Poaching Trends

Aren’t we all suckers for trends? Be it food or fashion. Over the years we have successfully been aping the west be it in clothes or the way we behave and the food we eat. Our lifestyles have evolved and changed over time and though culturally sound (thank God for that) we cannot help ourselves but revel in the ‘in’ things of today.

On my travel to a food show in San Francisco couple months back I was thoroughly excited to see what’s ‘in’ and trendy in the food world. I had hopes of taking back ideas galore and probably learning new ways of using ingredients in cooking. The food show takes place once a year and is quite a gala affair. With over a 1000+ stalls from all over the world, carefully dissected area wise, it is a gastronomically sound place to be in. Spread over 3 days, you walk around various sections to devour, taste, see, observe, learn and inculcate food trends happening in the Country (and the world).

I started with the usual cheese and wines and charcuterie offerings (which, I must be honest, took up nearly a day, end of which I was at the least 10 pounds heavier) and moved on to the ‘popular’ and ‘trend driven’ sections the next day. Now here comes the funny part. I started by noticing a stray stall of curry spiced chips with an image of the Taj Mahal on it (tasted it, mild, but palatable) and it slowly dawned on me that the deeper I delved into the sections, the more prominent the accents of Indian flavors materialized.

I saw kale chips (another trend which will take the life of me) flavored with garam masala, ajwain spice laden crackers to be served with dips, even seaweed (nori) flavored with some spice and coconut in virtually everything. There was a stall dedicated to vegans where I spent an hour (Jesus, yes a whole turn of the clock) learning about the benefits of ‘ghee’ (pronounced Gee – with a throaty G) and how it should be included in every meal (Thank you very much, but I don’t think you saw that I was ‘brown’). There were flavored ghee’s from basil to chai masala (I don’t even..) to cheese with cumin (ok, this was interesting).

What took my goat was when I went to the beverages section. I was brisk walking with blinders through a particularly loudly done up aisle full of colorful banners, wailing kids, wafts of spice laden carts (only thing missing was honking cars). I came across a huge stall resembling a Jaipur palace complete with faux marble pillars and PYT’s in some multi hued kurti garb. One of the girls met my eyes (goddamn you invisible blinders) and I had to be polite enough to turn in to the stall. I sheepishly look at the walls adorned with lanterns, mirrors shimmering all over and couple of glass teapots bubbling away hot water. I was about to pick up the brochure when the PYT in red and pink, heavily perfumed with a rose scent, who had beckoned me, thrust a clear glass tea cup in my hand filled with piping hot water. She proceeded to tear off a tea packet and remove a tea bag. Dipping it in the teacup in my hand she proceeded to explain the wonderful concoction she was brewing for me. It was antiseptic, a stomach cleanser, makes you lose weight, boosts immunity and yada yada…

I see the tea bag infusing my water with a bright yellow color and in about 3 minutes it’s yanked out. She asks me to sit down on a comfortable sofa, proceeds to collect some brochures (which she doesn’t yet hand over to me) and perches on the sofa handle after turning up the volume on what I believe was some rehashed carnatic singer. I forced myself to imagine sitting under a rose bush in a balmy terrace of a lake facing palace of a town in Jodhpur with a live south Indian orchestra, all for the glee on the PYT’s young face. I took a sip, I nearly threw up.

It was plain jane turmeric powder, packaged as ‘tea’ or chaitea as they call it. No tea, no greens, no leaves, no nothing. All it was was ground turmeric, packed into tea bags, beautifully labelled, packaged and marketed under this faux temple of Indian-ness. Though I don’t doubt for one second that all the benefits are true (they are, all what she said was true, well researched), but the idea of having plain turmeric hot water reminded me of a dark and dank room, my body shivering with 103 fever and the smell of eau-de-cologne lying heavy in the room.

After that experience, when I thought things could not get worse, I walked on, there was another stall with turmeric tea (this time laden with spices) and making cold cocktails out of them. I scurried across vanilla yogurt doused with topping of ‘virginal coconut oil’ first press and all that jazz followed by an evil grin at the banana chips fried in coconut oil (just because coconut oil is healthy in a way does not mean it can be added and used with everything to follow a trend). This went on in sporadic places and kept multiplying. Well, eventually (sparing the beef and ham preparations) there was quite an infiltration of Indian flavors in various food items around the show.

Though it was exciting to see the West aping the East in food trends, it gave me a lot of food for thought on the trends which are currently capturing the world food scene. With Indian cuisine making a mark amongst the flavors of the world, it reinstates a different motivation for me and my current project.

I had a brainwave this morning when I woke up and remembered my experience. I was inspired to cook up a ‘trendy’ breakfast. I love fruits and the technique of poaching anything excites me. I had a fresh batch of Red Anjou pears in my fruit basket and I usually love poaching them in wine for desserts. This morning, I took a step back to a more suitable poaching liquid and though of coconut milk. See with regular milk it can get tricky as some of the tartness in the fruit can possible curdle the milk (especially if you are going to citrus it up or even use anything remotely sour). I love the flavor of coconut and wanted to warm it up with the juices of the fruit to have it with my morning cornflakes. So I land up poaching the pears in coconut milk which has been suitable spiced and sweetened further with honey (honey works better with sugar for me in most cases, especially when cooking, I love the raw earthiness it brings to many dishes).

This recipe is a sure-fire hit and the smooth creamy coconut goes beautifully with succulent coco-nutty pears and the crunch of your favorite breakfast cereal.

Coconut Poached Spiced Pears

The recipe is for about 2 servings, have added an extra pear because you tend to eat a little more than one, if you are feeling generous on your diet that is. You can reduce the fruit but do not reduce the poaching liquid, you will find ways to slurp it up.

Ingredients

• 1½ cups Fresh Coconut Milk (or approximately 1 can of thick coconut milk)
• 2 tablsp Honey
• ¼ tsp Vanilla Powder (optional)
• 2-3 Star Anise (whole)
• 3 Anjou Pears
• A dash of black pepper
• Granola | Cornflakes | Muesli | Steel Cut Oats to serve

Method

• If you are using fresh coconut. I usually scrape 1 whole coconut down, pour about a cup of hot water on to the scraped coconut and leave for 6-8 minutes. Strain it through cheesecloth and this is your first press (the thickest). You can add another ½ cup and repeat the exercise with the remaining coconut residue to get the second press which will be a lot thinner. Combined this good to make your poaching liquid ready.
• Peel the pears, halve and remove the seeds carefully. You may leave the stem intact (it’s good to handle the delicate fruit since on poaching it will tend to soften and start to fall apart on the sides).
• Add honey, spices and the pears to the coconut milk and keep on a low flame to simmer.
• Simmer for about 15 minutes (keep a check sometime around the 10th minute once the pears have started to soften its good to go).
• Strain and place into individual bowls and top with the strained coconut poaching liquid.
• Top with your favorite granola or oats and breakfast away.

Nonchalant Variation:

• Add different spices which will enhance your day, use cinnamon one day or even experiment with cardamom. Since both these spices are sweeter they will appease the sweet tooth (considering coconut milk is sweet too + honey).
• Citrus it up with some orange peel to add flavor to the poaching liquid instead of vanilla.
• You can convert this into an exotic dessert by serving coconut poached pears with a tropical fruit ice-cream, roasted nuts and a drizzle of poaching liquid (which you can thicken slightly by reducing it with a little cornflour)

This is a delightful variation to your usual breakfast ideas and it is best had warm. Try it soon, it’s super easy to put together and definitely hits the spot.