh:Cha Kitchen & Bar to the much-talked-about Burma Burma that brings vegetarian Burmese food to the table and authentic dishes: Lahpet Thohk, a pickled tea leaf salad and Nan Gyi Thoke, a onebowl meal of rice noodle salad with chickpea flour, not to mention what has been rated as the most credible khao suey in India. Both Gurgaon and Chennai, on the other hand, have had enough to keep Korean palates happy, backed by primarily expat consumers and also the better-travelled corporate crowd. And Japanese, in any case, is another ballgame altogether, its popularity still intact — its appeal spreading and no longer confined to the very upscale Wasabi and Megu (both incidentally 'contemporary Japanese', the format that has best caught on in India) but to takeaways and smaller standalone chains (Aoi, a chain from Japan, entered India via Kolkata last year). Finally, there has also been the advent of global flavours in the Chinese/Asian space with Hakkasan serving up their versions of the cuisine.
But the indigenous modernization of at least the Asian dining concept can perhaps be attributed to a space like Mamagoto. The chain of cafes (that started with Delhi and has now spread to Bangalore and Mumbai) changed the way of serving Asian flavours. Instead of family-style sharing meals, the format became fun and young. And instead of familiar Indian-Chinese staples, a variety of other flavours and street-food traditions from other Asian countries was incorporated into the menu, albeit in a populist way, to cater to a mass audience.
In Bangalore, spaces like the High Ultra Lounge, similarly catering to a younger, well-travelled audience, are serving up similar bites, like beef tataki (tenderloin carpaccio with avocado), grilled asparagus with wasabi potatoes and scallops with Japanese pickled plum. The chef comes from Zuma, the contemporary Japanese restaurant chain.
But even home-grown celebrity chefs are having fun treading the territory. At Ritu Dalmia's Diva Kitsch that came up last year, you could try similar inventive fare: have rocket leaves in an oriental dressing, papaya curry, chili-caramel-flavoured sea bass and even ravioli that reminds you of Asia. It's a sophisticated but fun take on classic flavours and ingredients.
Ask chef Vikramjit Roy, master chef, newly arrived from Chennai where he helmed a sprucing-up of brand Pan Asian to open this modern Asian restaurant in Delhi, what's the secret and he merely shrugs: the curry is done from scratch, in-house, he says. Well, that's the least one expects from a restaurant with an ITC pedigree and a chef of this calibre. So, I think no more about it, till one evening over Jack Daniel's and coke, the drink, the chef truly explains how it is all done.
Thai herbs — as also Japanese seafood and Chinese ingredients — are all flown in on a weekly basis. And the curry is done from scratch. But there is more to it. For one, it is finished in a coconut shell. For another, in sous-vide!
"We put the curry in a coconut shell and vacuum-pack it. For 30 minutes, it is allowed to simmer in the water bath, so that the white flesh of the coconut gently disintegrates and blends into the curry," says Roy, trying his best to explain cooking chemistry to a layman. "That's what gives it that exact body and sweetness."
I am hooked. To the food. But also to the science behind it. So, we go on chatting a bit more. It turns out that the John Dory I have eaten and appreciated the evening before does not get its gorgeous brown crust from pan or oven. It is also cooked in sousvide, and topped with a crispy layer of METIL (methylcellulose) and then finished under a salamander. The overwhelming umami in the soup comes because all the wild mushrooms have been dehydrated (it concentrates the flavour); the crispy lotus stem in spicy soy is crispy not because it has been fried but because it is dehydrated, as are all the sweet potato chips et al.
And finally, the dessert to die for that has exotic berries does not taste of tinned fruit (how else do you get blueberries in India?) because of lyophilisation — freezefrying, in which the material is frozen and the surrounding pressure reduced so that the frozen water in the material sublimates directly from solid to gas! "That is why the flavour is intense and the shape of the fruit is maintained," says Roy.
Thought for Taste
Chemistry is inevitable to cooking but fancy lab-like processes are hardly ever the best indication of the best food. And just last month, I went to hyped-up meals where the process of cooking was more raved about than the lessthan-stellar food that landed up on the table! But at Tian, the cooking processes are only secondary to taste.
"An immersion circulator is calibrated to .01 degree centigrade. Ovens are calibrated to 5-10 degree centigrade. And with many of these processes, we can achieve the same texture and better flavour without frying and still retaining the nutrients. But at the end, these are merely cooking aids, to help you cook better and with more precision," points out the chef, who was allowed by the hotel group to also research old cooking techniques and recipes in Korea, Japan and China before opening the ambitious new project.
But Tian's gourmet credentials are not founded on modern cooking processes alone. The food sits on a bedrock of research: Sichuan prawns, for instance, have a pronounced cumin taste because the food from that region bears an Indian culinary influence. And there are little nuances like starting off with a fruit/sweet element as part of the amuse bouche because the elusive and little-researched Korean Temple Food philosophy also ties-up with Ayurveda in saying that a little sweet whets the appetite.
As you break a bite off the prawns that lie on a bed of guacamole, spear a bit of the pineapple on to the fork as well, dip into what looks like some innocuous powder on the plate, and take a bite, you do a double take. Smoke fills your mouth and as you exhale, the gleeful chef claps, "So you have been smoking..."
Though that is the only bit of smoke, there is enough spectacle in the presentation to keep you gripped. Everything in the restaurant reminds you of the new direction Asian dining out is taking in the country: Luxe ingredients, the playful combinations of flavours backed by research, and yes, cooking techniques. In that the restaurant sits on the cusp of a brave new trend.
Playful Twists, Seriously Gourmet
Worldwide, contemporary Asian, where diverse Asian flavours have been combined (Aussie meats with Vietnamese ingredients, Korean BBQ in a Chinese bun — Momofuku — et al) with western cooking techniques and presentations, has been quite popular in the last few years. And now, it is beginning to be experienced in India as well at a handful of restaurants.
"This has been a way in which the often esoteric culinary traditions of the East have been made accessible to a large number of people, who have found easy ways to enjoy it," points out chef Manu Chandra, who helms The Fatty Bao in Bangalore, a modern Asian gastro bar.
Chandra's restaurant is obviously a much more casual concept but it is quirky and modern in its sensibilities and in its irreverent takes on classic Asian dishes. So, you could have bacon-asparagus fried rice for comfort (because the Chinese have so much salty meat), you could have a veg version of the popular sesame-prawn toast that borrows from a dim sum classic, turnip cakes, and you could have a very clever PB&J (braised pork belly with miso jam).
Chandra's take on 'modern' Asian is a trifle different, though. Not only does it encompass a clever combining of diverse and authenticated regional flavours it also boasts gourmet-level detailing. "Instead of using sauces and pastes out of bottles that most chefs have got used to, it could also mean doing things from scratch: how to do miso from rajma or how to do interesting things with noodles," he quips.
The Third Wave
Contemporary Asian seems to be the third wave for the cuisine in India. We have all, of course, grown up on Indian-Chinese, the red-lanterned restaurants with doused-insoy, fried bites and indigenous creations like the Manchurian. But more recently, a wave of much more authentic and sophisticated pan-Asian flavours has hit the metros.
In fact, this year alone, Mumbai seems to have been flooded by Asian flavours: From Mekong and Oh:Cha Kitchen & Bar to the much-talked-about Burma Burma that brings vegetarian Burmese food to the table and authentic dishes: Lahpet Thohk, a pickled tea leaf salad and Nan Gyi Thoke, a onebowl meal of rice noodle salad with chickpea flour, not to mention what has been rated as the most credible khao suey in India. Both Gurgaon and Chennai, on the other hand, have had enough to keep Korean palates happy, backed by primarily expat consumers and also the better-travelled corporate crowd. And Japanese, in any case, is another ballgame altogether, its popularity still intact — its appeal spreading and no longer confined to the very upscale Wasabi and Megu (both incidentally 'contemporary Japanese', the format that has best caught on in India) but to takeaways and smaller standalone chains (Aoi, a chain from Japan, entered India via Kolkata last year). Finally, there has also been the advent of global flavours in the Chinese/Asian space with Hakkasan serving up their versions of the cuisine.
But the indigenous modernization of at least the Asian dining concept can perhaps be attributed to a space like Mamagoto. The chain of cafes (that started with Delhi and has now spread to Bangalore and Mumbai) changed the way of serving Asian flavours. Instead of family-style sharing meals, the format became fun and young. And instead of familiar Indian-Chinese staples, a variety of other flavours and street-food traditions from other Asian countries was incorporated into the menu, albeit in a populist way, to cater to a mass audience.
In Bangalore, spaces like the High Ultra Lounge, similarly catering to a younger, well-travelled audience, are serving up similar bites, like beef tataki (tenderloin carpaccio with avocado), grilled asparagus with wasabi potatoes and scallops with Japanese pickled plum. The chef comes from Zuma, the contemporary Japanese restaurant chain.
But even home-grown celebrity chefs are having fun treading the territory. At Ritu Dalmia's Diva Kitsch that came up last year, you could try similar inventive fare: have rocket leaves in an oriental dressing, papaya curry, chili-caramel-flavoured sea bass and even ravioli that reminds you of Asia. It's a sophisticated but fun take on classic flavours and ingredients.
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