Potato salad with chorizo

On the evening of Valentine's day, I cooked dinner for my harshest critic. The entrée was a potato salad. In this post, I shall describe the dish, and discuss the flow of thought behind the architecture of the dish.

Construction: 

There are five layers in this dish, listed in ascending order:

1. Potato

2. Spiced mayonnaise

3. Minced red onion

4. Bits of chorizo 

5. Lime juice vinaigrette

Deconstruction:

In this section, I describe the preparation of each layer and its contribution to the dish.

1. Potato: Small potatoes are boiled for a few minutes, skinned, thickly sliced and then crisped on a frying pan with a little bit of extra virgin olive oil.

There are several points to be noted in the ingredient and method described above.

a. The size of the potato - small

If you use bigger potatoes, they will not get cooked evenly when boiled. The bigger the potatoes, the longer it will take for boiling, to cook them in the insides. And by the time the inside starts to get done, the outer layer would already be overcooked and mushy. You want to avoid that at all costs.

b. The potatoes are boiled skin on.

Boiling the potatoes skin on helps you retain the starch content of the potatoes thus making them creamier.

c. Potatoes are cooked twice - boiled and crisped

Crisping them will allow you to achieve a few things. You have the opportunity to season the potatoes now, which is almost impossible to do while boiling them. You can finish cooking the potatoes thoroughly and add a bit of texture to the dish by crisping them up. But, one does need to ensure that the potatoes are not overcooked. You can achieve this by using medium high heat and a short cooking time. Potatoes must be placed in a single layer so that there is no steam build up and the potatoes do not turn soggy.

d. They are thickly sliced 

Slicing them thickly ensures that the slices retain their shape through the crisping process and the assembly later on. Thicker slices will allow for easier manoeuvrability on the frying pan.

The end product should be a layer of thick creamy, well-seasoned potatoes  with a thin crispy outside. This is the layer that is going to provide the volume of the dish

2. Spiced mayonnaise: This is the first layer of dressing of the salad. I used mayonnaise folded with sriracha chili sauce and red chili powder. 

a. The mayonnaise provides a creamy seasoned base for the dressing. It is an ingredient that coats the other elements on the dish very well, and helps other chunky elements like potatoes and chorizo come together in your mouth. Remember, this is the container of the flavor and taste of the dish, it needs to be bold and spreadable enough in your mouth so that it defines the baseline of the flavor profile. This is the dominant taste that will hit you.

b. The chili powder is added to spice it up from the "vanilla" mayonnaise, and the sriracha sauce adds a tang, a kick.

3. Minced red onions: This adds two components to the dish: pungency and crunch. Make sure to mince it finely, so that it only adds the crunch but not extra effort to chew them. The main component to chew should be the chorizo bits.

4. Chorizo bits: This is the protein element of the dish. I broke it up into small bits and then tossed it with some fennel seeds on high heat for less than a minute.

a. Chorizo is a spicy sausage with strong aroma and decisive flavor.

b. Small bits ensure that it takes a short time to cook and is easier to chew. Since the other components are soft and creamy, having large chunks would mean that it will stay back in the mouth due to its longer chewing time even after other parts are swallowed.

c. Tossing in a frying pan on high heat ensures a crispy outside without overcooking the meat and thus making it tough.

d. Fennel seeds add an extra layer of aroma that is well co-ordinated with the strong aroma of the sausage

5. Lime juice vinaigrette: Lime juice whisked with some extra virgin olive oil. The lime juice adds a bit of freshness to the salad and the extra acidity helps you cut through the elements with stronger personality like the chorizo. You can also use just lime juice without the olive oil. But, a good extra virgin olive oil takes you that last extra mile.

Finally, note that the whole dish is presented layered, and not mixed up. This ensures a little variation in each bite and allows you to savor each component when they all come together in your mouth.

Analytic gastronomy

My tryst with the culinary arts:

Growing up in a lower middle-class Bengali family in Kolkata, food had been quasi-magic to me. By quasi-magic, I mean that I had little idea about what happens before the food is served, as it had always been prepared by someone else.

Like most self-proclaimed foodies, I always had strong opinions about what is good and what is not. Looking around, it is difficult to find people who do not think of themselves as connoisseurs of food. For most people, the so-called 'personal' taste is nothing but a reflection of 'popular' taste and/or habit. Life, however, taught me that hard work and persistence is indispensable for developing a decent to good taste in food.

My conscious involvement with food started in 2001, when I moved to Bangalore for the final year of my master's degree. The food served in the hostel was appalling to say the least, prepared by salaried persons whose livelihood did not depend on the quality of food served. To make things better, we fought hard to start the practice of serving meat for lunch on Sundays. It goes without saying that the Sunday lunches did not go well, thanks to the culinary expertise (or lack, thereof) of the vegetarian cooks. So, I decided that I would rather be responsible for the bad food myself, if I do have to endure it. That way, there would at least be a slim chance of improving the quality of food.

In hindsight, starting my culinary journey with cooking mutton (goat meat) for a crowd of fifty, was one of the better ways of doing it, as red meat is perhaps one of the most forgiving ingredients one would ever come across. Preparing a large quantity of food also helped to fudge minor deviations.

My foray into the culinary arts, thus stimulated by the basic need for palatable food, evolved into a rich culinary and gastronomical experience during my long stay in the US and travels to other countries around the world. I should probably write a few lines about my own style of cooking and a generic overview of the kind of food I like. If I have to pick one cuisine, I am absolutely head over heels for, that would be the Japanese cuisine. South-East Asian and French cuisine follow that top preference not very far behind. As for my style of cooking, most of my ingredients are Bengali, South-East Asian, and some Continental, with style of execution that is deeply influenced by French cuisine. Carefully selected ingredients with cooking that is honest with the ingredients is my style.

Gastronomy analytique (Analytic gastronomy):

Most articles, blogs, or other similar writings on food, focus on recipes and techniques. Let me make an attempt to explain my approach to gastronomy in this blog, using an analogy: if I may compare gastronomy to literature, then I will focus less on the grammar, and try to explore the linguistics and comparative aspects of it. And I used French just to sound more intellectual and pretentious.

I might add, that this blog is not meant for those who:

1. Are just looking for a recipe.

2. Believe that the food they grew up having, is the best in the world.

3. Think that their mother is the best chef in the world (purely by the designation of being his/her mother, and not by her culinary skills).

4. Have religious and other prejudices towards food.