Imust have a thousand cookbooks and yet, I always enjoy skimming through new ones.
I have been through the deadlines and photo shoots and appreciate all that is involved in putting a cookbook together. Cooking 30 to 40 recipes in one day for the photographer is a lot of work and then, what do you do with all that food when you are done? I remember several years ago when I worked on a cookbook, I dropped all the food I cooked to the Central Fire Station for the firefighters on duty.
My son Reid gave me several cookbooks for my birthday. The Flavor Equation writes about the science of cooking, similar to the books of Harold McGee, which I always use as a reference to explain why. This new cookbook by Nik Sharma “gives us an entirely new way to become a better cook: through the science of flavor and sensation.” Being a molecular biologist and also a food blogger, he looks at cooking through the eyes of a scientist.
“Flavor is made up of many parts. One part is driven by our emotions and memories, while the other part we decipher using our senses, sight, sound, mouthfeel (texture), aroma, and taste.”
The flavor equation consists of emotion, sight, sound, mouthfeel, aroma, and taste.
First, emotion, and our food are interconnected and “have the power to influence each other.”
“This relationship between emotion and flavor is especially evident at social events. Foods served at celebrations are glorious and dazzling, with all sorts of flavors (as well as colors and textures) to evoke a sense of exceptionalism and induce positive emotions.”
Sight is what is important to the Japanese, eating with their eyes. So Sharma says garnishes are important, especially when the food is brown, to give the dish an appealing visual contrast.
Sound could indicate freshness, which could mean the freshness of a celery stick or the crunch of a potato chip. “Sounds can also affect the perception of flavor. For example, at Fat Duck restaurant in the UK, there are sounds of breaking ocean waves to enjoy your seafood.”
“Mouth feels are in four categories: chewers, like food that needs to be chewed for a long time, crunchers or crunchy food, suckers, or foods that dissolve slowly, and smooshers, or foods that are creamy.
Have you ever passed a bakery and smelled freshly baked bread or a coffee roaster when they were roasting or grinding coffee? “When we inhale, aroma molecules travel through air to the cells lining the back of the nose-the olfactory epithelium. Here these molecules dissolve and interact with the odor receptors, which send an electric signal to the brain.”
A single taste bud has 50 to 150 specialized taste receptor cells arranged in a tight bundle like an onion to form a tiny pore.”When we eat and chew food, our teeth break the food down into smaller bits that start to get dissolved in saliva. The taste molecules, or tastants, then travel through the pores of the taste buds, where they meet the taste receptors on the microvilli. When a taste molecule binds with a receptor, it immediately sends a signal through the nerve to the brain, which then tells us what kind of taste is present in the food we’re eating/. Taste is subjective and personal and can be learned.”
There are seven types of taste: sour, bitter, salty, sweet, umami, oleogustus or richness and heat.
Many of Karma’s recipes use wonderful Indian spices, like the one below. “The tamarind and tomato provide the sour backdrop for bitter greens and vegetables in this soup.”
Collard Greens, Chickpea
Lentil Soup
Serves 4
1/2 cup red lentils
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 medium white or yellow onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
1 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated
2 inch piece cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 to 1 teaspoon red chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 medium tomato, diced
1 bunch collard greens, 7 ounces, midribs removed, coarsely chopped
1-(15-1/2 ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 quart vegetable stock or water
1 tablespoon tamarind paste
Fine sea salt
2 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
Buttered bread or naan, for serving
Pick over the lentils for any stones or debris, rinse in a fine-mesh sieve under running tap water, and transfer to a small bowl. Cover with 1 cup of water and soak for 30 minutes.
Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot, add the onion and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the cinnamon, black pepper, red chili, and turmeric and saute until fragrant, 30 to 45 seconds. Stir in the tomato paste and cook it just until it starts to brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the diced tomatoes and collard greens and saute until the leaves turn bright green, 1 to 2 minutes. Drain the soaked lentils and add along with the chickpeas and vegetable stock. Bring to a boil, lower the heat to a simmer, and cook until the lentils are tender and completely cooked, 25 to 30 minutes. Stir in tamarind paste. Taste and season with salt.
Before serving , stir in chopped parsley and cilantro.
Serve hot with toasted slices of warm buttered bread or naan.
Email Audrey Wilson at audreywilson808@gmail.com.
