When it pours in the city, the cool breeze, the water droplets dribbling down the window panes are all a pleasant sight and make one reach out for something warm and comforting.
It might not be hunger, but just a craving to have something that complements the weather. A bowl of soup sounds good. On second thoughts, a steaming cup of frothing cappuccino wouldn’t be bad either.
Food dilemma? In such a situation what does one do? Chef Naresh has a suggestion: How about a ‘cappuccino wild mushroom soup’?
With food preferences changing the world over, there is a whole new menu when it comes to eating out, cooking and discussing food over a meal. Molecular gastronomy? “Not really,” says Naresh, of Ci Gusta as he pushes a ruby sorbet for tasting. “It’s Wine sorbet and the one that’s blackish purple is the jamun sorbet. Food is all about experimenting and trying to infuse two uncommon flavours/ingredients to create a burst of flavours in our mouth. While doing so, one has to take care that the ingredients are good enough to pair,” explains Naresh whose experiments in the kitchen give him ideas on food pairing.
Taking his love for peanut butter several notches higher, he made a burger where the base is peanut butter. “It is a whopper and everyone loves the different taste. With several layers of cheese, meats and sauces, this isn’t just a mouthful but sinful as well,” he laughs.
What can be the degree of failure in such events? “One has to be sure of how the chef handles the ingredients. Naresh’s pairing is of a different kind. It is not like wine and Indian food, it is more like using wine to make butter chicken and I quite trust his abilities with ingredients,” says Hanumanth Rao, owner of Ci Gusta.
Even as pairing in cooking is being discussed, Instagram shows up a picture of ‘Thai paneer’. Thai paneer? “Hey, that made it to the huffpost recipes,” says Swayampurna Mishra, a serious food blogger whose blog involves writing and posting photos of ‘not what I ate where’, but ‘my experiments in the kitchen.’ “Thai style paneer is a hot favourite with almost everyone I have made it for. It happened quite instinctively; I hadn’t planned on it. Call me weird but I just couldn’t do one more plate of paneer chilli or tikka again. Thai is one of my favourite cuisines and the thought of grilling paneer batons in a simple Thai curry paste was just incredibly appealing to me. Served with roasted peanuts, sesame seeds and nam prik pao or sweet chilli sauce, this is healthy, delicious and ready in 20 minutes! Win win for all,” she says.
Then there’s her Mango Gazpacho.
She says, “Summer is synonymous with mango and we end up eating loads of it, especially since it comes from our family farms. But I don’t have a big sweet tooth and serving mango as the same old desserts is most boring to me. I had earlier made a watermelon gazpacho (basically a cold soup from Spain) that we loved, and given that I was in no mood to cook in the heat, this mango gazpacho seemed like the perfect answer. Served with a plum salsa, this gazpacho is everything you want in a bowl. Cold, sweet, acidic, fresh and so interesting.”
Swayampurna who owns the blog Lapetitchef says, her idea of pairing is to keep the art of cooking interesting. “It is about keeping the taste buds alive for you and the others as well. I cannot describe the joy I derive from my experiments and I love sharing them, because that’s what makes the kitchen interesting for us all.”
When pairing is the topic let’s not keep the drinks away totally. “Heard of a sorrel flower drink?” questions executive chef Mandaar Sukhtankar of The Park. Popularly called the gongura puvu, Mandaar made a refreshing drink out for Andrew Zimmern of Bizzare food fame when he was in the city.
Mandaar says he wanted to present something local, but replicable. “They make chutney out of the fresh flower, tea from the dried flower, so why not a drink from the fresh flower I thought and there it was. Stunningly red, deliciously tangy.”
Talking of drinks, would anyone want a Beetroot cappuccino? Weird? “It is a cocktail I had somewhere and the beauty was that there was pinepapple foam to make it look like a cup of cappuccino, says Sharath, master blender and restaurant manager at United Kitchens of India who’s Espresso martini is a huge hit with the regulars there. “I use hazelnut syrup and espresso shot. To make it look like a steaming cup of coffee, I top it with dry ice; nothing can be more irresistible than a steaming cup of coffee.”
