Within the limits of what is allowed: what is offered in restaurants during the fast
This week, the Orthodox began Great Lent, which will last until April 11. During this period, many restaurateurs traditionally offer special menus to their guests, created taking into account all the food restrictions established by the rules. Izvestia found out what a lean table looks like in Russian gastronomic projects and what's new on it.
How Lean Restrictions Unlock the Potential of Plant-based Foods
Cooking of vegetable products is a large separate branch of gastronomy, the traditions of which have been formed for many centuries in peasant and monastery cuisines. Today, this legacy has become a source of inspiration for the most advanced restaurant concepts.
Coconut panna cotta with strawberries
"When you work with meat or fish as the main product, you eventually know what you want to get from them, but vegetables and root vegetables can really surprise you and you should treat them with great respect," the creative chef of the new Nordic cuisine restaurant (St. Petersburg) told Izvestia.) Eric Tamm. — Every dish on a lean or vegan menu in a restaurant should be very well thought out and not resemble a side dish for a steak that just isn't on the plate for some reason. The herbal product should perform beautifully solo, and other components should play along with it.
Celery with grapes and almond sauce
The main principle of Nordic cuisine is the strict use of seasonal and local products, the range of which is quite limited at this time of the year. And in the special lean menu at Nordic, important ingredients of animal origin are also excluded from the recipes. So, in the case of the cauliflower dish, the noisette oil was replaced with chimichurri, specially prepared on the basis of olive oil with five types of herbs. As a result, the position acquired completely new shades of taste. In the coconut panna cotta with strawberries, the confectioners replaced the gelatin with agar-agar, which is very difficult to work with in this dessert.
Cauliflower with chimichchuri and five types of herbs
Our interlocutor sees great potential in plant products and is constantly exploring their new possibilities, working with a variety of herbs, nuts, pods, raw oils, mushrooms, algae, cereals and roots. The main thing, in his opinion, is to try to cook them in such a way that there is no compromise in the dish and such food would also seem tasty and interesting to any meat eater.
How is the approach to products in lean dishes changing?
Lean dishes in restaurants are becoming more and more interesting in their combination of flavors and textures, and every year some individual products come to the fore.
Potatoes with mushrooms
"Legumes, cereals and root vegetables are on trend this year," says Alexey Gurov, chef of the restaurant "Monsoon" (Moscow). — I do not limit myself in the choice of products, because lean dishes should be satisfying and not bland, and it is important to combine ingredients in a new way, taking into account their properties and texture.
Baked avocado with nut sauce
For example, green peas give starchiness and sweetness, and therefore our interlocutor prepares soup without cream with them, suitable for fasting. Another important component of this dish, leeks, gives the soup a more delicate flavor than onions. Rich vegetable broth is made from pre-fried vegetables, and at the end of cooking, miso paste, lime juice and fresh mint are added to enhance the taste. Another example from the lean menu at the Monsoon is the eringa mushrooms, fried until golden brown with garlic and ginger in olive oil. They are toasted with crisp-toasted smash potatoes with a sauce of coconut milk and fresh lime juice with onions, chili and fennel.
Green pea cream soup with mint
To make lean dishes more interesting, our interlocutor recommends using tomato paste more often during steaming, as it gives the products a deeper taste. Soy sauce or miso paste will make the taste brighter, mushrooms will add flavor, and vinegars, citruses or pickles will help the food not to be bland. As for the spices, they should be warmed up a little before being added to the dish, which will help them to open up better.
How to maintain energy and aesthetic balance in dishes
When thinking over dishes for a lean menu, chefs must take into account the fact that they must meet the energy needs of guests without meat, fish, dairy products and eggs.
Beetroot and red orange salad
"I always try to use protein—rich foods," says Mauro Panebianco, chef of the Italian restaurant Essenza by Mauro Panebianco (Moscow). — Eggs can be replaced with mashed chickpeas and, adding it to flour, make the dough for tagliatelle. If you mix sweet potatoes with a small amount of the same mashed potatoes and flour, you will get delicious gnocchi. Spinach and artichokes can be used to make lasagna with bechamel sauce on almond milk.
Baked cauliflower steak with salmorillo sauce and almonds
Lean dishes should not only be interesting combinations of fruits, vegetables and cereals, but also pleasing to the eye in appearance, adds our interlocutor. An example is his cauliflower steak, which is very healthy due to its content of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. The inflorescences are pre-fried in a vacuum in olive oil with herbs, and then baked in an oven. When serving, Sicilian salmorillo sauce, delicate almond mayonnaise and almond kozinaki are added to them for a crunch. Another aesthetic and unusual item from the lenten menu at Essenza is a fruity ceviche with a spicy sweet and sour sauce, originally invented by Chef Panebianco for fish dishes.
How to make lean meals tastier
The restaurant's approach to lean items also differs in that chefs try to create dishes from plant-based products that will not be inferior in taste and balance to meat and fish.
Date candies with pistachio and dark chocolate
"You can diversify the lenten menu with the help of different elements of national cuisines from other countries," says Bulat Ibragimov, chef of the Touché restaurant (Moscow). — For example, use Asian sauces and products that have a lot of umami flavor, which is so lacking in traditional dishes during the fast.
Hummus with baked peppers, tomatoes and cauliflower
One of the most striking examples is hummus, which in Touché is made from chickpeas with baked peppers, burned with a burner for a smoky flavor. For decoration, fried cauliflower and pickled watermelon radish are added to the dish, and tomatoes marinated in kochudyan pepper paste add spice to the hummus. For dessert, they offer sweets made from royal dates with pistachios in chocolate, a kind of healthy version of Dubai chocolate. These sweets are also great for those who fast during the holy month of Ramadan.
How to experiment with lean dishes
High gastronomy implies openness to bold experiment, willingness to take risks and rethink classics, moving towards something new.
Baked daikon Wellington with onion sauce
— It has always been interesting for me to work with recognizable, iconic dishes that exist in a familiar form for everyone, — Andrey Zhdanov, chef of the Modus restaurant (Moscow), told our publication. — For example, the classic Wellington pie with meat — later fish interpretations appeared. At some point, I had a question: why can't we rethink this dish and make a lean, vegetable version — a conditional "a la Wellington"? That's how the idea of Wellington from daikon was born — absolutely unique today. I took a familiar form and filled it with new content so that the guest would have a lively interest and a sense of discovery.
Grilled cabbage with mashed black garlic and truffle
In addition to gastronomic experiments, the Modus lenten menu also includes more classic items: minestrone vegetable soup, potatoes with mushrooms, porcini mushroom risotto, buckwheat pasta with vegetables in pan-Asian sauce. These are dishes that are understandable to a wide audience, and they are consistently in demand. "Our project is an author's project, and it needs special positions that set it apart and shape its character, so the menu is always based on a balance where experimental positions run parallel to the basic classics," concludes our interlocutor.
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