Maximum Flavor: Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook (9 page)

¾ pound 340 grams large
tomatillos
(4 to 5), husked and quartered

4
baby cucumbers,
peeled and sliced

3
scallions,
cut into 1-inch 2.5 cm batons

1
jalapeño,
peeled and sliced

1¾ teaspoons 10.5 grams
fine sea salt

About 3 tablespoons 45 grams
pistachio oil

Fleur de sel

Small handful of
herb flowers
or thinly sliced leaves

In a large bowl, combine the pistachios, grapes, melon, tomatillos, cucumbers, scallions, jalapeño, and salt and mix well. Divide the mixture between 2 gallon-size zip-top bags and make sure they are securely closed. Lay the bags out flat, one on top of the other, on a tray or baking sheet and put them in the freezer. Freeze until solid, at least 8 hours.

Transfer the bags to the refrigerator to let the mixture thaw, at least 12 hours. (If you are in a hurry, you can thaw them under cold running water for 1 hour.) The fruits and vegetables will soften and start releasing their liquid and this will help to get the most flavor out of them when you puree them. Transfer the contents of 1 bag to a large blender. Turn the blender on low speed and slowly increase the power to high speed, pureeing the mixture until completely smooth, 2 to 4 minutes. Strain the soup through a fine-mesh sieve into a large pitcher. Pour the soup into ice cube trays and put the trays in the freezer. Repeat with the second bag of soup. Freeze the soup in the ice cube trays until it is rock solid, at least 6 hours. At this point you can remove it from the trays and store the cubes in zip-top bags in the freezer for up to a week.

Chill a large metal bowl in the freezer for at least 1 hour before you are planning to serve the soup. Put 8 soup bowls into the refrigerator to chill. Set up a food processor with the thin slicing blade. Turn the food processor on and feed the frozen soup cubes through the feed tube and shave the soup. When the bowl of the food processor is halfway filled, stop the machine and transfer the shaved soup to the bowl in the freezer. Repeat with the remaining soup. Grated gazpacho may be kept in the freezer for up to 1 hour.

To serve, put equal portions of the frozen, shaved gazpacho into each of the 8 chilled serving bowls. Drizzle about a teaspoon of pistachio oil over each serving and finish with a sprinkling of fleur de sel and a few assorted herb flowers.

CHINESE CELERY SOUP
WITH CRAB SALAD

CHINESE CELERY HAS LONG, SLENDER STALKS THAT ARE
hollow and are topped with an abundance of soft green leaves. Stronger and more aromatic than the conventional celery we are all used to, it tends to have a slightly peppery flavor and is usually cooked, rather than eaten raw. Its stronger flavor makes it perfect for soups because it can stand up to a little bit of dilution. In this recipe we pair it with celery root to create a soup that is smooth, earthy, and slightly sweet. It’s a nice match for succulent crab and the rich, nutty flavor of peanuts.

SERVES 8

SOUP

1 pound 455 grams
Chinese celery
(about 1 bunch)

2 large
celery root
(about ⅔ pounds 1,200 grams)

2 quarts plus ¾ cup 2,000 grams
water

1¾ teaspoons 10.5 grams
fine sea salt

1 tablespoon 14 grams
fish sauce

CRAB SALAD

4½ tablespoons 75 grams
peanut butter

⅔ cup 150 grams
crème fraîche
,
homemade or store-bought

1 tablespoon 14 grams
sake

¼ teaspoon 1.5 grams
fine sea salt

½ teaspoon 3 grams
Sriracha sauce

1½ tablespoons 15 grams
peanuts,
roasted
and chopped

Leaves from 2
Chinese celery
stalks, chopped

1 pound 455 grams
lump crabmeat

Fine sea salt

Fresh
lime juice
(optional)

MAKE THE SOUP:
Separate the leaves from the stalks of the celery, setting aside the leaves from 2 stalks for the crab salad. Cut the stalks into 4-inch (10 cm) segments and put them in a pressure cooker. Reserving the peels, peel the celery root. Add the peels to the pressure cooker along with the water and salt. Cook at high pressure for 10 minutes. Let the pressure dissipate naturally.

Meanwhile, cut the peeled celery root into thin slices, put them in a bowl, and cover with water. Strain the celery stock and discard the solids. Put the stock and the sliced celery root into a clean pressure cooker. Cook for 7 minutes at high pressure. Let the pressure dissipate naturally. Open the top and add the celery leaves, stirring with a silicone spatula to incorporate them. Transfer the entire mixture to a metal bowl set in an ice water bath and let the mixture cool, stirring constantly and replenishing the ice as needed, for about 15 minutes. When the soup is cold, stir in the fish sauce.

Put one-quarter of the soup into a blender and turn it on low speed. Increase the speed to medium-high and puree until smooth. Strain the soup through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl. Repeat with the rest of the soup. Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate for up to 2 days. The color will slowly oxidize over time, turning it brown, so this soup is best served fresh.

MAKE THE SALAD:
In a medium bowl, whisk together the peanut butter, crème fraîche, sake, salt, and Sriracha. Add the peanuts and celery leaves, and stir with a rubber spatula to blend. Pick through the crabmeat, removing any stray bits of shell or cartilage while keeping the pieces as large as possible. Add the crabmeat to the bowl and gently fold it into the sauce. Taste the salad and add a pinch of salt or a squeeze of fresh lime juice if desired.

TO SERVE
: Divide the crab salad among 8 serving bowls. Put the soup in a large pitcher and pour it into the bowls, letting it pool around the crab salad. Serve immediately.

TASTE & FLAVOR

Tasting is a complex experience. It may seem like a simple combination of what you smell and what you eat, but there is so much more to it than that. Simple flavors tend to fade quickly, leaving you mindlessly chewing your food without appreciating what you’re eating. More complex flavor combinations encourage you to slow down and savor your food. Textural contrasts help capture your attention. They spark small changes in the dish so that each bite is unique. Tasting menus in restaurants—several small portions of different foods served in succession—are designed to combat palate fatigue while highlighting a chef’s prowess, each small plate showcasing different preparations to keep diners excited by their meal. In truth, diners just need food that is well prepared and delicious with small accents of flavor to truly enjoy a meal.

There are five main tastes—sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami—accompanied by a wide variety of minor players like fat, heat, and spice. To make something exceptional, you need a little bit of each of these tastes. Think of them as puzzle pieces. The trick is figuring out how much to use and how to fit the pieces together. If one taste stands alone, you will quickly become bored with the dish. You need the play of tastes to create a nuanced dish. Salt can bring sweetness to the forefront without adding sugar; sweetness can downplay bitter; fat takes the edge off sour; umami increases the sense of richness; and bitter can soften saltiness.

Understanding how flavors work together helps create a better dish. The key is balancing the composition as a whole in order to avoid palate fatigue. We like to finish recipes with small touches—like the seasoned crème fraîche in the
clam chowder
—that help pull everything into focus. The fresh herbs and lemon zest in the crème fraîche add a layer of aromatics that changes the palate’s perception of the soup, making it seem brighter and fresher. The mixture melts unevenly, swirling around and adding creaminess and acidity to the chowder. Even more important, it guarantees that each bite will be slightly different so that you retain pleasure in the experience. All it takes is a small variation every once in a while to remind your brain to pay attention to what you’re eating.

We all know how important the sense of smell is to experiencing flavor. What we don’t often consider is the fact that there are two ways to smell: through your nose and through your mouth. One of the best examples we can think of is coffee. As children we smell its intoxicating aroma and want to taste it, but that first sip is usually a disappointment. To a child’s palate, coffee is thin and bitter. Add some cream and lots of sugar and the child will be happy. That’s because the mouth smell and taste experience of coffee is totally different from the nose smell.

What’s interesting is the way that your brain can differentiate between the two types of smell. This means that while your perception can be influenced by the aromas surrounding your food, your perception of them will change once you hold them in your mouth. Wine tasting requires that you evaluate a glass of wine first by appearance, then by scent, and finally on the palate. Experienced wine tasters have no need to swallow because they know it is the act of “chewing” the wine in your mouth, allowing it to mix with air and wash repeatedly over your tongue, that will give you the full experience. While the aroma of a wine will tell you a lot about it, the flavor of a good wine is always a little different, richer, and more satisfying than the aroma alone. Even after you spit it out, a great wine will linger on your palate, providing a long finish that changes as it slowly disappears. When you sniff the wine again, your perception of the aroma will be affected by the taste of the wine. This is how our brains build a flavor vocabulary. That particular scent will now trigger the memory of that taste. We can teach ourselves to taste thoughtfully and discern flavors. All it takes is practice.

Texture is important because the ability to feel things with your tongue, as you taste them, is inherent to the pleasure of a meal. Somehow the action of touching your food with your tongue, feeling the way it moves inside your mouth, helps your brain figure out what it tastes like. As you hold food in your mouth, aromas are carried up into your nasal cavities and your perception of the scent of the food changes. Anyone who’s ever had a shot of Novocain during dental work has probably experienced that food may smell the same but it does not taste as good until the anesthetic wears off. Even if you eat something that you’ve had a dozen times before, the flavors will be muted, as will be your pleasure in the experience because you will be unable to interpret the flavor the way you normally would. The tongue is an incredibly sensitive organ and while people tend to harp on the nose as the harbinger of flavor, it never works alone. That’s why the best foods contain a variety of textures within one preparation. Think of fried chicken. It is that combination of crisp or crunchy crust, chewy skin, and tender, juicy meat all working together with the seasoning and the aroma and the mental associations to create food that people crave. Every bite is slightly different and it’s messy and fun to eat. You have to focus on what you’re doing, and your enjoyment increases because you are paying attention.

Every part of a dish contributes to how you experience it, and it would be a mistake to downplay the importance of any single factor. Still, once everything is on the table, it’s time to stop analyzing, relax, and enjoy your meal.