Foaming in the Mouth

Ferran Adria made foams famous, but Indians may have beaten him to it by a few hundred years.

Many years ago, my cousin was posted in Agra, and she used to buy something called Makhan from a sweet shop nearby. It was one of the most wonderful things I'd ever had - essentially an almost weightless saffron-flavoured foam. We used to have it with pooris, and it was the airiest, most fantastic dessert ever. Its also a dessert of romance; morning dew and moonlight are supposed to play important parts.

I've tried a few times over to find Makhan elsewhere, but only UP and Delhi have even heard of it. I stumbled upon this article in the Hindu that talks about the Delhi version, Daulat Ka Chaat, and a few more references, including blog posts in Cooking with Simi and EOiD (who even had a map of where it is available in Delhi). Lucknow apparently calls it Nimish. Pushpesh Pant, the ever-obliging chronicler of all foods Avadhi, has published a recipe for it. Simple, but tedious, even without the moonlight dew business.

I, however, made an accidental discovery to change all that. One day, I took a family pack of Naturals' Kesar Pista ice cream and left it out to soften a little before being able to dig my spoon in. Of course, I forgot to put it back in the freezer. When I did remember a couple of hours later, I opened the container to see that the entire thing had melted. There was liquid at the bottom and a nice foamy layer of cream floating on top, which looked like (and a a quick taste assured me tasted like) the fabled Makhan!! It was a matter of minutes to skim all that foam off and I had my very own, no-effort version (what is left behind makes very good Kesar Milk or Rasmalai but that's just a bonus). In hindsight its rather obvious. Ice cream is churned to incorporate air into it; that's what makes it creamy. If there's enough fat in the ice cream, the fat floats up to the top along with the millions of air bubbles inside as the ice-cream slowly melts while the liquid settles below.

Of course, its a shade less airy than the real thing but still definitely a foam and still incredibly tasty. And think of how easy it is - buy, forget, serve. I've tried it only with Naturals, but it should work with any ice cream (and any flavour) that has sufficient fat.

Popular posts from this blog

Moshe Moshe

Haircuts are usually not on my list of pleasant, but friends sometimes take pity on me and treat me to goodies afterwards. Tuesday night the goody was a tasting session at the launch of Moshe’s newest outlet in (finally) Bandra. The location is tucked up above Nature’s Basket, a death-defying climb up some narrow stairs or a lift ride away from the street. The layout is similar to his other locations – walking in brings you face to face with the breads, and then there’s a nice dining area which, for this tasting session, was dominated by a table filled with salads, cheeses and turkey cold cuts. I’ve never been thank thankful for turkey, but the Mediterranean-tinged salads were, without exception, wonderful. Then the real assault started. As we sat down with glasses of pleasant white wine, little square plates filled with food started chasing us in what seemed like a never-ending supply. Nice little kebabs on sticks, poppers of asparagus and leek, two kinds of risotto, tofu, spicy chick...
Read more

Top to Bottom Italy #1: Ingredients

Image
Great ingredients are enormously important in Italy. As my friend Silvestori pointed out, Italians start with great stuff and don’t fuss about with it like French chefs do. Italian cooking methods are simple; the wow comes from what is used rather than from sophisticated techniques and delicate procedures. Though a veteran of at least a hundred meals in this journey, I’m not trying to pretend to be an expert - even on the food of one town of Italy. This is therefore a personal and possibly wildly unrepresentative set. Even from that I have chosen only a few stars - there’s much I had that I’ve left out. Its a blog post, not a compliance document. Tomato The defining ingredient in Italian food, to my mind, is the tomato (or pomodoro). Many countries have tomatoes but somehow in Italy it is juicer, tangier, sweeter and more tomato-y than anywhere else I’ve seen. The tomato is universal in Italian cuisine - raw, grilled, dried, stuffed, puréed, roasted, in salads, sauces, sandwiches, insi...
Read more