Gone are the days of liquid mess all around your table when the lemon is sqeezed or the shorbet is poured. Taking each ingredient and respecting it to the maximum, the drinks are now prepared with the utmost respect. Respecting the integrity also means limiting the number of ingredients in a drink to as few as possible. Fewer flavors confuse the flavours less and preserve the respect for each individual ingredient to a greater extent.
Once upon a time, in an Indian restaurant near you, there was a rowdy hot Saturday afternoon crowd, boisterously tucking into shikanji, glasses after glasses of lassi and towers of ice cubes to rival the one in Pisa. There was flock wallpaper and gilded flourishes galore, waiters in dickie bows and lots of corny sitar music. And the Cobra beer flowed and flowed. Close your eyes and imagine Indian drinks - sinful chaas laden in oversized kadais, rich boiled milk simmered with dryfruits served with a dollop of cream. The portions are large, the focus is on quantity, and are served with a rustic touch. Restaurants rustle up the authentic Indian touch by ensuring food is served in the customary steel glass and glass bowls. But things began to change. Indian drinks have started to create art. It modernized.. Like the colorful panoply of subcontinental drinks, contemporary Indian drink is varied and eclectic,
with myriad styles, interpretations and plot twists. But in the epic story of Indian drinks, it may well be a pivotal chapter. The post modern Indian drinks is all about technique .Yes, there is a method to this madness that is driving people nuts over the traditional Indian recipes the world over. And now its not just chefs who rustle up post-modern wonders We also have on board microbiologists ,florists,industrial craftsmen lending that extra touch. Progressive Indian drinks are rustled up in a kitchen resembling a science lab, exuding liquid nitrogen fumes. Today Indian drinks has moved beyond the realms of fusion gourmet. Modern Indian drink is making rapid strides. Innovative drink is evolving taste ,texture and presentation . Now its about the four P’s —Passion,Presentation,Pairing and a hint of pink! which connotes creativity and experimentation.
Are you passionate about cooking? Do you have a creative mind? Are you analytical and logical? Then spherificaton could likely become your passion. Spherification is the culinary process of shaping a liquid into spheres usually using sodium alginate and either calcium chloride or calcium glucate lactate, which visually and texturally resemble roe. The technique was originally discovered by Unilever in the 1950s (Potter 2010, p. 305) and brought to the modernist cuisine by the creative team at elBulli under the direction of executive chef Ferran Adrià. There are two main methods for creating such spheres, which differ based on the calcium content of the liquid product to be spherified. For flavored liquids (such as fruit juices) containing no calcium, the liquid is thoroughly mixed with a small quantity of powdered sodium alginate, then dripped into a bowl filled with a cold solution of calcium chloride, or other soluble calcium salt.
Just as a teaspoonful of water dropped into a bowl of vegetable oil forms a little bubble of water in the oil, each drop of the alginated liquid tends to form into a small sphere in the calcium solution. Then, during a reaction time of a few seconds to a few minutes, the calcium solution causes the outer layer of each alginated liquid sphere to form a thin, flexible skin. The resulting “popping boba” or artificial “caviar” balls are rinsed then in water and saved for later use in food or beverages. Reverse spherification, for use with substances which contain calcium or have high acid/alcohol content, requires dripping the substance (containing calcium lactate or calcium lactate gluconate) into an alginate bath. A more recent technique is frozen reverse spherification, which involves pre-freezing spheres containing calcium lactate gluconate and then submerging them in a sodium alginate bath. All three methods give the same result: a sphere of liquid held by a thin gel membrane, texturally similar to roe
What inspired you to pursue cooking professionally? My grandmother. We call her Biji. She taught me how to cook. I understood the power of food when I was just a child, just observing my family and friends at mealtimes. Food was the center point, when everyone sat together at the table and shared life and every celebration of togetherness. It was and is the most inspiring part of my profession, even today! What is your philosophy on food and dining? For me, the essence of food and dining is to keep it pure. It should feel like you are eating the meal in your own dining room, cooked by a friend as a guest chef. What goes into creating a dish? Vision, art, understanding of temperature and technique, and most importantly the ingredients that inspire the dish. What trends do you see emerging? Simple ingredients and simple plates. I think ultimately we all love comfort foods. How important is presentation for eating? You work with the visually challenged- how do they experience food? It’s crucial. My workshops with visually challenged are based on recognising flavours and textures of food and appreciating them. The senses of aromas and touch are crucial in these classes.
What do you think makes your style of contemporary Indian cooking appealing to diverse palates? ‘Typically, the first time Americans taste Indian food isn’t in India - either it’s at home, or they travel to England, fall in love with the curry shops there, and want to try more upon their return. Food is one of the greatest Indian imports, and the soft power of the country. And here in the US, when people know a chef is passionate about his cooking, it gets a lot of attention. You might even get invited to the White House!’ Can you offer one tip to readers travelling to India for the first time? ‘A traveller should never refuse an invitation to a local’s home. If you’re approachable, people will invite you - and you’ll discover the kind of food you’ll never find in restaurants. Indians are very hospitable and you’ll understand India when you eat with the people.’ Any cooking tips you would want to give our readers? Cooking is a pure expression of you. Enjoy it and celebrate it with your family and loved ones.
On a hot summer mid-evening, that’s where these super-concentrated chai iced tea cubes come in. Just add a couple cubes to a glass of milk and you’ve got a refreshing glass of iced chai . Iced tea is wonderfully refreshing, especially on hot days. If you want to make even more flavorful tea that’s not watered down, make some iced tea cubes—literally, iced tea.All you have to do is brew tea as usual and freeze it in ice cube trays. As with coffee cubes, the biggest benefit is you avoid diluted tea from regular ice cubes.But this also gives you a chance to really trick out your drinks. Add lemon or lime slices, fruit and herbs.
Everyone loves mixing drinks and experimenting new flavours and punches.Some become a success and some terribly fail. Here is one such mix where you mix your desi drink with old monk and making it the talk of your party.
Ingredients
1 1/4 oz. Old Monk Rum 2 ozs. Orange Juice 2 ozs. Pineapple Juice Dash of Angostura Bitters 1/6 oz. Grenadine 1 Cherry and/or Slice of Orange
Method
1. add ice to fill glass half way through. 2. Add 2 ozs orange juice 3. add 2 ozs pineapple juice. 4. add 1/4 oz old monk rum . 5. Add 1/6 of grenadine syrup,optional. 6. Add crushed chilies to taste.( for the punch)