I couldn't wait to get home from the conference on Molecular Gastronomy in Erice, Sicily. Leslie Forbes, a former BBC reporter, a great food writer (author of "A taste of Tuscany: Classic Recipes From the Heart of Italy" and others) was at the meeting.
Anyhow, Leslie wanted to know why housewives in India added a little minced ginger and a few fresh spinach leaves to their lentils to "make them creamy".
Now, there is a single enzyme in ginger that attacks both muscle fiber and gelatin. This is why ginger is a tenderizer and why it prevents gelatin from setting. It was reasonable to think that ginger could have some effect on the proteins in the lentils. I just needed to get home and try it.
What the spinach was doing, I didn't know. Possibly, some oxalic acid in the spinach reacts with and removes any calcium in the water. Calcium, like sugar, allows fruits and vegetables to remain firmer when cooking because it prevents the pectic glue between the cells from changing to water-soluble pectins. Molasses in Boston baked beans contains both calcium and sugar to help the beans retain their shape even when they have been cooked for days.
What I needed to do was cook lentils plain, cook the same amount with ginger, the same amount with spinach and then with both ginger and spinach, just as the Indian cooks do. I could compare to see what each ingredient was doing to the lentils.
This meeting in Erice always provides food for thought and experiments. This year, there were about 60 attendees, nuclear physicists, chefs and food writers. The conference was started about 10 years ago by Nicholas Kurti, a famous Oxford physicist who gathered scientists who write about food to swap information and theories. As a former research chemist, I qualified and have been a participant in all five biennial meetings. There is a core group that participates in every conference and different experts who come according to the topic. This year's was food texture…..
…But back to my lentils. The day I got home - jet-lagged as I was - I made two batches of lentils in identical pots. I put equal amounts of lentils and water, then to one I added 2 tablespoons of minced fresh ginger ( a great excess). I soaked and cooked the two pots at the same heat level for the same length of time. The lentils in the pot with ginger absorbed more water. They were between ¾ inch and an inch higher in the pot, and they were definitely more tender.
I believe that the ginger would have some effect because of the enzyme that can tenderize meat and wreck gelatin. The ginger lentils were more tender but not "creamy". Now, I was really anxious to see if adding spinach changed the situation.
It is known that an extract from spinach is more effective than other plant extracts in preventing the loss of elasticity in fish gels. In investigating this, researchers found a multicatalytic protease complex that has at least three types of activities. What all this means is that spinach has enzymes that can do different things to proteins.
I made another pot of the same amount of lentils and water. This time I added a more reasonable amount of minced ginger - a scant tablespoon - and 10 small fresh spinach leaves.
I shredded a few fresh spinach leaves and stirred them into a strong mixture of clear gelatin to see if the spinach would prevent the gelatin from setting. But, alas, the gelatin set firmly. So. Whatever these enzymes were doing, they were not attacking gelatin
I soaked and cooked the lentils in the same manner as I had the other two pots.
To the eye, the lentils with both the spinach and ginger did not look different but - wow - was there a taste-texture difference !. Somehow, in the mouth, you get a perception of smoothness. Whatever it is, there is something in spinach that changes the mouth-feel of the lentils - definitely smoother.
Try it for yourself. See what you think. Or, next time you are cooking any kind of dried beans or lentils, throw in a little minced ginger and a few fresh spinach leaves. I love a little ham in my lentils.
Go with your favourite recipe or try mine.
