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Paste Quotes

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Paste Quotes

“Strangely enough, the Japanese base most of their traditional desserts on beans. Called an, this smooth chocolatey-looking paste is made from azuki beans boiled in sugar and water. I encountered it for the first time one afternoon when I helped myself to a traditional Kyoto sweet resembling a triangular ravioli stuffed with fudge. What a shock to find a center made from azuki beans, instead of cocoa beans! Sometimes sweet makers choose chestnuts or white kidney beans to make the an, which they craft into dainty flowers, leaves, and fruits that look just like marzipan. Using special tools and food coloring, they fashion such masterpieces as prickly green-jacketed chestnuts with dark brown centers, winter white camellias with red stamens, and pale pink cherry blossoms with mint-colored leaves to commemorate the flower's arrival in April. The bean fudge also fills and frosts other confections, including pounded glutinous rice taffy called mochi and bite-size cakes, made from flour, water, and eggs that are baked until golden. These moist confections go by the name of namagashi and are always served before the thick whipped green tea at the tea ceremony.”

BeansJapaneseSweetsPaste
Book:Untangling My Chopsticks: A Culinary Sojourn in Kyoto
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“Now he's sautéing onions, garlic, bell peppers and paprika in a generous amount of oil?" "Aha! I know! He's making soffritto, a base paste commonly used in Italian cuisine!" Soffritto is finely diced herbs and vegetables sautéed in butter or olive oil until they become a paste. It's closely related to the French Mirepoix of onions, carrots and celery. But by adding paprika and bell peppers to the Italian version... yes, that will meld well with the anchoiade sauce, giving it depth and sweetness!”

VegetablesSauceItalian CookingTakumi AldiniPaste
Book:食戟のソーマ 24 [Shokugeki no Souma 24]
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“At first glance, it looks like some kind of ice cream... ...! It isn't sweet. I see. It's salmon ice cream, but made without sweetener." "He made salmon into ice cream?! But how?!" "The Cryogenic Grinder." "Ah! That's Alice Nakiri for you. Got it in one guess. I pureed some salmon with a blender and then froze the resulting paste, putting it through the Cryogenic Grinder. The high-powered blades of the grinder minced the paste into a fluffy and silky soft ice cream.”

Ice CreamSalmonMomo AkanegakuboAlice NakiriGarnishPasteCryogenically Frozen
Book:食戟のソーマ 19 [Shokugeki no Souma 19]
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“The refreshing scent of the turnip, the succulent, natural sweetness of the flesh... The fine aftertaste of its slight bitterness... And the thing adding richness to its flavor... ...is the brown paste in the middle of it!" "Kaibara-san, what is this?!" "It's braised turnip with white mushroom paste. The important part is the dashi... or the "fond de veau," as it's called. You make an elegant and savory broth which is like an Ichiban-dashi in Japanese cooking by using the bones of a fine calf and quality beef." "I see! The mushroom paste inside gives it its punch!" "It's mashed mushroom mixed with butter and cream." "That is the importance of finesse in cooking... A mediocre cook is likely to make a mistake when getting ahold of such a fine turnip. For example, he'll do something like making some nice dashi and quickly simmering the turnip in it. But that is a mistake . Turnips have a muddy scent. And it is that scent that poses a problem! Now, the muddiness of a turnip is something to be savored... but when placed together with something that goes well with it, it becomes far more flavorful . For example, you can't expect the turnip to do much good when it is placed inside a clear soup. But when it's used inside a miso soup made with hatcho miso, the flavor of the turnip becomes lucid... As you can see from this example, it's important what you put with it. And for this dish, I decided to use white mushrooms. The white mushroom itself is an interesting kind of mushroom that can't draw out its best on its own, but will prove its worth when it is mixed with oil or dairy products and heated. Its color will turn dark when heated, but the texture turns smooth and gentle, and the fragrance hidden inside it becomes apparent, giving birth to a deep, rich flavor. When that mushroom paste combines with the flavor of the turnip... they will multiply each other's taste upon your taste buds.”

VegetablesMushroomsFood CombiningTurnipPaste
Book:Vegetables
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