Cook up some Love

Discover Martin Suter's international best-seller this Valentine's Day

In The Chef , Maravan - a Tamil dishwasher and undiscovered culinary genius - seduces Andrea - a stunningly beautiful waitress - by cooking her a dinner that fuses the aphrodisiac recipes of his ancestors with the necromancy of molecular gastronomy, Try some of Maravan's culinary magic here, especially for Valentine's weekend (be honest - you're not going to manage all of this in an afternoon).  Surely there are few who can resist the lure of jellied phalluses...

Maravan's Love Menu

Mini chapattis with essence of curry leaf, cardamom and coconut oil

Urad lentil ribbons in two consistencies

Ladies’ fingers curry on sali rice with garlic foam

Poussin curry on sashtika rice with coriander foam

Churaa varai on nivara rice with mint foamFrozen saffron and almond foam with saffron textures

Sweet and spicy spheres of cardamom, cinnamon and ghee

Glazed chickpea, ginger and pepper vulvas

Jellied asparagus and ghee phalluses

Mini chapattis with essence of curry leaf,
cardamom and coconut oil

Mini chapattis

65g wheat flour
40ml lukewarm water
1 tsp ghee

Work the flour and water by hand into a very smooth dough, kneading for about 8 minutes. Cover the dough with a muslin cloth and leave to rest for 1 hour. With floured hands make marble-sized balls of dough. Sprinkle a work surface with a little flour, flatten the dough balls and roll them into thin rounds. Just before serving, dry fry them on both sides in a hot cast-iron pan until brown.

Essence of curry leaf, cardamom and coconut oil
100g coconut oil
9 fresh curry leaves
1 cinnamon stick, coarsely ground
Put all the ingredients for about 1 hour in a rotary evaporator at 55ºC. For the essence you can use either the distillate from the upper flask or the concentrate from the lower one. Maravan mixes the two. Drip the essence onto the chapattis using a pipette.

Urad lentil ribbons in two consistencies

200g dal lentils
150ml milk
50g yoghurt
70g rock sugar
2g agar agar
Leave the lentils to soak in the sugared milk for at least 6 hours. Blend to a finepaste. Spread half of this onto a baking sheet, cut lengthways into strips, and dry in the oven at 50ºC. Remove from baking sheet while still warm and twist into the desired shape.
Mix the other half of the paste with agar agar and heat to 90ºC. Stir in the yoghurt, then also spread thinly onto a baking sheet. Leave to cool and cut into strips of the same width as the others. Intertwine with the dried spirals before serving.

Ladies’ fingers curry on sali rice with garlic foam

Ladies’ fingers curry

10 tender okra pods (ladies’ fingers)
2 green chillies, finely chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
π tsp fenugreek seeds
.5 tsp chilli powder
.5 tsp salt
5–8 fresh curry leaves
50ml water
50ml thick coconut milk
Wash the okra and leave to dry or pat with kitchen paper. Cut into 3cm pieces. In a saucepan mix the okra, chilli, onion and all the spices thoroughly. Add the water and cook until almost all the liquid has evaporated. Stir and add the coconut milk. Cook for a further 3 minutes. Reduce the liquid on a low heat.

Sali rice

1 cup sali rice
2 cups water
salt
Briefly pan fry the rice and add the water. Cover and leave to cook for about 20 minutes in the oven at 160ºC. Remove from oven and immediately break up the rice with a wooden spatula so that it doesn’t stick. Put into a form and keep warm. When needed, remove from the form and place the curry on top.

Garlic foam

200ml chicken stock, all fat removed
1 clove garlic
1 dash lemon juice
2g soya lecithin
Blend the stock finely with the other ingredients and pass through a sieve. Combine with the soya lecithin, season and whisk. Cover a large bowl with some clingfilm to prevent splashing, and under this whisk up the foam, working in plenty of air. Leave to settle for a while. Using a slotted spoon remove the foam and arrange as desired.

Poussin curry on sashtika rice with coriander foam

Poussin curry

200g poussin, cut into bite-size pieces
3.5 tsp coriander seeds
.5 tsp cumin seeds
.5 tsp black pepper
1 dried red chilli
1 large onion, chopped
π tsp fenugreek seeds
1 pinch turmeric powder
6 cloves garlic
salt according to taste
400ml water
.5 tsp tamarind paste
6–8 fresh curry leaves
1 dessertspoon thick coconut milk
Finely grind the coriander and cumin seeds, pepper and chillies. Simmer the poussin, onion, fenugreek seeds, turmeric, garlic and salt in 300ml water, covered. Dissolvethe ground spice mixture and tamarind in 100ml water and add, together with the curry leaves and coconut milk. Bring to the boil, simmer for 2 minutes and remove from the heat.

Sashtika rice

1 cup sashtika rice
3 cups water
Salt
Prepare as for sali rice above.

Coriander foam

200ml chicken stock, all fat removed
20 coriander seeds
1 bunch coriander leaves
2g soya lecithin
Prepare as for garlic foam above.

Churaa varai on nivara rice with mint foam

Churaa varai

250g shark steak
200g shredded coconut
.25 tsp turmeric powder
.5 tsp ground pepper
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt
π tsp chilli powder (or according to taste)
1.5 dessertspoons coconut oil
1 large onion, chopped
4 dried red chillies
.5 tsp mustard seeds
9–11 fresh curry leaves
Steam the shark steak and leave to cool. Flake and mix thoroughly with the coconut, turmeric, pepper, cumin, salt and (according to taste) chilli powder. Sweat the onion in a pan with coconut oil until translucent. Add the dried chillies, mustard seeds and curry leaves, and fry until the mustard seeds start to jump. Add the shark mixture and stir everything together thoroughly on a low heat.

Nivara rice

1 cup nivara rice
3 cups water
salt
Prepare as for sali rice above.

Mint foam

200ml chicken stock, fat removed
1 bunch mint, leaves picked from stems
A little low-fat milk
2g soya lecithin
Prepare as for garlic foam above.

Frozen saffron and almond foam with saffron textures

Saffron textures

200ml mineral water
80g rock sugar, powdered
2g saffron powder
2g saffron threads
2g agar agar
1 leaf gelatine, soaked and squeezed out
40g ghee
Heat the water with the rock sugar. Dissolve the saffron powder in the water and stir in the agar agar. Bring to the boil and add the gelatine. Pour onto warmed plastic trays and leave to cool. Cut into 2cm wide strips. Brush with a thin covering of ghee and arrange the saffron threads on top. Roll up and arrange the cylinders on the plate so that they flank the foam.

Frozen saffron and almond foam

300ml cream
3g saffron powder
140g grated almonds
2 egg whites
1 dessertspoon rock sugar, powdered
2g salt
Heat the cream to 60ºC and thoroughly blend all the ingredients except the egg whites. Add the egg whites, put everything into a 0.5l siphon, spray using a nitrogen cartridge, and chill for 3 hours. If required put nitrogen into a Dewar flask and chill a metal spoon. Spray a walnut-sized ball of foam onto the spoon and turn for 20 seconds in the nitrogen bath. Arrange between the saffron textures and serve immediately.

Sweet and spicy spheres of cardamom, cinnamon and ghee

Spice paste

200ml coconut water
40g ghee
2 spikes long pepper
1 cardamom pod
1 pinch cinnamon powder
40g palm sugar
0.5g xanthan gum
2g calcium lactate
In a mortar pound the ghee and spices to a fine paste. Warm the paste, pass through a sieve and mix with the texturizers in the coconut water. Leave to rest until the air bubbles have disappeared. Gently heat before using.

Brine

500ml mineral water
2.5g alginate

Mix the two ingredients and leave to stand.
Using a round spoon make balls from the spice paste in the brine. Draw some warmed ghee into a disposable syringe and affix a needle. Inject the spheres in the brine with ghee, retract the needle, then turn the spheres immediately so that the pricks close up. Leave for 3 to 5 minutes in the brine. Rinse with water and keep warm at 60ºC under clingfilm.

Glazed chickpea, ginger and pepper vulvas

50g sali rice
300ml milk
2 dessertspoons chickpea flour
1 dessertspoon ghee
2 dessertspoons palm sugar
1 dessertspoon chopped almonds
1 dessertspoon raisins
3 dates
.5 teaspoon powdered ginger
.5 teaspoon milled black pepper

Steep the rice in milk and blend, adding milk all the while, until you have a fine, moist paste. Add a further 150ml milk and stir well. Pass everything through a fine muslin and squeeze out well. Add another 50ml of milk to the extract. Fry the chickpea flour in ghee, boil it up in the liquid together with the sugar and stir continuously on a low heat, working it to a viscous mixture. Add the remaining ingredients and keepstirring for another 2—3 minutes on a low heat. Spread the paste onto a baking sheet and leave to cool. Cut up into equal portions, form the desired shape and glaze. Dry in the oven at 60ºC.

Glaze

100g icing sugar
1 dessertspoon pomegranate syrup
Mix the ingredients and glaze the biscuits. Allow to dry to a matt sheen.

Jellied asparagus and ghee phalluses

(This recipe uses fresh asparagus. Maravan uses dried asparagus, reducing the liquid
in the rotary evaporator.)
200g white asparagus
1 dessertspoon sugar
A little salt
4g agar agar
1 leaf gelatine, soaked and squeezed out
1g chlorophyll
4 cardamom pods, finely ground
100g ghee

Put the asparagus in a saucepan with cold water, cover and bring to the boil. Add cardamom and cook until the asparagus is tender. Purée the asparagus and pass through a sieve. Put 4 dessertspoons of the mixture to one side and mix with the chlorophyll. Mix 3g of the agar agar with the rest of the purée, bring to the boil and add the gelatine. Pour into a flat form and chill until the mass is workable. Cut into strips, roll these in baking paper and chill. When these have set, roll into sausages and cut into 10-cm long pieces. Boil up the rest of the asparagus with 1g agar agar. Dip one end of each jellied asparagus into the pan to a depth of 2cm several times
until a green bulge is formed. Chill. Cut the green heads with small scissors so that they look like asparagus tips. Serve with a small bowl of warm cardamom, chilli andghee dip.

Liquorice, honey and ghee ice lollies

100ml water
20g liquorice paste
30g honey
30g ghee
0.5g xanthan gum
40g pistachios, cut into thin slices

Heat the water. Stir in the honey and liquorice paste. Mix in the xanthan and stir the ghee into the warm mixture. Pour circles of the mixture onto a sheet lined with baking paper, and give each one a wooden stick. Sprinkle with the pistachios and freeze. Take from freezer and serve when required.

if any of these work for you - let us know