Project: Just Dough It
- Poulomi Sen
- Sep 21, 2020
- 13 min read
Updated: Nov 13, 2020
( By Poulomi Sen)
DAY 1
Chosen Dish: PASTA
(Reference: Google Image)
Pasta Dough Ingredients:
2 tbsp All Purpose Flour
1 Egg
Salt ( according to taste)
( Reference: YouTube)
Sauce Ingredients:
1 tbsp All Purpose Flour
1 tbsp Milk
1/5 tbsp Butter
Salt (according to taste)
1/4 Pepper
1/5 Cheese Slice
Sauce Recipe Reference:
Preparation Time: 10 Min
Cooking Time: 5 Min
Serving: 1
DIRECTIONS
Step 1
Mix salt to all purpose flour. Then kneed, by slowly adding egg/ oil into it. Don't be scared to use your hands its more fun that way.
Step 2
Throw some flour onto the rolling space and roll your dough out. It doesn't have to be a perfect circle but it has to be thin enough for you to be able to see your hand.
Step 3
Take a knife and cut thin strips from the rolled dough to form the pasta strands.
Step 4
Pre-heat water in a pan till it starts boiling. Drop the pasta strands in batches in the boiling water. Take it out precisely after 2 minutes.
After the pasta is ready just dip it well in ready made sauce or home made sauce. In my case I have used home made sauce. Our pasta is ready to eat. Add some coriander leaves for garnishing and voilà.
Bon Appétit !!
Critical Areas
I have experience in making pasta from scratch hence I didn't face much trouble but continuing my tradition I did add a little too much salt. I am a very slow when it comes to cooking so it took me double the amount of time than usual because we had to record our process.
Experience of the day
I took 'kitchen is a place of adventure' way too seriously and ended up playing with dough all day long.
DAY 2
Now that I was familiarized with pasta dough and its ingredients I moved on to experimenting. I was advised by my family members to add some oil into the dough for it to be able to kneed well hence I decided to do that for my future doughs.
Variation #1
The Original Pasta dough was made out of all purpose flour and I decided to challenge that. While making the original recipe as well I kept wondering why the dough was made out of all purpose flour when there are healthier options. Therefore I tried to take it up a notch and made the initial dough using:
All Purpose Flour
Wheat Flour
Mixture of all purpose flour and wheat flour
Semolina
The observation and results thus derived where fascinating and mind boggling.
I started with the original dough, that is all purpose flour, and I soon observed how the dough when rolled out was smooth in texture and feel. It was easy to roll out and cut, giving great pasta strands as a result. The all purpose flour dough was very stretchy and elastic.
I moved on to wheat flour dough which was sticking to the rolling surface a lot therefore I had to add some flour on the surface to prevent that. It took more effort to roll out and was harder to cut as it kept breaking if not done carefully. The texture of the dough was a little rough to feel but plain to look at. Once cut out, the pasta strands were thicker as compared to the all purpose flour one.
The smooth elastic texture of all purpose flour and the little rough and hard texture of wheat flour got me thinking what the outcome would be if I add these two ingredients together for the dough. I think the best pasta outcome was the mixture of the 2 flours. The dough was easy to roll out but maintained its shape and wasn't too stretchy either. While cutting the strands it went through smoothly and resulted in a good thickness strand.
For my last experiment with dough I decided to use semolina. Semolina itself has a coarse texture and I wanted to see how the dough as well as pasta comes out to be. The dough was very hard to roll out and kept breaking. It wasn't as thinly rolled as others and the strands cut was very stiff.
The final outcome from the all the doughs was visually very different and the texture of each varied as well.
Variation #2
The previous experiment left me with a colossal amount of dough and it was the perfect amount for the forthcoming variation which was with the shape and form of the pasta. I was working with spaghetti pasta and I wanted to see how many outcomes can I derive using different techniques.
I was using All Purpose Flour and Wheat Flour to make the shapes as these 2 were most likely to hold the shape. While working with these doughs I realized that making different shapes with wheat flour gives better results than all purpose flour as wheat flour holds the shape better and doesn't disintegrate whereas all purpose flour is harder to work with.
I recalled using different paper cutting and folding techniques during our first project; Mundane to Magnificent. I thought of applying that into the doughs as well. I used different techniques like:
Rolling
Folding
Half Cuts
Cut and Fold
Braiding
Cut and Lift
Pinching/ Crimping
Twisting
Cut and Insert
I even tried weaving but the outcome was not staying in form and kept disintegrating.
Variation #3
For the last variation for this activity I decided to alter the way the pasta is cooked. I used all the 4 doughs as mentioned in the previous experiment.
BOILING
The original way of making pasta is by boiling it in water. While making the original dish on day 1, I immediately wanted to experiment with it. Semolina and wheat flour took longer to cook as comparted to the other two and the finial outcome was not as soft as original pasta.
STEAMING
The closest method of cooking to boiling was steaming and I myself was skeptical of the outcome, but I was curious to see it. The outcome wasn't so great as the pasta was still raw and hard. I had kept the pasta to steam for 5-7 min and maybe if I kept every batch of pasta to steam for a longer duration of time I would have seen a different result.
// I was really excited to see the results from the next two methods of cooking //
DEEP FRYING
This method gave fast outcomes. It took every batch of pasta to cook in just a little more than a minute. The outcome was crispy and tasty but the bending capability of pasta was lost. Each pasta dough gave different results. Semolina was the least tasty whereas the mixed dough was the best according to me and my family.
AIR FRYING
While air frying I added some butter to the uncooked pasta to loosen it up. Each batch was ready to serve in less than a minute and it was a healthier option, barring the butter I added. Unlike the deep frying technique here the pasta did not turn red in color it kept its yellow tint. Unlike the previous method the pasta was not too solid but enough to be called crispy. This was my personal favorite outcome.
Critical Area
I think managing time is the biggest critical area to be tackled, as I mentioned previously I am a very slow cook. Overall I am satisfied with the outcome and happy that I did not burn anything. I do believe that I got a little impatient with the steaming process as it wasn't showing much results. I did take some help from my family this time because I am uncomfortable working with oil and without the help I would not have been able to complete this task this soon.
Experience Of The day
The whole day was a fun experience as a whole. I thoroughly enjoyed doing the variations especially when manipulating the shape and form. Not only me but my family members too were eagerly waiting to see what I've made and mostly to eat it. I also learnt to kneed dough with oil (mixed with egg) with supervision of course and that was a new experience. While working with the variations there was a sense of excitement in my eyes which pushed me to explore. This is a good change from sitting in one place all day long as I had to keep moving around the house to find the ingredients or to make my family taste the preparation.
DAY 3
The Day of Dough Disaster
After two amazing days with dough today, was a massive fail. The dough I made was hard in texture and every time I tried to roll it out, it kept disintegrating. Today was all about experimenting with the consistency of dough till I reach the final outcome. I took upon a challenge to not take any help from any family member and try to figure out the flaw myself. for an amateur cook I think this was pushing the boundaries a little too much, but I went ahead with it anyways. I strictly instructed all of my family members to not touch the dough and all they could do was supervise.
The first attempt was atrocious. The dough was sticky and breaking apart very easily. I tried very hard to roll it out but I just wasn't able to. I know the recipe doesn't include water but I decided to add some to increase the sticky component of the dough so that it can hold itself.
After adding a little bit of water I felt like I was being dishonest to the authentic pasta dough which I began with. Therefore I decided to not use much water and see what happens if i roll the dough before moving on. It still wasn't rolling out but it did get a little softer and easy to handle but it was still breaking.
I soon realized that the original dough I made had a little too much oil because I personally don't prefer egg and I was trying to use a very little amount of it. Therefore I decided to break up the dough entirely and start from the top. As it was easily breaking I didn't have to make a new dough, I could use the previous one.
I started thinking about the ways I could make my dough softer and mailable. In order to do that I obviously had to use more egg to balance out the already existing oil and maybe a little bit of mixed flour as the dough I was using was a mixture of all purpose flour and wheat flour. I decided the add a little more of all purpose flour as that dough is more stretchy and I wanted to add that component as well. After kneading it well I rolled it out and saw that it was pretty close to the original dough therefore I knew I was going the right way. Eventually after a long time and a lot of kneading, I reached the desired dough. This dough-ing process reminded me of M2m project because just like the Jaali pattern project made my hands hurt, todays expedition to get the right dough had similar a feelings.
Critical Areas
The original dough I made which was flawed, made me a little upset and set me back in order to get my final outcome ready. However, If we look at it from a learning point of view I don't think there were any critical areas today. I learnt a lot of the properties of dough and just like we do in think lab I had a task and I had to find a solution.
Experience of the day
The feeling I got when I finally reached the desired dough was the best feeling of the entire day. It was frustrating and a little irritating even, when I was not getting the right outcome but with a little patience and hope I kept going and finally reached there. I think the long process made that little victory all the more special.
DAY 4
As we near the end of this adventure our final task was to present a final dish with our own flair and learning from the last 4 days. After a discussion with my mentor about my idea for the final dish, I thought it would be a great ideas to get my entire family to participate in this dish. We all sat down and discussed what could be done and how could we reach to a tasty and innovative final outcome.
My original idea was either pasta salad or a stuffed pasta roll. My mentor as well as my family members really liked the pasta roll idea so I decided to go ahead with that. The inspiration for the pasta roll was from my favorite food that is sushi. The stuffing inside was my mother's 'secret' sauce recipe mixed with some veggies. The crispy pasta strands were from one of the experiments I did on day 3 where I air fried pasta strands.
I had my vision on paper and I made a plan about how to proceed with the idea. I wanted the protagonist of the dish to be cooked in the conventional way, that is, boiling whereas the garnish to be made via air frying.
From the dough I made, I cut out thick pasta strands instead of conventional thin ones. The component was also thick so that the pasta can hold the filling in it. While I was sure about my vision I was skeptical whether the rolls will stay put when I put it in water to boil or not.
The filling inside the pasta was my mothers recipe and I've grown up eating this with sandwiches. She authentically makes it with chicken but I wanted my dish to be vegetarian therefore I made some variation with the ingredients.
Later on, the pasta was filled and sealed and then they were rolled to look like a sushi roll but just shorter. Just as I proceeded to go and boil the pasta, my grandmother suggested that I should take a small sample and try to prepare it in the microwave as the stove was not available at that moment. I really liked this idea therefore she and I decided to give it a shot.
The sample pasta, made out of dough leftover, was put in the microwave for 02:30 Minutes. when it came out it looked like a perfect pasta, cooked well and smelled delicious. After a tasting test we realized that it has hardened up a little because microvan usually takes out moisture hence the pasta being a little tough and chewy. I then decided to stick to the boiling method only because I wasn't satisfied with the results derived from the microwave experiment.
Critical Areas
As I had a proper plan of action prepared, I did not face much difficulty reaching the final outcome. I had a proper discussion with the 'experts' being my family members and had a clear cut vision in my head.
Experience of the day
I had a nice bonding time with my family because in some way or the other they all participated in the process of the making the final dish. They all were eagerly waiting to see what comes out. I think that was the best thing about the day as everybody is so busy with their respective work, that nobody has the time to sit together and even though we all were not working for it together, in one way or the other, everybody's input reached to a common final outcome;.
// STUFFED PASTA ROLL //
DAY 5
We end this journey by invite our family to a tasting and presenting the food made by us with love and pride. They thoroughly enjoyed the pasta rolls and want me to make it again in the near future. During this whole process I learnt a lot about food and its journey from being a raw material to being served on a plate.
Food plating is the process of arranging and decorating food to enhance its presentation. Improving the presentation of a dish adds value to the dining experience, and provides room for a higher mark-up on the food. This plays heavily on the cliché that we 'eat with our eyes'. One of the best known plating trends, vertical forms can include sculptures, and foods built up in layers to create height; a similar technique of layering was taught to us during the M2m project. Another popular food plating trend is a technique which involves arranging food into a pattern similar to the scales of a fish. One of the major design learning we had so far involving scale and proportion is put to play here as well. Minimal style of plating food is one that is unlikely to drift out of fashion. This often involves using ingredients in their purest form and leaving plenty
(Reference: Google Image)
of space on the plate; playing with positive and negative spacing. Free form plating is the ultimate abstract form of food presentation, best compared with the style of painting. Not only the food but how its served also holds a significance while we look at food and design together. A plate should engage the senses and draw the focus into it much as a painting will draw in the observer. Just like we play with shapes in the world of design, in the food industry a square plate is a design element that has nothing to do with flavor, but it raises expectations for the food. Most restaurants with square plates keep them at the edges of the meal, for appetizers or desserts. The size of the plate affects the perception of quantity and portion size because the larger the plate, the smaller the portion appears to the customer. White plates makes the vibrant colors of the food more visually appealing to the customer whereas, black plates provide an opposite contrast that can be used effectively with brightly colored foods. Foods served on white plates tend to enhance sweet flavors in food, while black plates bring out more savory flavors, and serving food on a red plate has shown to reduce the amount diners eat. Food and Design seem to be worlds apart but when we get deeper into analyzing the principles of it then we realize its intertwined amongst each other.
( Reference: Cuisine Canvas// website)
Throughout this project I couldn't help but notice how food and design are intertwined. There is a very strange relation between them. They both have a process behind a product from being made to being served, which involves extensive research and understand their consumer’s needs. In our project ‘Just Dough It’ there were a lot of similarities between what we have learnt so far in design and what we were about making.
1.Color, Platting and Spacing
There is an algorithm to how a food is presented together. White plates make the colour pop out of the food which makes it look more appealing to the eye just like in the world of design. Positive and negative spacing comes to play here which adds on to outcome.
2. Material knowledge
This, I feel, is an especially important part both in design and in food. You need to know the properties of your material and its functions so that you can manipulate it according to your need and that of the consumer.
3. Exploration
An important part of getting a good outcome is exploration. This helps us put all our ideas out, so than we know the variations. Once we have it in front of our eyes we can mix and match and work accordingly, ending up creating wonders.
4. Planning and presentation
Having a plan is the key to a smooth workflow and a timely outcome. Once planned, how we present our ideas is what gets the attention of the people viewing our product and attracts the market we require.
5.Patiencee and hope
An essential component to get an intricate outcome is to have patience and hope. There will be failure, there will be lost causes but that should not be the end of our work, instead we should keep working on it till we get the desired result.
Comments