Tiny Bubbles 2: The Indian Tradition
A few months ago I posted about what seemed to me a big difference between modern Western cuisines and cuisines in other parts of the world, namely the widespread use of air in Western foods. I listed a variety of techniques for incorporating air, such as fermenting, pumping, steam trapped in doughs, whisking, etc. I argued that the enthusiasm for airy foods was no accident but the result of early modern nutritional theories that saw air as a food.
And while I mentioned the use of foams in Mesoamerican chocolate drinks, most commentators focussed on air in certain Indian dishes. Interestingly no one mentioned air in Middle Eastern (Persian) or Chinese cuisine.
Yesterday I had a long letter from Sanatan Rai in London summarizing Indian techniques for airy dishes (and many thanks to him for taking the time to put it together).
Examples where aeration is from mechanical action
1 Malai-Makhan
This should be similar to daulat-ki-chaat already mentioned in the replies to your post. However, this is a western UP dish. I am not exactly sure how it’s actually made, but the milk/cream is flavoured with saffron. It’s served in kulhars (clay pots similar to the ones they used to do tea in), often off huge clay pots wherein it seems to prepared.
When I was a student in Kanpur in the early ’90s, it was a great treat to have a kulhar for about Rs 5. It is intensenly creamy, with the texture of whipped cream and butter—the clue’s in the name. So it is a distinct though clearly related dish to daulat-ki-chaat.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makhan_malai
2 Chena
Chena is essentially worked paneer (cottage cheese). Depending on how dense or light it is, one makes different sweets. My description is simplistic and there’re many tricks known only to specialists. In western Uttar Pradesh lighter versions are prized, and it’s all about getting enough air in. Sponge Rasgullas / Rasmalai are two common examples, chena-gilauri a slightly atypical one.
3 Chilla and pakoris
Chillas are north Indian crepes, typically made from besan or moong dal batter. Traditionally, all the aeration comes from whipping the batter well. The moong dal versions tend to be lighter and one can get away with less work. Besan batter is a difficult beast and requires quite a lot of whipping before it’s light enough. The usual test is to take a small dollop and drop it in a bowl of water. If it floats, it’s ready, else not. When done right the resulting crepes and pakoris are light. When done badly, they’re dense and not fun to eat—much rowing with the cook ensues. (The abominations called bhaji here in the British isles are the sort of travesties that get cooks fired.) As with dosas, a good moong batter chilla should show some bubbles, though with besan batters that never happens.
Vadas (savoury doughnuts usually made from lentil or lentil + rice batters) are in this category too.
4 Gazak
This is essentially a sesame seed brittle. The Gur (jaggery) or sugar is heated until it is soft and pliable. The aeration is achieved by repeated stretching and folding. The sesame seeds are added during this process. When well made they’re quite light and delicious.
5 Patisa / Sohan papdi
These are sweets made from adding besan to syrup, other ingredients are cardamom, ghee and milk. The aeration, if it can called be that is achieved by beating till the flour yields threads. The final sweet is essentially a cake of these threads. This isn’t exactly the same as an air bubble, but the lightness comes from the flakiness of the threads and the air between them.
Examples where aeration is due to fermentation
6 Idlis and dosas
Idlis. Wikipedia.
Idlis are of course fermented. When made by a capable cook, they’re very, very soft, and very, very light. They’re probably already very well known to you so I’ll only add that most examples one sees in the west are not a patch on what a capable and experienced south Indian cook can produce.
Dosas are the crepes made from the same batter as idlis (though I think the south Indians use slightly different proportions of lentils to rice for dosa batter). The usual test is: when the batter is spread on the pan, does it naturally show bubbles?
7 Naan, bhatura and kulchas
These Indian breads are leavened naturally, and are either cooked in a tandoor (naan / kulcha) or deep fried (bhatura). They are doubtless related to similar breads eaten in Iran and central Asia.
Examples where the aeration is due to a chemical agent
8 Khamun dhokla
Made from besan batter, fruit salts are used to aerate.
A fascinating list. And am I right that most of these dishes are outside the Mughal (Persian) tradition?
So my question now is: Is there any common reasoning behind these dishes? Or is it simply that different cooks found that these textural elements were pleasing? Enlightenment please.
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Finally, Sanatan Rai threw in a couple of modern Japanese examples. These are interesting but seem to stem more from modern experimentation with textures than from traditional practices.
Examples where the dish is *constructed around bubbles*
Here’s Kikuo Shimizu describing Nigiri in his book Edomae Sushi:
`Seen from the side, the ideal shari shape fans out slightly to form a low arch underneath that adds to the “airy” texture…My nigiri are fan-shaped, but delicate enough to fall flat after a few seconds. This is one reason we Edomae such chefs always say nigiri should be eaten as soon as they’re served.’
Kunio Tokuoka of Kitcho in Kyoto constructs his nigiri on a fork, placing the rice one grain at a time:
`In order to achieve Ultimate Toro Sushi, Kunio creates packets of air between each grain of rice, rather than pressing it together in the traditional manner. He then slices toro sashimi (from the rich belly flesh of the tuna) into three thin layers, which he drapes, one oby one, over the rice. The whole creation is build on the tines of fork to maintain the desired airy lightness.’ [ref Kitcho: Japan’s Ultimate Dining Experience]
Your question – Is there any common reasoning behind these dishes? Or is it simply that different cooks found that these textural elements were pleasing? got me thinking.
I was just wondering – could it have anything to with climate? Refrigeration was unheard of and in the tropical weather many foods fermented. Perhaps the cooks were making the best of it? There is a 2nd or 3rd century poem in Tamil that describes a rice bread called appam having honey comb like center and lacey edges. The batter, rather than dough, for this bread was made by fermenting ground rice with coconut palm toddy. It is still made the same way today; except yeast is used in the place of toddy. Similarly, it was impossible to keep milk fresh without refrigeration. So the common practice was to let it ferment in bamboo tubes and to keep it cool they kept it buried under the soil. Five or six kinds of alcoholic beverages made from grains and fruits are also described in these poems. May be they were making the best use of local produce considering the climatic conditions; and pleasantly the textual elements were pleasing.
And about the batter for idli and dosa – traditional recipes call for different proportions – idli has to be soft and dosa crisp. Many use the same batter by diluting it slightly for making dosa; but there is a certainly a difference when the old recipes are followed.
I think it certainly has to do with the climate. Preservation is always key and fermenting is a good way to go in hot, humid climates. And it’s a different kind of fermenting from the temperate fermentations. I need to add appam to the list too.
I’m not sure it’s just climate, though, because it’s not clear that these airy, spongy things are found in other tropical areas. So much to mull over in food history.