Eating with your hands is more than a fun act: touch reveals new sensations and recipes concentrate in one or two bites a great wealth of flavors and nutrients.
EGGPLANT FRITTERS WITH MISO POINT
Ingredients for 4 people:
- 1 medium eggplant, peeled
- 30 g cornstarch
- 100 g chickpea flour
- 1 g baking soda
- 100 g cold water
- miso
- pea sprouts
- soft olive oil
- pepper
- salt
Preparation (15 minutes):
- With a medium-sized Parisian spoon (sacabolas) remove all the possible balls from an eggplant (the waste can be used for a stir-fry).
- Quickly pass the balls through a mixture made with cornstarch, salt and pepper. Pie well and set aside.
- Prepare a batter by mixing the baking soda with the chickpea flour and a pinch of salt.
- Add the water mixing well.
- Pass the previously floured eggplant balls through this second mixture until they are well soaked.
- Heat the oil to 180 ° C and fry for a few minutes until they acquire a toasted tone and are cooked inside. Leave them on kitchen paper to release excess oil.
- Serve with miso and pea sprouts.
FRUIT SKEWERS FOR BATHING IN CHOCOLATE
Ingredients for 4 people:
- 250 g of seasonal fruits (in the photo of the recipe you can see kiwis, mango and strawberries)
- 150 g 70% chocolate coating
- 200 g vegetable cream
- poppy seeds
- Wooden skewers for skewers
Preparation (15 minutes):
- Melt the chocolate coating together with the cream in a water bath and mix everything well, until you get a chocolate sauce that should be as homogeneous as possible and slightly fluid.
- Cut the fruits to taste, pinch them with a toothpick and dip them in the chocolate sauce.
- Let stand on baking paper for a few minutes, until the chocolate crystallizes.
- Serve as skewers with poppy seeds sprinkled.
MEXICAN MILLET BITES
Ingredients for 4 people:
- 1 glass of dried millet (wash until clean water comes out)
- 2 glasses of mineral water or clear vegetable or seaweed broth
- salt
For the “pico de gallo” mixture:
- 100 g tomato concasse (peeled, pitted and diced evenly)
- 10 g chopped cilantro
- 50 g red onion in brunoisse
- juice of 1 lemon
- salt, pepper, olive oil and apple cider vinegar
For guacamole:
- 2 avocados
- 1 green apple
- 1/2 lime juice
- chopped cilantro, olive oil, salt and pepper
- coriander sprouts or leaves
Preparation (30 minutes):
- Put the millet in a saucepan with cold water and cook until it absorbs all the water or broth (about 18 minutes).
- Spread it forming a layer of 2 centimeters thick on a tray and press well to make it more compact. Let it cool.
- Mix all the ingredients of the “pico de gallo” to taste and let stand in the fridge for at least 20 minutes. The more rest, the more flavor.
- Crush the ingredients of the guacamole and reserve it covered with plastic wrap (to skin) and with the avocado pit to avoid oxidation.
- With a plating ring, take out a disc of millet and, with another disc, distribute the rooster’s beak on top. Finish by placing the guacamole.
ENDIVES STUFFED WITH RICOTTA AND TANGERINE
Ingredients for 4 people:
- 2 buds of endives
- 50 g fresh arugula
- 1 mandarin cut into supremes
For the vegan ricotta:
- 100 g soy milk
- 200 g sunflower oil
- 100 g soaked cashews
- 5 g lemon juice
- salt
Preparation (15 minutes):
- Carefully remove the leaves from the endives one by one and set them aside.
- Crush the soy milk from the ricotta with the cashews and salt.
- Whip the oil to the thread until you get an emulsion.
- Add the lemon juice and rectify the salt point. You already have your ricotta.
- To plate, place the endives on a flat plate and add a tablespoon of ricotta inside them.
- Finish the presentation with the tangerine and arugula leaves.
BEAN TACOS WITH ONION AND GREEN MOLE
Ingredients for 4 people:
The tortilla:
- 25 g corn flour
- 25 g chickpea flour
- 60 g warm water
- 1 g salt
Beans:
- 200 g cooked beans
- 1 garlic
- 1 onion
- 1 tomato
- 15 g soy sauce
- water or vegetable broth
The green mole:
- 1 green apple
- 100 g toasted almonds
- half a fresh onion
- salt, pepper, cilantro, olive oil and green chili
The pickled onion:
- 20 g fresh onion
- 50 g beet juice
- 5 g rice vinegar
- pepper and salt
Preparation (15 minutes + pre-pickle of the onion):
Before you must have pickled the onion, to have it made at the time you prepare the recipe.
To do this, laminate the onion and leave it in the mixture of beet juice, vinegar, salt and pepper until it is time to use it. It can even be several days, as it will improve the flavor.
- Get the beans first. Sauté the onion and garlic, and add the grated tomato and soy sauce.
- Add the beans to the previous sauce, wet with broth or water until it covers and let it reduce until the texture is thick and without liquid.
- Meanwhile, mix the dry ingredients of the tortillas. Add the water and mix until you get a smooth dough. Form balls of 25 grams and smooth to roller in baking paper.
- Crush the ingredients of the mole.
- Pass the tortillas on the griddle with a few drops of oil on both sides.
- Serve with the mole, beans and onion to mount on the plate.
VEGAN BITES TO ENJOY WITH YOUR HANDS
The finger food concept was born from the need to unite gourmet food with practical cuisine. The idea is that the diner can be served on a community plate and does not need any tools to put the “dish” in his mouth: no cutlery, no plate, or anything.
On many occasions, one of the ingredients acts as a container and even as a cutlery. The idea is that they are easy and quick recipes to execute to free the kitchens in situations where they are saturated: it can be a banquet of 300 people or a dinner at home with friends.
They are usually informal meals, served in a buffet, designed to share and create complicity between diners.
Original combinations are sought and usually have crunchy textures, which create a feeling of instant fun. The idea is to synthesize all the flavors of a dish into one or two bites.
TREND IN HAUTE CUISINE
In terms of gastronomy, we can say that it was Ferran Adrià and the team of the El Bulli restaurant who began to bet on this type of experiences around haute cuisine, creating a tasting menu in which many of the dishes could be picked up with the fingers. They thus broke with the tension of French haute cuisine by letting Asian influences dominate.
Today, many great chefs follow the trend. Among them, Andoni Luis Aduriz and the Mugaritz team, who offer a menu in which the absence of cutlery dominates, which manages to bring the diner closer to the essence of their cuisine.
NOT NEW
In societies like India, eating with your hands is an act of approaching and thanking nature.
A similar concept is used in sweet cuisine, with the famous petit fours, which are small sweet elaborations designed to eat with the fingers and a minimum elaboration, so they are served at the end of the menus as a courtesy.
And it is also related to street food, very developed especially in Mexico and the United States, thanks to which eating with your hands has become popular and dignified.
BACK TO THE ORIGINS
The trend reminds us that we are chiroterians, that is, animals endowed with hands to eat. We don’t need anything else. When you eat with your hands, food doesn’t taste better to you?
With our hands we can collect food from nature, wash it and prepare it to eat it also with our hands.
Another important issue is digestion, which not only happens inside the body, but also outside it: it starts with the eyes and then follows with the sense of touch: when you touch a food, you are sending information to the brain and stomach about how that food is going to relate to your system.
We are creating a certain expectation, which incorporates a sense more to the experience and increases the feeling of gastronomic pleasure.
Like children! It also frees us from the prejudices of protocol and brings us happiness by connecting with our childhood. Eating with your hands is a pleasure: to lick your fingers!
