[picture from here, see also here]
Our tongue perceives tastes (sweet, salt, sour, bitter and umami), texture, astringency and temperature. The temperature receptors at our tongue can be triggered not only by temperature but also by certain foods. Cool|cold receptors are triggered by mint (menthol) and mustard (thyocyanates) (among other foods) and warm|hot receptors by mustard (thyocyanates) chili pepper (capsaicin) (among other foods). In the fourth round of They Go Really Well Together we should for that reason not think about taste but about temperature.
Gazpacho & mustard ice cream. The idea is not original. A vibrant red gazpacho thick with olive oil and paired with a mustard-flavored ice cream was created in 1998 by Alain Passard and a few years later interpreted by Heston Blumenthal which interpretation resulted in
a mustard grain ice cream accompanied by red cabbage gazpacho.
Gazpacho is a Spanish cold soup. Its essential ingredients are garlic, bread, vinegar, salt and water which are pounded in a mortar. Garlic is added for flavo[u]r, bread for thickness and heartiness and vinegar for refreshment. Gazpacho derives from the Arabs who occupied much of Spain from the 8th to the 13th centuries. The name probably comes from the Latin caspa meaning fragment or little piece which refers to crumbs of bread. It is said that eating gazpacho inspired Charles Perrault to write Little Thumb.
- [about] 10 gram fresh mint
- 5 dl water: boiling
- 500 gram carrots: cleaned & coarsely chopped
- 0,5 cumcumber: peeled, seeded & coarsely chopped
1 paprika: cleaned & coarsely chopped
- garlic clove[s]: crushed & dismantled
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
- 1 peace of bread: crumbled
Place mint & garlic in a bowl and add 5 dl boiling water. Let cool & remove and discard mint. Place the ingredients in a bowl of a food processor and puree them. Taste for seasoning. Pass the mixture through a sieve. Discard the solids that remain in the sieve. Transfer the soup to a bowl, cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. Serve with musterd ice cream.
- 200 gram Turkish|Greek (fat) yoghurt
- 1 tablespoon mustard
- 0,5 dl juice of an orange
- 0,5 dl olive oil
Mix yoghurt, mustard, orange juice and olive oil with a blender. Taste for seasoning. Cool mixture in refrigerator. When the mixture is thoroughly cooled, transfer it to an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. Serve immediately.
The idea was to make an ice cream which gives a cold and 'burning' sensation [painful cold perception is associated with feelings of burning] at the same time in a cold soup that can cool a 'burning' tongue because of it's oily- & mintyness.
Taste panel:
- ijs, sinaasappel, knoflook, yoghurt, munt, cayenne of chilipoeder
- romige 'soep', heeft iets pittigs op de tong vooral aan de zijkant
- aparte kruidige soep met een hint van sinaasappel en niet-zoet yoghurt ijs
Well, at least someone tasted the mint.
Food for my thoughts about the combination mint & mustard:
- Janet Mendel, Cooking in Spain, Santana Books, 1995, ISBN 8492122919
- Alan Davidson, The Oxford Companion to Food, Oxford University Press, 2006, ISBN 0192806815
- Khymos, Practical Molecular Gastronomy Part 5
- British Journal of Pharmalcology, S P H Alexander, A Mathie and J A Peters, Transient receptor potential (TRP) 2007 150 (Suppl. 1), S1–S168
- TRP Ion Channels and Temperature Sensation, Ajay Dhaka, Veena Viswanath, and Ardem Patapoutian Annu. Rev. Neurosci. 2006. 29:135–61
- How cold is it? TRPM8 and TRPA1 in the molecular logic of cold sensation, David D McKemy Molecular Pain 2005, 1:16
TGRWT #4 is hosted by Dennis at Kookjegek.