Month: August 2015

Researcher: Santiago LastraStart date: 20 April 2015End date: 25 June 2015 Overview My goal was to find a formula for Nordic people to be able to use different local grains and seeds for making tortillas, opening another dimension of flavour and texture using this alkaline cooking process from Mexico. The basic recipe for making nixtamalised corn involves cooking the kernels in a 1% calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2) solution at 80˚C for 1h, removing from the heat and steeping for 16–18h in the same solution, then rinsing and grinding/blending into the dough, or masa. The cooking and steeping times will vary according to the size and structure of the chosen seed/grain/legume, but the resulting flavour and texture will be unmistakably tortilla-like. It was said thousands of years ago that the Indians of Mexico were made from corn. Appropriately then, the corn tortilla has been and is my home country’s staple food. Traditional Mexican cuisine, as many … Read more

by Josh Evans. Our linden flower season is over. The heavy, abrupt summer rains spent the last couple weeks flushing every yellow blossom to the gutters, oxidised and sole-sticking. It’s made me think of last summer, when one of our interns, Pete, was working on sourdough bread. One day during July, when the linden trees were in full bloom, he foraged some around the city to inoculate a sourdough starter. There was a bunch extra so he stuck them in the dehydrator to dry. They grew stickier, their sweet nectar intensified. One afternoon a few days later, quite spontaneously as these things often happen, Pete took some of these dried linden flowers, blitzed them to a powder in the thermomix, and added some water. It turned into a gel. It was quite a stable gel too. We smelled, prodded, tasted. The flavour was quite strong, compared to, say, linden flower tea. … Read more