Saturday, 15 March 2025 19:53
Written by Madelaine Bullwinkel

TIME TRAVELING IN THE KITCHEN

The kitchen is an inspiring place for a cook to time travel. There are more discoveries than those leftovers in the back of the refrigerator. One good example is in the saltshaker on the counter.

Recovering salt crystals from briny salt flats and chiseling it from veins in rock was one of man’s first occupations. The oldest salt operation on record in Añana Spain is still active after 7000 years, but who’s counting? Far from being a relic, Añana’s artisanal salt attracts Michelin chefs from San Sebastian who own their own salt ‘era’ there. (Our Basque Tour will visit for a tasting in September.)

Massive amounts of salt were once needed to preserve perishable foods by coating them to dry or ferment. When dried food was later soaked to remove salt, the salt that remained was more than we would consider healthful today. It is thought the daily diet in the Middle Ages contained as much as 40 grams of salt. Today’s recommended consumption is 2.5 grams.

This dependance on salt lives on in the form of the condiments found in most kitchen. The Chinese were producing soy sauce 2000 years ago. About that time the Romans were making garum by allowing salted anchovies to rot in the sun and straining off the juices. Vietnamese nuoc mam, a fermented fish sauce, is a modern version of garum and a staple in southeast Asia.

Why do we continue to be dependant on salt? A Japanese chemist, Kikunae Ikedi, found the answer in 1908 when he searched for the reason why his daily bowl of dashi was so satisfying. He discovered a flavor that he named, umami, in the seaweed used to make dashi. Umami translates as ‘deliciousness’ and is now considered the ‘fifth flavor’ after salty, sour, bitter and sweet. Umami contains the amino acid, glutamate, for which we have receptors on our tongue and that rapidly registers as pleasure in our brain

It then comes as a surprise glutamate salt is absent from American kitchens, including my own. This salt, MSG (Monosodium glutamate), entered the marketplace the year following the discovery of umami, and rapidly became a staple ingredient in Asian cuisines, but western countries have been slow to accept it during the last century. It is still regarded with suspicion in the States and must be listed as an ingredient on all processed food labels no matter the amount involved. Rest assured, there are also many foods that contain glutamate as part of their natural chemistry. They include mushrooms, ripe tomatoes, broccoli, peas, aged cheese and eggs.

I recently prepared Vietnamese Chicken and Ginger following a recipe that appeared in Le Monde. It is ready in 30 minutes and deliverers a delightful umami experience.

Wednesday, 12 February 2025 16:11
Written by Madelaine Bullwinkel

BEYOND ORANGE JUICE

On most days, all of us would start the day with a glass of bottled orange juice rather than taking the time to squeeze juice by hand. Either way, we are relying on the convenience of refrigeration to keep this tropical fruit fresh tasting for an extended period of time. As a result we've forgotten what an orange really tastes like.

The reassuring fact that your favorite brand of orange juice always has a familiar taste indicates it is an industrial product, not from an orange found in nature. Orange juice from concentrate (OJFC) has been cooked to remove the fruit’s water and flavor. The resulting syrupy mush has spent up to two years swishing around in a four story ‘tank farm’ before being mixed with 300+ chemicals and frozen into a cylinder.

Refrigeration also enables not from concentrate (NFC) orange juice to taste fresh after being stored as long as a year in six story high tanks with the capacity of several Olympic-size swimming pools. Pasteurization protects NFC juice from bacteria but also gives it a ‘cooked’ taste and reduces its nutritional value, mainly its Vitamin C.

The third alternative is fresh squeezed juice refrigerated on site at your local supermarket. You have to rely on the cleanliness of the equipment used to produce it and accept the addition of citric acid to extend its shelf life beyond 2 to 3 days. Too soon, natural yeasts in the unpasteurized juice will begin to ferment the sugar and alter its taste.

Since I can't pick a ripe orange off a tree, I prefer to purchase, cook and consume the whole fruit. Before the first electric refrigerator arrived in American kitchens in 1918, citrus fruit was preserved as marmalade by cooking it with sugar. Marmalade is unusual because it combines combines and balances the fiercely competing tastes of its juice, pulp, bitter pith and distinctive floral oil in its peel. One or two tablespoons of orange marmalade provides a refreshing whole orange kick when spread on toast, dabbed on hot oatmeal or slathered on a slice of rye in a ham and cheese sandwich.

The Thirty Minute Marmalade recipe that follows calls for two pounds of oranges and a cup of sugar. It takes thirty minutes to make and yields two cups of brilliant orange marmalade that will keep for months in the refrigerator. Let orange marmalade wake you up in the morning!

Friday, 17 January 2025 17:16
Written by Madelaine Bullwinkel

PLEASE PASS THE CASHEWS

My list of New Year’s resolutions just got shorter. This past holiday season I became a confirmed snacker. My resolve was shattered by the contents of a set of small brown paper gift bags each stamped with the Manga-inspired logo of a squirrel framed by a full moon. The squirrel held the image of the bag’s contents: cashews from Vietnam.

These nuts were huge and extra crunchy. They smelled of caramel and their warm cashew flavor lingered on the palate. The cashews in each bag were naturally flavored with .5% salt; some were spiced. They were all sourced by Auralynn Nguyen, a California-based floral artist, who’s startup cashew business is Superior Nut Product.

Auralynn was visiting her father in Saigon early in 2020 when Vietnam’s communist regime imposed a strict Covid-19 lockdown, an experience that was uncomfortably isolating. It had the positive effect of reinforcing her attachment to Vietnam’s rich culinary heritage. She has found expression for this passion as an importer of some of the country's finest artisanal products.

To select cashews that were superior to those sold in the States, Auralynn rode on a motor bike from Saigon one-and-a-half hours north to farms in Vietnam's cashew-growing region on the northwest border with Cambodia. She sought out small producers of other distinctive products that showcase Vietnam's tropical flavors. Packed among the bags of cashews in Superior Nut Product's first Christmas Basket this year were dark, rich Marou chocolate bars, a bottle of tangy pomelo-scented honey and a jar of refreshingly hot green, salt-cured Kompot peppercorns.

Aside from snacking, Auralynn’s cashews make an exceptional garnish for soups, salads, noodle dishes and fruit desserts, added whole or coarsely chopped. I recommend folding the following Cashew Pesto (made with store-bought cashews) by the tablespoon into rice or pasta and then strewing Superior Nut Product cashews on top.

Happy New Year snacking!

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