November 21, 2011
Intermède
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raisins avec sauce au vin Marsala
(grapes warmed in Marsala wine)
Grapes are a like⁄dislike food for me. Not love⁄hate, just like⁄dislike.
As a child in the 1950s, I ate grapes as Thompson Seedless table grapes (like), Sun-Maid Raisins (dislike), and Welch’s Concord Grape Juice (strongly dislike). Nowadays, I have extended my fresh grape eating to the red flame variety in preference to the Thompson Seedless variety. I like sun-dried raisins if the sugar has concentrated on the skin, but my preference goes to the “golden fancy” ones treated with sulfur-dioxide and tunnel-dried. I can tolerate white grape juice, but I still liken Concord grape juice to battery acid.
These days, when I’m presented raisins in those much-too-small red boxes which barely contain a mouthful, I can’t be bothered to even open them. An ounce of raisins may start with a quarter of a pound of grapes, but that amount doesn’t even qualify as a handful. In 2003, I stayed in a bed and breakfast in Wailuku, Hawaii, that had small boxes of raisins available 247. It took half a dozen boxes to make a decent snack. I won’t even bother with the tiny boxes given as Halloween treats. Those take more energy to open than you get from eating them.
Now when I go to the many farmers markets in my area, I’m presented with many different varieties of grapes. I already knew that I didn’t like any variation with seeds, but even among the seedless varieties, there were only a few that I would buy. This year I realized that even if liked the flesh of a grape, I often didn’t like the skin.
I was recently watching one of the presentations from the current Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences public lecture series on science and cooking. One of the Spanish chefs, Pere Planagumà, was discussing how to effect mouthfeel and presented a dish that had a garnish of Muscat grapes cooked in thickened Muscat wine. After a few rewinds, I finally understood his preparation. The following Saturday, I saw a beautiful bunch of very large black grapes at the farmers market. Although the skin was horrid tasting, the flesh was very sweet. I instantly decided to make an intermède from the chef’s concept.
The thickener he used is kuzu, a Japanese starch made from the kudzu plant. As a thickener of sauces, kuzu seems to be about a third more efficient than cornstarch. It also seems to be more stable as it initially cools. According to the Chef Planagumà, it is one of the few starches that will thicken alcoholic liquids.
8 plump
black grapes
60 ml (14 c)
Marsala wine
2 g (1 t)
kuzu starch, ground to a powder in a mortar
1. Peel the grapes: Bring a saucepan of water to a boil, and add the grapes. Cook the grapes for 2 minutes, and then transfer them to an water-ice bath. Any grapes where the skin splits before the time is up should be moved right away to the water-ice bath. Once cool, peel the grapes in the conventional manner.
2. Place the wine and starch in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir to distribute the starch, and continue stirring as required until the liquid is bubbling and the starch has thickened the wine.
3. Add the peeled grapes to the liquid, and cook them until heated through, but not collapsed. The grapes should expand slightly.
4. When warmed through, transfer two grapes to each serving dish, and spoon a few drops of sauce over the tops. Serve immediately.
Note: For the above presentation, a single marigold petal was placed on each grape.
Yield: 4 servings.

© 2011 Peter Hertzmann. All rights reserved.