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by Shaista Bharwani Slowly does it Chefs are taking the sous-vide route to serve up age-old recipes of slow-cooked food. So can you

Traditional Gourmet Atta Chicken needs to be cooked overnight in a tandoor Photographs: Kaushik Chakravorty for Forbes India

May 20, 2011 FORBES INDIA 108 Recliner 109 Life

aking my way through As if to prove his point, the chef internationally, the method has been Ironically, the taste of the food was softer,” says Mandaar Sukhtankar, ex- Tips on using a salad of green aspara- now serves a slow-cooked chicken dish popular with chefs such as Heston Blu- the last thing on anyone’s mind when ecutive chef of The Park Hotels, who a slow cooker gus and palm hearts at with Swiss chard and Thai fragrances. I menthal, Thomas Keller and Tetsuya sous-vide was born: It was originally wowed a packed house with his sous- Mumbai’s newest ‘it’ res- cut into the chicken thigh, still a deli- Wakuda propagating and refining it conceptualised as a way to sterilise vide creations at the Apeejay Group’s l Prepare or marinate the M and vegetables the night before so taurant The Table, I encounter an egg cious shade of light pink deep inside. in their restaurants. Nor is its applica- foodstuff for the canning industry centenary celebrations in Hyderabad that you can throw everything into yolk unlike any other I’ve met. Not Not only do I find it perfectly cooked, tion limited to fine-dining: Chipotle, in the 18th century. As recently as 40 in April. Adds Chiranjib Chatterjee the slow cooker and then leave for runny, not set, it has a creamy, spread- I can also taste layers of flavours. Much a popular Mexican fast food chain in years ago, chefs in France woke up to of Aafra, Kolkata, who has been us- your day’s work. like texture that is more reminiscent to my astonishment, Sanchez tells me the US, the UK and Canada, swears by the possibilities of cooking sous-vide ing sous-vide techniques for a year: l Curries, soups, sauces, rice and of a delicate custard than something that it was cooked only with crushed sous-vide as a method of cooking some (literally, under pressure). “A rogan josh cooked this way, for in- lentils are the most suitable dishes you chomp through mindlessly at the garlic, thyme and salt in a sous-vide of its . Despite its widespread adoption in stance, has a very smooth, silky texture, to make in a slow cooker. breakfast table. bath, and seared for a crispy finish. In India, though, the cost of the sous- the food business, the basic process of unachievable any other way.” l You should use the cheaper cuts Chef Alex Sanchez nods approv- “Basically, sous-vide cooking allows vide bath and circulator — around Rs. sous-vide hasn’t changed much in all Not just meats, vegetarian dishes, of meat because after many hours ingly as he notices I am puzzled by the food — be it meats or vegetables 3 lakh — limits the availability of sous- these years. At its very basic, it requires too, lend themselves to sous-vide meth- in the cooker, they get the best the yolk. “This is the magic of sous- — to retain its natural moisture inside vide cooking to topline restaurants. In the meat or vegetable to be marinated ods. Selvaraju, for instance, makes a flavour and texture. vide cooking,” he says. “This yolk, for a vacuum-sealed bag that is placed in Bangalore, Executive Chef Ramasamy (or simply herbs and spices are add- white onion soup by cooking the onion l Cook your meat for eight to instance, came from an egg that was a thermocirculator-controlled bath,” Selvaraju at Graze, in Vivanta by Taj, ed to it) in a thick plastic bag, which and garlic in the air-sealed bag in a sim- nine hours on the low setting for it cooked for an hour at the precise tem- says Sanchez. “It is a highly technical started working with sous-vide cook- is then vacuum-packed — a process mering bath to magnify flavours, and to be tender and moist. If you want the juices to condense, increase the perature of 67.5°C in a sous-vide tub. method of cooking that is immensely ing four years ago. Chef Abhijit Saha called cryovacing — and placed in a finishing the dish on the stove. “Any- temperature during the last hour. The constant low-grade heat and the rewarding,” adds Viraf Patel, co-execu- of Caperberry, a standalone restaurant water bath. But just any pan of water thing can be cooked in the sous-vide l Try not to take the lid off unless long cooking time made all the dif- tive chef at The Table. in Bangalore, researched the cooking won’t do: The water needs to be main- method, including basic vegetables like it is necessary. Every time it is re- ference. You can achieve things [with Though it has only been a matter of method for six months before offering tained at a constant temperature, with beans, carrots and potatoes, if you want moved, heat is lost and the cooker sous-vide] that you can’t in any other months since sous-vide cooking began it to his clients. “The results we get with fluctuations of less than 0.02°C, and in to intensify their natural flavour and will take some time to reach the re- cooking method.” making significant headway in India, meats are incredible,” says Saha. constant motion. The upshot of all this juices,” he says. Chatterjee has cooked quired cooking temperature again. persnicketiness is food that loses only fruits, too, in the sous-vide bath. Fresh Catch Cooking five percent of its moisture, nutrients Coming full circle, chefs invoke For sous-vide dishes… Chilean Sea in the and other values, way below the 30 sous-vide’s original intent in the com- l When red meats such as lamb, sous-vide method retains or are being cooked, its texture and freshness percent stolen by conventional cook- mercial kitchen as well: Dishes can ing methods. On the plate, it translates be cooked following these principles, tough cuts thicker than 2 inches into food that is as pure as cooked blast-chilled to temperatures between should remain in the tub for be- tween eight to 12 hours. food can be. “The first thing that hap- 2-4°C (at which most bacteria remain l pens when you are or dormant) and then stored for up to Lamb shanks that are very muscular are cooked at about 85°C or stewing meat is that the juices vapo- two days. For longer periods of stor- for 48 hours, which slowly breaks rise, causing the meat to dry up… As age — up to three months — the food down the protein, making the a result, you lose the essential tastes requires to be frozen. meat tender. of the meat. Sous-vide cooking, on If not chilled or frozen, food cooked l An oily fish like salmon can the other hand, provides a product at 30°C and above should be served sustain a temperature of 62.8°C that is very flavourful and juicy,” within two hours for it to be safe for and can be cooked for an hour or says Saha. consumption. Anything cooked at so. However, leaner fish tend to dry And that applies to tan- 60°C needs to be served within four up faster and should be cooked at doori chicken as much as hours. While sous-vide cooking can ex- below 60°C. chicken with Swiss chard tend up to 72 hours, most restaurants and Thai fragrances: cook meats between temperatures of Sous-vide lends itself 55-85°C for anything between one- to all kinds of cui- and-a-half hours and 48 hours. sine. “You won’t “Conditions need to be monitored get the charred very carefully when cooking meats in effect in a sous- the sous-vide method,” says Ajay Pant, vide tandoori executive chef, Sheraton Udaipur Pal- chicken, but it ace Resort. “If the temperature drops will be much below 55°C, it encourages growth of

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Slow cooking in your kitchen

low Cooking may be our metropolitan cities, it Although the availability of from Rite Equipment. Seal- Rs. 70,000, including ship- can set the temperature. the base. Programmable slow cookers. Prices range difficult to practice has become a rare experi- these devices makes slow ers India Agencies (seal- ping charges. The results will not be per- slow cookers are also avail- from Rs. 3,200 to Rs. 4,400. Sin our hectic daily ence that we can enjoy in cooking a possibility in the ersindia.com) sells vacu- For an improvised ver- fect, but you can get close able, where you can set the You can cook tradi- lives, but it has not faded restaurants. home kitchen, it still comes um packers for Rs. 8,500, sion of sous-vide, cover to the basic sous-vide food. time and temperature. tional food like dum biry- from the culinary world However, with tech- at a significant price. while Avi International the food in layers of saran The slow cooker, on the Slow cookers, widely ani, rogan josh or kaali altogether and probably nological advances in cu- Distributors and manu- Packaging (avipackingma- wrap, or place it in zip lock other hand, is very differ- used and known as crock dal (dal makhani) in slow will never due to the in- linary equipment, slow facturers like Siskin (siskin. chine.com) sells domestic, bags and manually push as ent from sous-vide set-ups. pots in the US, are difficult cookers. “If you are cook- credible taste experience cooking is getting more in) and Rite Equipment toaster-sized ones for much air out of the bag as It comprises a removable to find in India, but the ing meat and want to have it offers. Moreover, in In- convenient to practice on a (rite-equipment.com) sell Rs. 4,500. you can, or suck the air out ceramic bowl within a trend is slowly catching on. a grilled flavour, you can dian villages and some cit- regular basis. water bath circulators for You could also place with a straw. These meth- double-walled body, with HCL Industrial (hclmfg. grill it and then place it ies such as Hyderabad and Companies making Rs. 40,000 to Rs. 3 lakh in orders from companies ods work for food cooked aluminium on the inner com), based in China, sup- in the slow cooker,” says Lucknow, food is still slow sous-vide equipment have India. Vacuum packing such as Julabo (julabo.de), for a short time. You can side and steel on the outer. ply their slow cookers to Ajay Pant, executive chef, cooked on coal or wood also developed smaller ma- machines (professional where a domestic sous-vide then cook the item in a There is a heating element, distributors in India. Ken- Sheraton Udaipur Palace fires, in earthenware. In chines for home kitchens. ones) come for Rs. 45,000 machine would cost you slow cooker in which you powered by electricity, at wood too has its range of Resort.

the Clostridium botulinum bacteria.” ods. Nomadic tribes, for instance, were night was wrapped in leaves, covered perfected the haleem, mutton cooked Notwithstanding the dangers and known to bury their hunt deep in the with wet clay, placed on embers, and overnight on a slow flame in a sealed demands of sous-vide cooking, the desert sand. “Over 18 hours, in tem- covered with hot ash, ensuring it would handi, and mashed with soaked wheat. method seems here to stay, if the opin- peratures of 67-68°C, the meat would cook — but not burn — over 12 hours. Chef Hemant Oberoi of the Taj Pal- ion of leading chefs is anything to go get cooked in time for their return,” In Rajasthan, royal retainers devised a ace, Mumbai, upholds the tried-and- by, if only as a niche process. And why says Chef Ishtiyaque Qureshi, owner of method whereby meat buried in a pit tested theories of Dum Pukht cuisine in not, given the superior explosions of Kakori House and a number of in the ground received heat from both his creation, haleem , at Masala taste engendered by the slow, temper- restaurants across the country and son ends. Awadhi Dum Pukht cooking is a Kraft. The flattened mutton-and-wheat ate cooking. of renowned chef Imtiaz Qureshi. refinement of similar practices. patties melt in the mouth without com- Sous-vide, despite its unarguably Centuries later, battle-weary sol- Ghulam Mohammed Qureshi, promising on their complexity. He has foreign origins, fits in particularly well diers satiated their tummies through head chef of Delhi ITC Maurya’s Dum also resurrected the Atta Chicken, a with ancient indigenous cooking meth- similar methods: Meat marinated over- Pukht restaurant that takes its name marinated chicken covered in dough and slow-cooked overnight in the tan- door, which, Oberoi claims, used to be Meaty Measure For Mussaman Curry, the lamb is cooked in a sous-vide bath for 12 hours a work-day protein-and-carb staple till the 1940s. Packed Perfection Meat and carrots being cooked in a sous-vide bath “With the use of slow-cooking methods today, we are trying to bring from the tradition, narrates the story be placed on the lid as well. One day, together the traditional with the con- behind this method: “In 1780, Nawab the nawab passed by the construction temporary,” says Oberoi. Asaf-ud-daulah founded Awadh. The site and was entranced by the aromas. How does slow-cooking work, whole region was reeling under pov- He returned to the palace and instruct- though? Sukhtankar, of The Park Ho- erty and famine. So he commissioned ed his raqabdar [head cook] to adopt tels explains: “Protein coagulates slow- the building of the Bada Imambara, the same methods for palace food.” ly on a low fire, which helps trap the which employed 5,000 labourers and The principles of Dum Pukht — moisture, keeping the meat soft. High artisans. Their food — or kh- ‘dum’ implies a dish cooked in its heat causes faster coagulation, push- ichda, with meat, vegetable and dal own juices in a sealed vessel, while ing out the water content and drying or rice — would be placed in copper ‘pukht’ means pure or refined, in Per- up the food. And the quality of food or earthenware cauldrons and the lids sian — gradually spread around the is directly impacted by the quantity of sealed with atta [dough]. A slow fire country and developed its own legs. moisture retained.” would be lit below and embers would The Nizam’s Hyderabad, for instance, My taste buds agree. n Fusionchef by Julabo

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