by Martin Suter
2 green chillies, finely chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
¼ tsp fenugreek seeds
½ tsp chilli powder
½ tsp salt
5–8 fresh curry leaves
50ml water
50ml thick coconut milk
Wash the okra and leave to dry or pat with kitchen paper. Cut into 3cm pieces. In a saucepan mix the okra, chilli, onion and all the spices thoroughly. Add the water and cook until almost all the liquid has evaporated. Stir and add the coconut milk. Cook for a further 3 minutes. Reduce the liquid on a low heat.
Sali rice
1 cup sali rice
2 cups water
salt
Briefly pan fry the rice and add the water. Cover and leave to cook for about 20 minutes in the oven at 160ºC. Remove from oven and immediately break up the rice with a wooden spatula so that it doesn’t stick. Put into a form and keep warm. When needed, remove from the form and place the curry on top.
Garlic foam
200ml chicken stock, all fat removed
1 clove garlic
1 dash lemon juice
2g soya lecithin
Blend the stock finely with the other ingredients and pass through a sieve. Combine with the soya lecithin, season and whisk. Cover a large bowl with some clingfilm to prevent splashing, and under this whisk up the foam, working in plenty of air. Leave to settle for a while. Using a slotted spoon remove the foam and arrange as desired.
Poussin curry on sashtika rice with coriander foam
Poussin curry
200g poussin, cut into bite-size pieces
3½ tsp coriander seeds
½ tsp cumin seeds
½ tsp black pepper
1 dried red chilli
1 large onion, chopped
¼ tsp fenugreek seeds
1 pinch turmeric powder
6 cloves garlic
salt according to taste
400ml water
½ tsp tamarind paste
6–8 fresh curry leaves
1 dessertspoon thick coconut milk
Finely grind the coriander and cumin seeds, pepper and chillies. Simmer the poussin, onion, fenugreek seeds, turmeric, garlic and salt in 300ml water, covered. Dissolve the ground spice mixture and tamarind in 100ml water and add, together with the curry leaves and coconut milk. Bring to the boil, simmer for 2 minutes and remove from the heat.
Sashtika rice
1 cup sashtika rice
3 cups water
Salt
Prepare as for sali rice above.
Coriander foam
200ml chicken stock, all fat removed
20 coriander seeds
1 bunch coriander leaves
2g soya lecithin
Prepare as for garlic foam above.
Churaa varai on nivara rice with mint foam
Churaa varai
250g shark steak
200g shredded coconut
¼ tsp turmeric powder
½ tsp ground pepper
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp chilli powder (or according to taste)
1½ dessertspoons coconut oil
1 large onion, chopped
4 dried red chillies
½ tsp mustard seeds
9–11 fresh curry leaves
Steam the shark steak and leave to cool. Flake and mix thoroughly with the coconut, turmeric, pepper, cumin, salt and (according to taste) chilli powder. Sweat the onion in a pan with coconut oil until translucent. Add the dried chillies, mustard seeds and curry leaves, and fry until the mustard seeds start to jump. Add the shark mixture and stir everything together thoroughly on a low heat.
Nivara rice
1 cup nivara rice
3 cups water
salt
Prepare as for sali rice above.
Mint foam
200ml chicken stock, fat removed
1 bunch mint, leaves picked from stems
A little low-fat milk
2g soya lecithin
Prepare as for garlic foam above.
Frozen saffron and almond foam with saffron textures
Saffron textures
200ml mineral water
80g rock sugar, powdered
2g saffron powder
2g saffron threads
2g agar agar
1 leaf gelatine, soaked and squeezed out
40g ghee
Heat the water with the rock sugar. Dissolve the saffron powder in the water and stir in the agar agar. Bring to the boil and add the gelatine. Pour onto warmed plastic trays and leave to cool. Cut into 2cm wide strips. Brush with a thin covering of ghee and arrange the saffron threads on top. Roll up and arrange the cylinders on the plate so that they flank the foam.
Frozen saffron and almond foam
300ml cream
3g saffron powder
140g grated almonds
2 egg whites
1 dessertspoon rock sugar, powdered
2g salt
Heat the cream to 60ºC and thoroughly blend all the ingredients except the egg whites. Add the egg whites, put everything into a 0.5l siphon, spray using a nitrogen cartridge, and chill for 3 hours. If required put nitrogen into a Dewar flask and chill a metal spoon. Spray a walnut-sized ball of foam onto the spoon and turn for 20 seconds in the nitrogen bath. Arrange between the saffron textures and serve immediately.
Sweet and spicy spheres of cardamom, cinnamon and ghee
Spice paste
200ml coconut water
40g ghee
2 spikes long pepper
1 cardamom pod
1 pinch cinnamon powder
40g palm sugar
0.5g xanthan gum
2g calcium lactate
In a mortar pound the ghee and spices to a fine paste. Warm the paste, pass through a sieve and mix with the texturizers in the coconut water. Leave to rest until the air bubbles have disappeared. Gently heat before using.
Brine
500ml mineral water
2.5g alginate
Mix the two ingredients and leave to stand.
Using a round spoon make balls from the spice paste in the brine. Draw some warmed ghee into a disposable syringe and affix a needle. Inject the spheres in the brine with ghee, retract the needle, then turn the spheres immediately so that the pricks close up. Leave for 3 to 5 minutes in the brine. Rinse with water and keep warm at 60ºC under clingfilm.
Glazed chickpea, ginger and pepper vulvas
50g sali rice
300ml milk
2 dessertspoons chickpea flour
1 dessertspoon ghee
2 dessertspoons palm sugar
1 dessertspoon chopped almonds
1 dessertspoon raisins
3 dates
½ teaspoon powdered ginger
½ teaspoon milled black pepper
Steep the rice in milk and blend, adding milk all the while, until you have a fine, moist paste. Add a further 150ml milk and stir well. Pass everything through a fine muslin and squeeze out well. Add another 50ml of milk to the extract. Fry the chickpea flour in ghee, boil it up in the liquid together with the sugar and stir continuously on a low heat, working it to a viscous mixture. Add the remaining ingredients and keep stirring for another 2–3 minutes on a low heat. Spread the paste onto a baking sheet and leave to cool. Cut up into equal portions, form the desired shape and glaze. Dry in the oven at 60ºC.
Glaze
100g icing sugar
1 dessertspoon pomegranate syrup
Mix the ingredients and glaze the biscuits. Allow to dry to a matt sheen.
Jellied asparagus and ghee phalluses
(This recipe uses fresh asparagus. Maravan uses dried asparagus, reducing the liquid in the rotary evaporator.)
200g white asparagus
1 dessertspoon sugar
A little salt
4g agar agar
1 leaf gelatine, soaked and squeezed out
1g
chlorophyll
4 cardamom pods, finely ground
100g ghee
Put the asparagus in a saucepan with cold water, cover and bring to the boil. Add cardamom and cook until the asparagus is tender. Purée the asparagus and pass through a sieve. Put 4 dessertspoons of the mixture to one side and mix with the chlorophyll. Mix 3g of the agar agar with the rest of the purée, bring to the boil and add the gelatine. Pour into a flat form and chill until the mass is workable. Cut into strips, roll these in baking paper and chill. When these have set, roll into sausages and cut into 10-cm long pieces. Boil up the rest of the asparagus with 1g agar agar. Dip one end of each jellied asparagus into the pan to a depth of 2cm several times until a green bulge is formed. Chill. Cut the green heads with small scissors so that they look like asparagus tips. Serve with a small bowl of warm cardamom, chilli and ghee dip.
Liquorice, honey and ghee ice lollies
100ml water
20g liquorice paste
30g honey
30g ghee
0.5g xanthan gum
40g pistachios, cut into thin slices
Heat the water. Stir in the honey and liquorice paste. Mix in the xanthan and stir the ghee into the warm mixture. Pour circles of the mixture onto a sheet lined with baking paper, and give each one a wooden stick. Sprinkle with the pistachios and freeze. Take from freezer and serve when required.
The Promotional Menu
Cinnamon curry caviar chapattis
Baby snapper marinated in turmeric with molee curry sabayon
Frozen mango curry foam
Milk-fed lamb cutlets in jardaloo essence with dried apricot purée
Beech-smoked tandoori poussin on tomato, butter and pepper jelly
Kulfi with mango air
*
Cinnamon curry caviar chapattis
(Made without using rotary evaporator)
40ml mineral water
4 fresh curry leaves
1 cinnamon stick
1 pinch sugar
1 pinch salt
120ml coconut water
1g alginate
2g calcium chloride
500ml water
10g coconut oil
Briefly heat the water. Add the spices and leave to infuse for 1 hour. Add salt and sugar. Strain through a fine muslin, squeezing well. The liquid should give 20ml of essence. Mix with the coconut water and season to taste. Blend the alginate with a wand mixer. Leave until all air bubbles have disappeared. Mix the chloride with the water and put to one side. Put the curry mixture into a large syringe and squirt drops into the brine. Leave for a maximum of 1 minute and rinse in water. Drain well and serve quickly so that the balls do not set in the centre. Arrange on the warm chapattis and grate a little coconut oil on top.
Baby snapper marinated in turmeric with molee curry sabayon
Baby snapper marinated in turmeric
4 boneless baby snapper fillets
1 pinch turmeric
salt
60ml liquid coconut milk
juice and zest of 1 lime
Make a few cuts in the fillets and arrange in a form. Blend the other ingredients with a wand mixer and put on top of the fish. Marinate for at least 6 hours in the refrigerator. Take out and pat dry. Starting with the head end, roll up the fillets and fix them with wooden skewers. Bake for 12–15 minutes on a lightly oiled sheet in a fan-assisted oven at 60°C, so that the fillets are still slightly translucent.
Molee curry sabayon
1 small onion, finely diced
1 small chilli, deseeded and very finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
10g diced ginger
20g coconut oil
1 fully ripe tomato
5 crushed peppercorns
2 crushed cloves
1 cardamom pod
4 curry leaves
Baby snapper marinade
300ml fish stock
50ml coconut oil
1g xanthan gum
1g guar gum
Sweat the onion with the other spices in the coconut oil until translucent. Quarter the tomatoes and add to the pan. Fry until the spices have fully opened up their aroma. Pour on the marinade, bring to the boil and reduce slightly. Add the fish stock and reduce again in a water bath to 300ml. Strain through a fine sieve and mix with the coconut oil. Blend the xanthan gum and guar gum with a wand mixer. Put into a 0.5l siphon, spray using a nitrogen cartridge and keep warm at 60°C in a water bath. Put the fillets on the plates and arrange with the sabayon from the siphon.
Frozen mango curry foam
200g mango purée
150g cream
20g chickpea flour
10ml ginger juice
1 pinch chilli powder
1 pinch cumin powder
1 pinch Kashmir curry powder
(Maravan fries the spices individually and then grinds them to make his own curry powder.)
Briefly blend all the ingredients, pass through a fine sieve and place into a 0.5l siphon spray using a nitrogen cartridge and chill. If desired, the foam can also be sprayed onto a metal spoon cooled in nitrogen and turned in nitrogen for a maximum of 20 seconds. Serve immediately.
Milk-fed lamb cutlets in jardaloo essence with dried apricot purée
Milk-fed lamb cutlets in jardaloo essence
2 lamb cutlets with bones
200ml lamb stock
2 onions, finely diced
20g ginger, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, finely grated
2 cinnamon sticks
1 small chilli, mashed
A little cumin
1 dessert spoon ghee
Sweat the onions in the ghee and add the spices. Fry gently until the oils are released and give off their aroma. Add the lamb stock and reduce everything by half in a water bath. Finely strain the stock and put with the lamb cutlets in a vacuum pack. Cook in a water bath at 65°C for 15 minutes, remove the cutlets, pat dry and fry briefly.
Dried apricot purée
100g stoned unsulphured dried apricots
50ml orange juice
1 dessertspoon white wine vinegar
100g softened onions
Soak the apricots in the orange juice and wine vinegar. Heat up with the onions and work to a fine purée. Put the purée on the plates and arrange the sliced lamb cutlets. Add the potatoes and pour around some of the cooking liquid.
Beech-smoked tandoori poussin on tomato, butter and pepper jelly
Beech-smoked tandoori poussin
2 boned poussins
1 clove garlic, grated
10g ginger, finely chopped
1 chilli, finely chopped
8 ground coriander seeds
1 pinch garam masala
salt
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
30g yoghurt
Place the poussins in a vacuum bag. Make a fine paste out of the other ingredients and add to the poussins. Close the bag and poach for 20 minutes in a water bath at 65°C. Remove the poussins and fry briefly.
Tomato, butter and pepper jelly
100ml tomato juice
100ml red pepper juice
20g ghee
2g agar agar
1 tsp beechwood smoking sawdust
Blend the juices with the ghee and the agar agar. Bring to the boil and pour into a rectangular form. Chill for two hours and cut into pieces of the desired size. Warm in the oven at 90°C.
Put the poussins in petri dishes and arrange the jelly. Add some of the poaching liquid. Burn the smoking sawdust in an electric pipe and pass the smoke under the petri dishes. Serve immediately, smoking for a maximum of 1 minute.
Kulfi with mango air
Kulfi
100ml milk
100ml cream
40g sugar
A little lime juice
1 pinch cardamom
1g saffron
Heat the milk to 60°C and dissolve the sugar in it. Stir in the lime juice, cardamom and saffron.
Mix with the cream and season to taste. Using a whisk, beat the mixture with nitrogen in a coated vessel to a creamy ice and immediately form into balls.
Mango air
200ml mango juice
a little lime juice
2g soya lecithin
4 leaves of silver leaf
Mix all the ingredients together and whisk in air with a wand mixer. Wait until the foam has stabilized and then remove. Serve with the ice cream with the silver leaf.
Bibliography
Heiko Antoniewicz, Fingerfood: Die Krönung der kulinarischen Kunst (Stuttgart: Matthaes, 2006)
Heiko Antoniewicz and Klaus Dahlbeck, Molekulare Basics: Grundlagen und Rezepte (Stuttgart: Matthaes, 2008)
‘Chronik einer beispiellosen Krise’, DRS24 News (http://www.drs4news.ch)
Chandra Dissanayake, Ceylon Cookery (Colombo: Felix Printers, 1968)
Nesa Eliezer, Recipes of the Jaffna Tamils (Hyderabad: Orient Longham Private Ltd, 2003)
Vera Markus, In der Heimat ihrer Kinder (Zürich: Offizin, 2005)
Camellia Panjabi, Currys – Das Herz der indischen Küche (Munich: Christian Verlag, 1996)
Vinod Verma, Ayurveda for Life: Nutrition, Sexual Energy and Healing (York Beach, ME: Weiser Books, 1997)
Thomas Vilgis, Die Molekularküche (Wiesbaden: Tre Torri, 2007)
Acknowledgements
I should like to thank Heiko Antoniewicz for his advice and experience, for having read through and made corrections to the text, and for having produced recipes for these dishes. Thanks to Lathan Suntharalingam for his advice on all matters relating to the Tamil situation and Tamil culture. Thanks to my friend Prof. Dr Hans Landolt from Aarau Canton Hospital for the gruesome medical advice. Thanks to Frau Irene Tschopp and Herr Can Akrikan from the Office for Business and Employment at the Economic Directorate of Zürich Canton, Frau Bettina Dangel from the Migration Office of Zürich Canton, Herr Beat Rinz from Zürich Unemployment Office, the Commissariat for Police Authorizations at Zürich City Police, and the Zürich Food Safety Authority for their friendly and unbureaucratic answers to my questions. Thanks are due to Herr Simon Plüss, departmental head of export controls and munitions of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), for the detailed and thorough information he provided. Many thanks to Frau Vera Markus for her help and her book In der Heimat ihrer Kinder, and to Frau Paula Lanfranconi and Frau Damaris Lüthi for their expert contributions to this work. Thanks also to Herr Andreas Weibel from the Group for a Switzerland without an Army (GSoA) for the insightful information on the situation relating to weapons exports from Switzerland.