KUZU ROOTS

Organic Kuzu Root Starch is a versatile thickener that dissolves quickly in any cold liquid and has no perceptible taste. It is very low in calories, contains no fat and is an easily digestible source of complex carbohydrates—only 8 grams per serving. Kuzu binds more strongly than arrowroot. Kuzu is handcrafted, natural, and uniquely nourishing.Organically certified, wild roots are hand harvested from December to March when the sap gathers in the root, carried down from the mountains on backpacks and cleaned. Each root is hand-cut into chunks that are crushed into fibers, soaked and rinsed, creating a thick paste. The paste is repeatedly washed and filtered in cold mountain spring water until it becomes a pure white starch. The kuzu starch is then allowed to dry naturally for 90 days, crushed into small chunks and packed.



The kuzu (Pueraia lobata) plant is a prolific, tough, fibrous vine with heart-shaped leaves that was used as a food in China for more than 2,000 years, and praised in Japanese poetry and legend as a bracing health food and ideal thickener for over one thousand years. Its roots are among the largest in the world, ranging in length from three to seven feet and weighing between 200 to over 400 pounds. Traditionally the leaves, seeds, flowers and roots were used in making vegetable dishes, noodles, dumplings, beverages, desserts and pickles. The vines were used to weave baskets and in making clothing, fishing line, and paper.Organic Kuzu Root Starch can be used to thicken soups and stews, sauces and gravies. Use it to prepare delicious vegetable dishes such as Lo Mein, Chow Mein, sweet and sour vegetables, and glazed vegetables. Great for puddings, pie fillings, custards, and many desserts.



Chef Adria of el bulli has this interesting recipe of crispy oil chips, where he uses this kuzu starch to make almond oil chips, this starch has no taste at all and spreading any oil on chips gives oil an extra surface area which helps oils to release more flavour and aroma..

RECIPE crunchy kuzu chips
Ingredients 
- 250 g (8.8 oz) water- 25 g (0.88 oz) sugar- 20 g Kuzu- 20 g olive oil or your favorite oil (white truffle oil or almond oil are great too)- 25 g salt

Preparation

• In a small pot, heat the water, sugar and kuzu over medium heat stirring constantly until it starts boiling. Let it boil for 30 seconds and remove from heat.
• Pass the mix through a fine sieve and pour it into a decorating bag.
• Wait for 2 minutes to let it cool down.
•  Place stencil over Teflon or silicone mat. It is helpful to stick it with scotch tape to the countertop to keep it in place.
• Pour some mix on the mat and spread it with an offset spatula creating a thin layer of about 0.3 cm.
• Remove the stencil and place the mat in the dehydrator for 6 hours at 50 °C (122 °F).
•  Carefully remove the chips from the mat and flip them. Dehydrate for 18 hours at 50 °C (122 °F). The chip edges tend to bend upwards but to prevent this you can cover them with another silicone mat. The mat weight will keep them flat.
•  Once the olive oil chips are dry and crunchy, store them in a sealed container in a dry and cool place.
• With a small brush, coat the crunchy kuzu chips with your favourate oil of choice.

NATURA by chef Albert adria

hi, i came across this amazing book called as 'NATURA' by chef albert adria, creative head a elbulli. I simply loved the way he plates this art work (its way beyond to be clasified as dishes).. simply amazing work..

Here is a video that shows creations of chefs from around the world, creations inspired by nature featuring plantation, icebergs, mud etc..

This video demonstrates how to make a liquid that turns to ice at the touch of a finger. Must be one of the strangest reactions I’ve ever seen.It looks like the only real ingredient needed other than water is Sodium acetate.

It’s the same principle that is used to create rock candy- the sodium acetate has a much lower melting point than you’d expect (around 60 C), so when it is heated in the water, the solid you see turns to a liquid that ‘blends’ into the water.

On top of this, at a high temperature water can hold much more solute than at lower temperatures, but when you lower the temperature, that solute doesn’t just precipitate out right away, you get a supersaturated solution.

I was wondering on where to use this technique, Suggestions are welcomed readers 

Thickening and gelling agents

We are aware of a just few gelling and thickening agents that are present out there. every agent has its particular properties like withstanding temperatures, thickening powers, sources of origin etc..
"TEXTURE a hydrocolloid recipe collection" edited by Martin Lersch. is an amazing free e-book for all those popping questions and recipes.
you can click here to get it now .

What ingredients should i have?

There are a huge verity of ingredients you can play around with but some of them which are used in kitchen are:

Lecithin
Calcium lactate
Sodium citrates
Alginic acid
Sodium alginate
Potassium alginate
Ammonium alginate
Calcium alginate
Agar
Carrageenan
Processed eucheuma seaweed
Locust bean gum (Carob gum)
Guar gum
Tragacanth
Acacia gum
Xanthan gum
Karaya gum
Tara gum
Gellan gum
Glycerol
Konjac
Pectins
Gelatine
Methyl cellulose
Hydroxypropyl cellulose
Hydroxy propyl methyl cellulose
Carboxymethyl cellulose
Sucrose esters of fatty acids
Sucroglycerides
Monosodium glutamate
Disodium inosinate
Maltol
Isomalt
Invertase
Dextrin
Transglutaminase

(click here for the full list)

What is all this fuss about molecular gastronomy??

A lot of us are fascinated by the concepts of of molecular gastronomy, but some how we fail to understand the true worth of this science. Molecular gastronomy is not just playing with ingredients and preparing food that seems ravishing.. It is mostly about understand the food and experience we can have or we can give to the diner. a simplest of a preparation can me modified or re constructed to give it that BOOM factor.

Example: Mojito cocktail.

Traditionally, a mojito is a cocktail that consists of five ingredients: white rum, sugar (traditionally sugar cane juice), lime juice, sparkeling water and mint ( courtesy wikepedia) .This would be a guest expectation on ordering a Mojito from a bar, its a simple but a beautiful way to glass a cocktail. Now what if can reconstruct it in a different way...

RECIPE

INGREDIENTS
1tsp (5gms)sugar
3 lime wedges
12 leaves of fresh mint
1 1/2 oz(60ml) white rum
1/4 cups (60 ml) club soda
a dash lime juice
2 cups(450 ml) Distilled water
1.25 gms calcium lactate
2 gms sodium alginate

METHOD
1, In am mixing glass, put calcium lactate, sugar, lime wedges and mint leaves.
2, Mix and crush using a pestle
4, Put small mint leaves in small round molds.
5, Filter mix and fill up moulds with it. freeze.
6, In a bowl, dissilve the sodium alginate in 2 cups of water with a hand blender or an eggbeater. set aside 15 mis
7, Unmold the pieces in the sodium alginate bath and set aside 3 mis
8, Pick up the raviolis thus formed with a pierces spoon and riense them in water bowl.
9, serve the raviolis on testing spoons.

This method of creating spheres out of liquid is called as Spherification. Spherification is a culinary process of shaping a liquid into spheres with liquid filled center and a gel like exterior casing (as in a egg yolk). The technique was originally discovered by Unilever in the 1950's and brought to the modernist cuisine by the creative team of elBulli under the direction of executive chef Ferran Adria 

There are two main methods for creating such spheres, which differ based on the calcium content in the product to be spherified. For substances containing no calcium, the liquid is mixed with sodium alginate, and dripped into a cold solution of calcium chloride orcalcium carbonate. Reverse spherification, for use with substances which contain calcium, requires dripping the substance into an alginate bath.