Molecular Gastronomy

It occurred to me the other day that the natural fusion of my chemical engineering background and my culinary interests is the emerging and fascinating field of molecular gastronomy. My wife is none too thrilled about this potential hobby, not wanting to eat anything containing sodium alginate or have a veritable kitchen full of beakers, flasks, and other scientific equipment. Of course on my side of the coin, these are driving and compelling reasons for me to proceed.

I was studying up on it today and learned there is a lot to the field. Understanding the molecular composition of food allows you to come up with non-traditional pairings and flavor combinations, and certainly using non-traditional ingredients allows the preparations to be more complex and interesting. Yeah, "interesting" isn't always the word you want to hear when someone describes your food, but I've never let that stop me before. So as I continue to learn more, I'll be turning mad science into good science, and alchemy into chemistry. In theory, at least.

I applied two things in my initial studies today. First, reading up on Maillard reactions, which simply put turn proteins and sugars into yummy, they apparently work better in a less acidic environment. As such when I browned the shallots I was using tonight in a few of the preparations, I tossed a little baking soda into the pan. The theory is that it will brown nicer, and produce a richer flavor, and it did seem to do that without any averse effects on taste from the baking soda. Win one for food science.

Also studying food matchings, I learned that strawberries and mint share a common chemical in them which allows them to pair nicely, and that strawberries and tomatoes are chemically similar as well. Since I have this giant field of delicious Kentucky mint in my side yard that always beckons me to do something with it, I decided to make a strawberry-tomato-mint topping for the sea bass tonight. And it worked brilliantly.

Recipe for dinner

Seabass:

1 lb sea bass filet (440 calories)

2 cups cherry tomatoes (50 calories)

2 tsp olive oil (80 calories)

1 tsp minced garlic

pinch dried Italian seasoning

1 cup strawberries (50 calories)

1 tbsp fresh mint, chiffonade

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp caramelized shallots (per above)

Slice the tomatoes in half, and toss in 1 tsp olive oil, garlic, and Italian herbs. Roast in the oven at 300 degrees until they just start to brown (roast with the bell peppers below). Mince tomatoes and strawberries, and toss with mint, vinegar, and shallots, season with salt and pepper, and refrigerate. Meanwhile rub the sea bass with the rest of the oil, salt, and pepper, and then grill on high heat, turning once. Serve with topping, serves 2 at 325 calories per serving or so.

Roasted Pepper Asparagus

1 bunch of asparagus, trimmed (80 calories)

2 red peppers, seeded (100 calories)

1 yellow pepper, seeded (50 calories)

2 tsp olive oil (80 calories)

1 tsp garlic minced

pinch Italian seasoning

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp caramelized shallots

Roast the peppers in the exact way as the tomatoes above. Add roasted peppers to blender and add vinegar and shallots. Toss asparagus in oil, salt, and pepper, and grill until just brown on the outside. Serve with the pepper puree on the top, 160 calories per serving or so.

I served about 200 calories of purple fingerling potatoes tossed in pepper medley to make a balanced meal.

On the workout front, I'd been traveling the past two days, but still managed to get a good interval workout in yesterday. Did a 5-4-3-2-1 running workout, running at an 8:00 pace for the first 5, 7:30 for the 4 and 3 minute pace, 7:00 for the 2, and 6:40 for the minute, jogging at a 12 minute pace when "resting". I was happy to be able to get that done, and I definitely put a lot of sweat out - much better than the previous day's effort. Today, I woke up at 2 AM and was on planes for about 6 hours, so I skipped it.