Indo Chinese Crispy Baby Corn Chilli with sesame seeds

I only recently started using baby corn as a staple in my kitchen. About for two years. Since I am married to a vegetarian ( No eggs even ! Yeah, no eggs! ), I constantly look for new vegetables to cook with. My husband really is not that fond of baby corn, but this dish , he just gobbles up. This is a fairly simple dish, a small list of ingredients and not a lot of technique involved . The flavors and cooking style is a rip off the Chinese stir fry . It has got the classic balance of sweet, salty and spice. Its very playful on the palate and here I cannot fight the urge to quote the movie "American Psycho" and call it "a playful little dish" ( please read this in Christian Bale's voice ). As I said , there is not a lot of technical points to remember while making this dish, but to enjoy it at its best, here are a few tips:

1. Baby Corn is a vegetable best enjoyed at its freshest. The sugars in the corn will start converting into starch the moment it is detached from its parent plant and the sweetness  will start to fade . This process is slowed down at a low temperature . So , if you are not using it straight away, store your baby corn in the fridge.
2. Do not overcook (Never overcook anything ! You will ruin it )This recipe uses thrice cooked method- Parboiling, frying and then stir frying. Go a little overboard with one of them and you better throw your baby corn out of that kitchen window of yours.The best texture is when the baby corn is a little crisp on the exterior and has a crunch when you bite into it. This vegetable is naturally water retenant, since the core has a lot of water in it , so there is really not a lot  of ways you can dry it out too much (well  if you leave it in the oven for 4 hours , you may succeed) but overcooking will ruin the texture.
3.  Drying and Frying correctly- This is imporatnt, If you want to avoid soggy baby corn. When you parboil the baby corn , it WILL absorb water. You must dry the pieces before frying. Please don't be lazy and skip this. Use paper towels. Get as much water out of it as possible. This will ensure the pieces will not  turn out soggy. Frying these  correctly is equally important. Your oil needs to be hot and has to continue to be hot. Do not overcrowd the pan . This will bring the temperature of the oil down and the oil will absorb into the vegetable and result in a soggy piece rather than a crisp piece .

Recipe : Crispy Babycorn Chilli with sesame 

Quisine  : Indo Chinese 

Prep time : 10 mins (only chopping and cutting, this can stretch upto 15 mins if your knife skills are like mine )

Cooking time : 25 mins

Serves : 3-4 

Course : Starter / Entree ( Goes extremely well with drinks as said by my husband )

Ingredients :

• 1 + 1/4 cup baby corn
• 1/4 cup plain flour
• 1/8 cup rice flour
• 1/8 cup  corn flour
• salt and pepper to season
• flavorless oil for deep frying and later stir frying
• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
• 1/4 tsp minced garlic
• 1tsp julienned ginger
• 1/4 cup chopped capsicum/ bell pepper
• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce 
• 2 tsp sugar 
• 3 green chillies , chopped 
• 2 tsp toasted sesame seeds

Procedure :   

1. Cut the baby corn into 1 inch pieces . For the fatter ones , slit through the middle and then cut it.
2. Boil a pot of water, add a generous pinch of salt and 2 tsp of sugar. Add the baby corn and boil on high for 5 mins. Remove from heat, drain and dry thoroughly.
3. Take a large bowl, add the flours , salt and pepper. Whisk. Add the baby corn and coat. Shake excess flour off.
4. Heat a wok/ kadai and add oil. Fry the baby corn in batches . Donot overcrowd the pan. You will end up with soggy baby corn. Fry until lightly golden and remove on a kitchen towel.
5. Heat about a tbsp of oil in the wok. Add the garlic and ginger , saute for 30 secs on high. Add the onion and saute on medium for 2 mins . Add the capsicum and saute for a minute ( No more ! You don't want to eat an overcooked capsicum)
6. Add the baby corn, soy sauce, salt and pepper.
7. Add green chillies .
8. Add 1+1/2 tsp of sesame . Stir for 10 secs on high.
9. Serve immediately (this is no good at room temperature, cold is even worse), garnished with the rest of the sesame seeds.

               

Creamy Mango Sorbet without Ice Cream Maker

Sorbet is basically sweetened , frozen fruit puree.  Its a perfect way to have your overriped fruit and replace ice cream . The word "sorbet" is derived from the Arabic word "Sharbat" (fragrant mashed fruit drink).^[1] However, the root is present in such Indo-European languages as Greek and Persian for example (shoutout to Wikipedia). The most famous and generalized form , which is the American Sorbet is a fruity frozen dessert which is not diary  based. Now , there is a certain science to sorbet which I will get into detail later on, in the following points :

1. Choice of fruit . Your sorbet is as good as the quality of your fruit. Get the best one you can buy. Also consider the type of fruit. For example, I am using mangoes and mangoes , in a sorbet, is one of the easiest to deal with. Stone fruits like mangoes, peaches , etc are easiest to work with because they have a higher content of pectin which is basically responsible for the thicker , creamy texture. Raspberries and strawberries are very common flavors , and although they are less in pectin content, they have a lot of body which is again responsible for a creamier texture.The most difficult for me is lime sorbet (that may also be because I am a shitty cook). Freezing lime juice and sugar syrup into something creamy is difficult and it will be grainy, but thats how it is supposed to be since it acts as an excellent palette cleanser in a multi course meal.Whatever be your choice, try and get the best quality and if you are a beginner, I recommend using the more full bodied fruits. Its summer ! there is an abundance . Strawberries, mangoes, peaches , plums (I have even used dragon fruit and it came out well)
2. Stage of fruit cycle. Use over riped fruits. Remember the sweeter your fruit is , the lesser the sugar to be added( I will get to sugar science in the next point). Also , a fruit that is under riped is basically firmer in texture which means if you are looking for softness and silkiness in your sorbet, its probably not a good idea to choose an under riped fruit. You can cook the fruit to soften it but to me its a sorbet crime because fruit is best when its fresh (thats the whole point of a sorbet) and cooking , no matter how delicate will take away some of the freshness. In some cases however, cooking may be the better option like quince sorbet, but this is rare.
3. Sugar Content (the most important). The sugar will make your sorbet a sorbet or a slush. the freezing and final texture is all dependent on the sugar content. Too much and you have ice , too little and you have slush (you can eat it either ways , but it won't be a sorbet). The general rule is : 4 cups fruit puree to 1 cup sugar . Don't believe me , its what pastry chefs use. The ideal sugar content is 23-25% to get the ideal texture. This is not exactly a rule I follow to the T because I don't have an ice cream machine(and this ratio is mostly for ice cream machines) and my method does not actually require this particular ratio to work (You'll see) but I do try to keep the sugar content to around 20% of fruit. I personally prefer less sugar because I still want the natural tartness of the fruit to come through . My husband on the other hand prefers a sweeter note to his sorbets. This 4:1 ratio is also called the master ratio by pastry chefs.
4. Alcohol. If you want your sorbet to stay scoopable , add some alchohol , it reduces the freezing point keeping your sorbet soft. This is purely optional and my method will give you creamy with or without alcohol . This is also a good excuse to day drink.
5. No icecream maker. The very technique an ice cream maker uses is to incorporate air while freezing . This prevents formations of sharp ice crystals which is a risk with freezing sugar molecules. However, it is possible to mimic if not replicate this effect. You will need to pay a little more attention though, still less expensive than buying an ice cream machine.
6. Eat it in time. Its fresh fruit, it wont last forever so enjoy it in its time. Adding alcohol will help a little but I still recommend finishing a batch (that is 4 cups of fruit puree) in a week at most.

Recipe : Mango Sorbet

Prep Time : 6 hours 

Serves : 4

Course : Dessert, Summer Treat.

Ingredients :

1. 2 cups fresh Mangoes 
2. 4 medium sized mangoes which should give you 2cups of puree.
3. 1 and 1/2 tsp of fresh lime juice (I am using a variety of mango that is naturally on the tart side , so adjust the lime juice accordingly)
4. Pinch of salt and by pinch I mean 1/4 tsp
5. 1/2 cup of sugar
6. 1/4 cup water
7. 1 tsp brandy( rum will also work well)

Procedure : 

1. Cut your mangoes into cubes and freeze . I did mine over night but if you wack your chiller to max, it should freeze in about 4 hours.
2. Prepare a sugar syrup but heating water and sugar. You don't need to boil this. Chill in the fridge.
3. Puree the mango in a blender until very smooth. Remember some varieties of  mangoes have fibrous strands. If your puree is fibrous , strain through a sieve to get rid of them.
4. Add the sugar syrup, salt and lime juice and blend.
5. Add the alcohol.
6. Transfer to a shallow dish, Cover with cling and place it in the freezer at max power, meaning he chiller is at its maximum freezing power and lowest temperature.
7. At intervals of around 45 mins , take it out , fork it around and place it back. This is to break any large ice crystals . Do this 3-4 times . Then place in an airtight container and freeze overnight or 6 hours.
8. At this point your sorbet will be  granita like in texture(the 1st picture below) which is fine to serve, however, of you want a real next level sorbet orgasm, blend it one last time. This is basically blend the ice crystals into puree making it soft serve ice cream like.

Charred Oven baked Tangy Cauliflower

Cauliflower is one of my favorite vegetables. I love to eat it, I love to cook with it, I love to feed it to my guests and my husband loves it too. We have it almost everyday. It can be an entree, a main and a snack. This particular preparation can be served as an entree or a snack, accompanied by a mug of beer, especially if you are entertaining a vegetarian guest. It is super easy, not a lot of spice to it . It takes a little longer to cook because I cook it in the oven but you will realize that the wait is worth it. 

Technical points to remember :

1. Cooking time . This recipe takes about 40-50 mins in  the oven depending on your oven ( I have a large oven with hot spots). That sounds like a lot for a vegetable and yes it is. But it is important to cook the cauliflower in an indirect heat so as not to burn the marinade over it. Also, I like my vegetables with a little bit of bite to them. If you like yours well done then let them be in the oven for an extra 10 mins, it really depends on how you like it ( I served these to my mother and she basically accused me of serving her under cooked cauliflower ). Having said that, I recommend not overcooking these as not only it ruins the texture and flavor but it will also result in loss of those precious nutrients)
2. Marinating time . You can marinate this ahead of time or even leave it overnight in the fridge (place it in the coolest part of your fridge ) . Marinating at room temperature will take only an hour max, since room temperatures catalyse the marinating process. Also remember that this is not a meat. We are not looking to tenderize it. What we want is the flavor and seasonings to penetrate and 1 hour is enough for that.

Recipe : Charred Oven baked Tangy Cauliflower
Cuisine : Indian
Prep time : 1 hour 10 mins 
Cooking time : 40-50 mins 
Serves : 3-4  a

Ingredients :

• 1 medium cauliflower, separated into large florets (refer to video). Do not make the florets small. They will turn to mush when you cook them.
• 1/2 cup thick yogurt
• 1/8 cup of lime juice ( fresh is preferred but you can use bottled too)
• 1/2 tsp garlic paste
• 1/2 tsp tumeric powder
• 1/2 tsp of ground cumin.
• Salt to taste
• 1 tbsp finely chopped onion
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil 

Procedure :

1. Blanch the cauliflower in salted water for 3 minutes. Drain and let air dry.
2. In a mixing bowl, place  yogurt, tumeric, cumin , garlic , onion , salt and mix
3. Add cauliflower  and mix. Cover with foil and let it marinate at room temperature for 1 hour.
4. Preheat the oven at 200℃ . Place the florets on a baking sheet , brush with oil and bake for 10 minutes. Rotate the pan and bake another 10 minutes. Take it out, flip the florets and brush with oil. Bake for 10 minutes at the end of which rotate and bake for a final 10 minutes.

Serve hot.