“My grandmother was a ‘concebolista’, she didn’t design the potato omelet without onions”. Elena Sanz, a science journalist trained in professional cooking, has just published a delicious illustrated book, The Science of Chup Chup, with cooking tricks she learned from her grandmother and which she explains with science
Elena Sanz mentions in her book the three high-level professionals she learned to cook with: Albert Adria, Englishman Heston Blummenthal, and his grandmother Isabel. About The science of chup chup, book edited by Critique, brings together tricks that her grandmother Isabel used since her intuition, but which worked because behind them there is a scientific motive.
grandma’s croquettes
“What my grandmother wore wasn’t exactly a bechamel. As he used to replace almost all the milk with the broth in the pot, he preferred to make a velouté. Less creamy than bechamel croquettes, it’s true, but much tastier”, says Elena in the chapter on what is essential in her grandmother’s kitchen, croquettes.
In the same chapter, Elena Sanz collects the «instructions for making croquettes» from the Basque Culinary Center, the first European educational and research institution where you can obtain a university degree in gastronomy. About the science of chup chup Elena Sanz collects the scientific explanation for the crunchy mass of croquettes and adds the exact temperature at which the oil must be for the crust to be perfect: 190º
We are 31% more satiated when in our normal diet we incorporate 160 grams of lentils, chickpeas or beans daily
In the chapter dedicated to stew (with a dash of paprika, recommended by grandma Isabel), Elena Sanz explains the benefits of eating vegetables. The first of the benefits is that they combat excessive appetite. In Elena Sanz’s book there are numerous references to scientific studies, including the one published in the magazine. Obesity whereby we are 31% more satiated when we incorporate 160 grams of lentils, chickpeas or beans into our normal diet.
the science of chup chup stop at the rice, the little fish fried, tomato soup (with muscatel grapes!), and it wouldn’t be a great cookbook if you didn’t spend some time on the potato omelet.
Potato omelet, not just any potato
New, mid-afternoon or old? Which potato is best for a premium omelet? About the science of chup chup, Elena Sanz picks it up next to one of them, the ones with more starch, the ones you pick up later, the old ones.
And in this chapter he doesn’t ignore the people’s war between concebollists and from the attackers. Grandma Isabel was on the onion side.
About The science of chup chup, you will find simple tricks for very popular recipes, a careful one illustration by Kim Amate, and all this enriched with scientific studies, and cultural notes that also feed. In addition, conversations with grandmother Isabel give the book that little bit of love that, according to the author, is the basic ingredient she learned from her grandmother.