Long-lasting flavours
THE BEST THING ABOUT THE RETURN OF THE SLOW COOKING TRENDS IS THE REVIVAL OF MANY OLD DELICIOUS RECIPES
For Marination
Chicken breast 200 gm Lemon rind and lemon juice 2 nos Salt black pepper to taste Chopped thyme 3 gm Cajun spice half teaspoon Oil to grill 10ml Makhani gravy 100ml Boiled Baby potato 4 nos Kasundhi mustard 10 gm Coriander spring for garnish
METHOD
Marinate chicken with mentioned spices and keep aside for one hour Grill and cook in the oven and keep aside Now season baby potato with mustard and keep on a slow flame to heat it up
In another pan heat makhani gravy and keep aside
Now plate with all the above ready dishes and serve hot.
While the world is running after fast food, let’s not forget the good old times when food was made at leisure and flavours lasted forever. Traditionally, Indian chefs have always favored the elaborate cooking methods and techniques which the world is now exploring in depth — for instance, slow stewing of kormas, braising of lamb raan, the slow roasting of whole meat carcass in tandoor and pit slow cooking of spiced meat in rural areas. The best thing about the return of slow cooking trends in commercial kitchens is the revival of classic recipes and delightful flavours that never fails to impress.
So what exactly is slow cooking? Chef Prem K. Pogakula, Executive Chef at The Imperial New Delhi, explains, “We know that when we heat our food on the burner, the heat rises up on the sides of the pot and the food within is heated. The slow cooking concept works similarly. In this process, the base of the slow cooking pot transfers heat up to the bottom of the dish. This heat then spreads to the sides of the dish and cooks the food inside. Slow cooking pots are useful throughout the year. For instance, on a cold winter day, the aroma of hot soup is welcoming and in summers slow cooking pots do not heat the kitchen the way an oven might do. It brings out the flavour in foods. A wide variety of foods can be cooked in it, including onepot meals, soups, stews and more. Less expensive or tough meats, such as chuck steaks or roast and less lean stewing meats, are tenderised through the long cooking process.”
Across the world, chefs have been ‘sous vide’ slow-cooking vacuum-packed food in water baths for years. Now technological advances mean the home cook can use sous vide too. Sous vide’s history started in NASA labs in the 1960s, with sealedbag meals prepared for astronauts; then it moved to 1970s France, where nouvelle-cuisine chefs such as Albert Roux and Henri Gault loved the idea. They knew the old technique of cooking en papillote (in an oiled paper bag) to seal in flavour and juices; plastic was simpler.
Speaking about the evolution of slow cooking in modern kitchen, chef Pogakula elaborates, “I like sous vide cooking method (which means sealed bag cooking) a lot. Like all good things, great professional innovations in cooking transfer to the domestic kitchen pretty quickly. Sous vide has been slow because, of course, of the boilin-the-bag taint, but also because of expense. Low cookers usually allow one-step preparation. Placing all the ingredients in the slow cooker saves preparation time and cuts down on cleanup.”
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The extended cooking times allow better distribution of flavours in many recipes. The lower temperatures lessen the chance of scorching of foods that tend to stick to the bottom of a pan or burn in an oven — Chef Prem K.
Pogakula
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INGREDIENTS
Lamb shanks 1200 gm Cumin seeds 15 gm Star anise 10 gm Tomato paste 150 gm Carrot (big chunks) 120 gm Leeks (big chunks) 80 gm Celery (big chunks) 50 gm Onion (¼) 50 gm Elephant garlic cloves 5 gm Cooking red wine 400 ml Bay leaf 1 gm Peppercorn 3 gm Lamb stock 2 litre Refined oil 250 gm Salt to taste