Category — Food Science

The common cucumber. They’re so ubiquitous nowadays that the cucumber has become boring to most diners. The flavor is far from common however. Sweet, bitter, subtle, and aromatic, cucumbers have a rich history and hold importance to cultures around the world.

The cultivation of cucumbers began some 3,000 years ago in India and spread westward into the Mediterranean, where the Greeks in particular liked the cucumber for it’s refreshing bitterness. Tzatziki, a sauce of cucumber and yogurt, is probably the most easily identified Greek-American food item in the today’s multicultural dining lexicon. Cucumbers were a popular crop in the middle ages because the creeping vines grew easily and produced a lot of fruit with little maintenance. Cucumbers found their way to America during the age of exploration and a few hundred years of cultural transformation placed them on top of our hamburgers as our sweet and tangy pickles.

Because they’re used in more savory applications, we often consider cucumbers a vegetable. However, cucumbers are actually a fruit, along with tomatoes, eggplant, and bell peppers, among other plants, because they’re produced from the ovary of a flowering plant. They belong to the gourd family, along with the sweet melons we’re familiar with: watermelon, musk melon, and honeydew. Next time you eat a melon, concentrate on the cucumber-like bitterness in the refreshing background flavor. Although hundreds of cucumber varieties exist, the most commonly encountered in America are the waxy cucumber (which contains a heavy center of seeds), the seedless or English cucumber, and small pickling cucumbers.

Keep reading Garrett’s Table in the coming days for a dish that proves that cucumbers can be both sweet and savory at the same time.

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Mustard seeds come from a variety of mustard plants in the family Brassicaceae. Mustard seeds have appeared in Indian cuisine for thousands of years. Mustard seed was a very valuable and sought-after seed when the spice trade ruled the world. The seed is mentioned in the Bible, the Torah, and the Q’oran. The Jewish texts compare the knowable universe to the size of a mustard seed, putting in perspective our insignificance and teaching humility.

Mustard plants grow extremely well in temperate regions, and a great amount of the world’s mustard seeds are grown in Cananda and the United States. Along with rapeseed, mustard seeds have some of the highest oil content (almost 50%) and are often used to process and extract vegetable oil.

We Americans are most familiar with process condiment mustard. The most popular and commonly purchased mustard are the neon yellow varieties. These lack true mustard flavor and are dyed with large amounts of turmeric, which gives the mustard a bitter and flat flavor. Dijon mustards combine the intense, horseradish-like bite of mustard with (usually) white wine. German style mustards tend to be a little more rustic, and the seeds are often partially ground or not ground at all. These wholegrain mustards are my personal favorite.

Mustard made at home is delightfully intense, with a “sinus-cleansing” effect like that of wasabi. Here’s a recipe for homemade mustard:

Fresh Mustard:

• 1/4 c. mustard seeds
• Lukewarm water, as needed
• 2 Tb. white wine vinegar
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 2 Tb. honey

Cover the dry mustard seeds in lukewarm water. Soak for one hour then drain well. Place the mustard seeds in a small bowl and add lukewarm water to the top level of the mustard seeds. Add the vinegar (the acid will prevent the mustard seeds from becoming increasingly hotter). Soak for 1 hour longer.

Transfer the soaked seeds, with soaking liquid, to a food processor or blender. Add the salt and honey. The honey will help to diminish the natural bitterness of mustard seeds while adding a nice bit of sweetness. Grind the mustard to a rough paste. You may add more water or vinegar to achieve your preferred mustard consistency. Store well covered in the refrigerator.

Keep reading Garrett’s Table in the coming days for a recipe that combines both mustard seeds and mustard greens.

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Celery, or Apium graveolens, is an enlarged version of a bitter Eurasian herb called smallage. The modern form of celery began it’s cultivation in 15th century Italy, and it remained a rare delicacy until the 19th century. According to Harold McGee, author of On Food and Cooking, celery “has a distinctive but subtle aroma due to unusual compounds called phthalides that it shares with walnuts…and terpenes that provide light pine and citrus notes.”

Because of it’s aromatic qualities, celery has been used in the flavoring bases of many regional cuisines, including the French mirepoix and the Cajun trinity. Celery stalks are extremely healthy because they contain very few calories and an immense amount of dietary fiber. Celery seeds contain a high proportion of calcium, and it may not surprise you that they’ve been administered as medicine for hundreds of years. The seeds are very aromatic as well and, here in Chicago, we know them best ground with salt and sprinkled on top of our hot dogs. Celery seed and celery juice adds extra dimension of savory-ness to the classic bloody mary.

Celery is one of my personal favorite foods. When I’m in need of something fresh, I’ll peel a stalk and eat it either plain or with peanut butter and raisins. I often slice the peeled stalk, blanch it in water seasoned with sugar and celery salt, and toss the celery in a bit of melted butter to make a flavorful but healthy side dish. Celery is not limited to the savory kitchen. It’s subtle but persistent aromatic qualities work incredibly well when sweetened. Keep reading Garrett’s Table in the coming days to see celery’s sweet side.

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The coffee bean is the seed of the coffee tree, which are a group of trees belonging to the genus Coffea.  The most commonly grown and cultivated is Coffea arabica, from which we get our beloved Arabica coffee.  The fruits of the coffee tree are commonly called coffee “cherries” or “berries” and within each fruit is two coffee beans, with the flat sides in contact with each other.  The endosperm of each seed contains 0.8-2.5 percent caffeine…and this is a very good thing indeed.

Cultivation of the coffee tree began in Ethiopa in approximately 850 AD. The word “coffee” comes from the Ethiopian region of Kaffa. When the coffee beans are harvested they are initially a dull green color.  To develop the flavor, and maximize caffeine extractions, the beans must be roasted, and this can be done to a variety of levels:

Coffee berries (left) contains the green coffee beans (right) which are then roasted to develop flavor and extract caffeine

A light roast is often called a New England Roast and these beans have a very light brown hue with no visible oily residue.  Moving up the chain is the American Roast, Espresso, and then the double roast French Roast.  At the French roast stage, the beans begin to smoke slightly and some of the sugars turn to carbon.  The result in an intensely (but delightfully) bitter coffee with slight smokiness.

The French mastered the roast for a cup of brewed coffee but the ultimate coffee award must go to Italians for sheer ingenuity.  Yes, of course, I’m speaking of espresso.  No other drink is so ubiquitous in this modern world of double foam mocha caffe latte whip caramel-chinos than espresso.  This intense drink is fantastic on it’s own and can create a myriad of other classic drinks including the latte (espresso and steamed milk), the cappuccino (espresso and foamed milk), and the cafe Americano (espresso and hot water).  To make espresso, the beans are roasted dark then ground fine. The grounds are then pressed into a puck in a special espresso maker.   Hot water is then pressed through the espresso puck, creating an intensely rich coffee drink with a thin layer of foam called the crema.

Not only is espresso great for creating coffee drinks, but it’s a major inspiration for a classic Italian dessert: Tiramisu.  Please stay tuned to Garrett’s Table this week for a unique take on one of the world’s favorite desserts!

As a side note, coffee is indeed a cash crop and has resulted in the exploitation of workers in numerous countries, especially Central and South America.  Coffee that is labeled as “fair trade” means that the operation of the coffee plantation is sustainable and humane both for workers and the environment.  Fair trade coffee is more expensive, but the small increase in price assures the support of the movement and a trend toward revolutionizing the coffee industry.

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Here’s a video of the chefs at moto restaurant electrically charging grains of kosher salt with a negative ion capacitor.  The salt jumps and bounces around in seemingly impossible ways. Crazy food of the future!  Oh by the way….this is where I work.

For more about moto restaurant, watch the video below!

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