Kitchen Rescue The micro-minis are in—vegetables By Reggie Aspiras Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 21:10:00 05/07/2008
MANILA, Philippines—It’s the little things that count. That holds true in life, love and recently in the world of fine food.
Enter a fancy restaurant and be ready to see food garnished with miniatures. Minis, micro-minis. Not skirts but vegetables. Micro mini versions of the arugula, ruby red and mizuna! If the minis are nowhere in sight, one will certainly encounter a baby lettuce mix on one’s plate in place of the regular-size mixed greens.
Edwin Sy of Lettuce Entertain You, with partner Chef Andrew Chua, came up with the idea in 2000 on Sy’s trip to the US, and talked to his seed supplier for microgreens.
“Go to a resto in Makati, chances are your garnish will be basil, sliced carrots, parsley—most of the time pa the curly ones. Well, it looks very retro, very ’70s,” says Sy.
“But if you browse the Internet, food magazine, cookbooks, you see a lot of veg garnishing that look very appetizing, very appealing. But you cannot find them in your local produce store.
“That was when my partner asked me to research on microgreens, and one of the benefits of having a chef as partner is that the produce is targeted at the kitchen (food) other than the interest of the farmer.”
Categories
Leafy greens fall under four categories, he says:
Sprouts Micros—which are leafy greens that are three cm and below. By this time, the veggie would have the same flavor as the regular ones. It is between sprout size and mini size. What one looks for in micros are fullness of flavor, bite, texture, in some cases color, and how it looks as a garnish or a side dish on the serving plate.
Minis / babies are veggies that are classified as any green veggie below four inches.
Regular size
Do not be surprised if these picture-perfect babies are pricier than the regular-size vegetables. Sy attributes it to the “multiplier effect—from seed to harvest, the yield is small. Seeds used for micros are different, they are organic grade seeds. The growing style is different, too. Special attention must be given to them because the produce must be visually perfect in the end.”
As chefs, though, we don’t mind the extra cost. It makes our dishes pretty. I would say that the addition of it is what turns a regular dish into a hall decked with bows of holly, giving the dish a premium, so to speak.
More than mere aesthetics, there’s something about young vegetables that make them taste way more pristine than the full grown ones. The pizzazz is what one pays for.
A perfect example of this is the micro arugula, so nice, crisp and refreshing. Surprisingly, it is still as peppery as the regular-sized ones, but in no way does it overpower. The flavor does not linger. Ingested, it just gives a slight kick, and then it’s gone from the memory of the palate. It gives just a fleeting burst of flavor.
Try adding it to practically every salad and it works wonders. I love it on salads mixed with fruit where the peppery burst is just enough to compliment the other components that lend in the sweetness. Oh, try it with smoked salmon and carpaccio!
Growing the veggies
Why minis? “Many years ago, I introduced bite-size salad and regular-size salad greens to a foreign chef. He decided to go for the bite-size salad and when I asked why, his answer was, salads are eaten whole, not cut into pieces,” says Sy.
“In the past three years, visit any Hong Kong supermarket and you see more baby Chinese veggies than regular-size ones.”
How are the veggies grown?
“It’s grown using the Bengal hydroponic system. But three years ago, we started venturing into Vermicompost. When we process our bagged lettuce, we have about 60-percent wastage. So we decided to use our wastage for compost,” explains Sy.
What else grows in the garden?
“Edamame, broccolini, pear-shape cherry tomato, romaine hearts, baby-size Chinese veggies. In two weeks, we are going to introduce pencil-thin bunched baby carrots, ready for stir-frying, and many more to come!”
Though Sy and Chua take on many risks as fancy vegetable growers, they vow to continue bringing the world into the local culinary scene by means of their produce. That’s the promise of Lettuce Entertain You.
Call 0918-8788168, or visit their stall at Market Market called Fresh Field.
Copyright 2008 Philippine Daily Inquirer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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