brown sugars
Jaggery. Piloncillo. Muscovado. Names for new punk rock bands? Guess again. They’re all sugar, made from either the juice of a grassy cane or tree sap. With the rise of interest in ethnic cuisines, the curious seeker of new ingredients need look no further than this most common of staples to find a world of subtle differences.
Check the shelves of your local ethnic market, bakery supply store or specialty food outlet, and you will discover that sugar doesn’t need to be white, free-flowing or crystalline to be good. In fact, even large-scale sugar manufacturers, seeing a growing market for exotic and less processed products, are rolling out washed raw sugar and evaporated cane juice along with their common granulated and superfine varieties.
It was probably inevitable. Just when you thought one ingredient was safe and simple, new (or should we say old) varieties have begun to appear with increasing regularity even on your neighborhood supermarket shelf.
But a long and checkered history has led to those familiar boxes and bags of refined sugar.
Sugar cane was domesticated in New Guinea. It spread west from there thousands of years ago; the first records of making sugar from the sap are in India. The Arabs introduced sugar cane to the Mediterranean during the Middle Ages, and for a long time most of Europe’s sugar was imported from Egypt. The Arabs also began cultivating it in Moorish Spain and Sicily.
In the medieval Arab world, sugar refining had developed into a factory industry. From the 15th century on, the world’s growing taste for things sweet led to the establishment of vast sugar plantations in tropical countries from Madeira to the Canary Islands to Brazil and points in between.
Columbus introduced sugar to the New World, planting sugar cane on Hispaniola, an island in the West Indies, on his second voyage; he’d brought sugar-making equipment and specialists with him. Plantations were also set up in Mexico. Much of the sugar made in the 16th and 17th centuries was scarcely refined, like the piloncillo, for which Mexico still has a taste.
Despite the world’s growing taste for white sugar, the products sold in ethnic food stores today are still a fair approximation of the sugar of thousands of years ago.
With its strong, almost smoky undertone and molasses personality, India’s jaggery--made from cane juice or the sap of several varieties of palm tree--is full of flavor.
In modern India, the darker, more flavorful jaggery varieties are being replaced by refined sugar. Still, as a mark of status and wealth, affluent Indian families might serve a platter of 18 to 20 kinds of jaggery--each with a distinctive flavor--with tea, in much the same way that Europeans end a meal with a selection of ripened cheeses.
In fact, in many parts of the world, sugar in its raw form is considered a health food (remember that 16th century apothecaries stocked it exclusively for the sick, but don’t tell the kids!). Today, nursing mothers in Mexico enjoy atole, a cornmeal-based drink sweetened with piloncillo to ensure that their breast milk is nutritionally complete.
Pastry chefs love the complexity of these ethnic sugars and use them in everything from the topping on an Indian-inspired creme bru^lee to a syrup that elevates the humble bread pudding into something soul-satisfying and sweet, but not too sweet.
The Mexican classic cafe de olla (spiced coffee cooked in an earthenware pot) blends strong coffee with lots of cinnamon sticks, cloves and anise and is sweetened with piloncillo, adding a pleasantly bitter note to the ensemble.
Chef and Mexican food authority Rick Bayless notes that the darker the piloncillo, the stronger its flavor. “It’s a much more sophisticated sweetness than refined brown sugar,” he says, “which is just white sugar with a bit of molasses added back into the mix.”
In Nancy Silverton’s pastry kitchen at Los Angeles’ Campanile, muscovado sugar, the product of evaporating and recrystallizing organic sugar cane juice, sweetens a classic French custard-based ice cream. “I love to use it for its complexity of flavor,” she says. “It’s not just sweet but has real flavor, which is translated into a golden ice cream.”
On the savory side, Indian and Mexican cooks might add a pinch of their native sugars to hot and spicy dishes to gentle and marry the flavors in the dish.
Mexican cooks soften chipotle’s bite by adding a lump of dark sugar, pried from a truncated cone of piloncillo. Suvir Saran, a chef and caterer in New York City, loves to use the jaggery of his homeland in everything from fruit chutneys to a sweet samosa.
In Shanghai, Grace Young, author of “The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen,” uses Chinese rock sugar to give a hauntingly sweet edge to braised meat dishes and sweetened soups and puddings.
Washington, D.C.-based pastry chef Steve Klc loves to use date sugar to coat his pa^te de fruits, soft fruit jellies made from mango, apricot and passion fruit.
Sugar is not just sweet anymore.
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Wemischner teaches professional baking at the Los Angeles Trade Technical College and is also the coauthor, with Diana Rosen, of the forthcoming “Cooking With Tea” (periplus Editions, a division of Tuttle Publishing).
Capirotada (Bread & Butter Dessert With Rich Dark Syrup and Toasted Nuts)
Active Work Time: 20 minutes * Total Preparation Time: 2 hours
From Rick Bayless and Laura Cid Pfeiffer of Frontera Grill in Chicago. Bolillo rolls are available at Latino bakeries and some well-stocked supermarkets.
4 bolillo rolls
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
1 1/4 pounds piloncillo, chopped, or 2 1/2 cups dark brown sugar, well packed, plus 1/4 cup molasses
3 cups water
1 1/3 cups light Sherry or red wine
1 (4-inch) cinnamon stick
6 cloves
2/3 cup raisins
6 ounces mixed nuts, such as pecans, blanched almonds, peanuts or pine nuts, plus a little butter if using pine nuts, about 1 1/2 cups
6 ounces queso fresco, crumbled, about 1 1/2 cups
3/4 cup whipping cream
* Slice rolls in half, slice halves lengthwise again, then slice each spear of bread widthwise into 3/8-inch pieces; you should have 4 loosely packed cups of bread. Spread in single layer on baking sheet and bake at 300 degrees until thoroughly dried and beginning to brown, about 20 minutes. Drizzle melted butter evenly over bread, tossing pieces to evenly coat. Return to oven and bake until nicely golden, about 15 minutes, then scoop into mixing bowl.
* Combine chopped piloncillo, water, 1 cup wine, cinnamon and cloves in large saucepan and bring to boil, then simmer gently over medium-low heat 20 minutes.
* Toss raisins with remaining 1/3 cup wine and soak 15 minutes.
* Spread nuts on baking sheet and toast in 325-degree oven until lightly browned, about 15 minutes.
* Crumble cheese over bread, then add toasted nuts and soaked raisins and any liquid they have not absorbed.
* Strain syrup onto bread mixture, stir thoroughly and let stand 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Scoop mixture into attractive 8-inch square baking dish or divide among 6 small (1-cup) gratin dishes. Bake at 325 degrees until mixture is bubbling nicely and bread looks caramel-coated on top, 45 to 50 minutes for big dish, 30 minutes for gratin dishes. Remove, cool a little, then serve with bowl of thick cream passed separately, if you wish.
6 servings. Each serving: 1,165 calories; 851 mg sodium; 140 mg cholesterol; 60 grams fat; 141 grams carbohydrates; 17 grams protein; 1.57 grams fiber.
Pumpkin Tart With Pecan Topping
Active Work Time: 35 minutes * Total Preparation Time: 1 1/2 hours plus 2 hours cooling
From Suvir Saran, a caterer and cooking teacher in New York. Vanilla ice cream or whipped cream flavored with Bourbon make good accompaniments to this tart.
SWEET CRUST
1 1/2 cups flour, plus more for rolling
1/4 cup sugar
Salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter
1 egg
* Mix flour, sugar, dash salt, butter and egg in food processor until dough forms. Roll out dough on floured board to fit 9-inch tart pan. Bake at 400 degrees until pale golden brown, about 15 minutes.
FILLING
1 1/4 cups solid packed pumpkin puree
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup ground jaggery, packed
1/3 cup milk
3/4 cup whipping cream
2 eggs
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 tablespoons Bourbon
* Place pumpkin, sugar, jaggery, milk, whipping cream, eggs, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, nutmeg, cloves and Bourbon in mixing bowl and beat until smooth and well blended.
* Set tart on baking sheet for easy handling. Pour filling into tart shell. Bake at 350 degrees until filling is just set and pastry is golden, about 45 minutes. Cover pastry edge with foil if you find it is browning too quickly. Remove from oven and cool on wire rack, 2 hours. Refrigerate once completely cool.
TOPPING
1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans
1/2 cup ground jaggery, packed
2 tablespoons butter, melted
* Combine pecans, jaggery and butter. Sprinkle evenly over tart. Cover edge of pastry with foil. Set on rack 4 inches beneath broiler element and broil until topping is caramelized and bubbling, 30 to 60 seconds. Be very watchful as you do this. Serve tart at room temperature or chilled.
8 servings. Each serving: 584 calories; 282 mg sodium; 166 mg cholesterol; 35 grams fat; 59 grams carbohydrates; 7 grams protein; 0.81 gram fiber.
Muscovado Sugar Ice Cream
Active Work Time: 15 minutes * Total Preparation Time: 45 minutes
From Nancy Silverton of Campanile. The complex flavor of evaporated cane juice boosts this frozen custard into sugar heaven. A sprinkling of Demerara sugar adds crunch to the cream.
2 cups milk
2 cups whipping cream
8 egg yolks
6 to 8 ounces muscovado sugar
Demerara sugar, for garnish
* Bring milk and cream to boil in heavy 2-quart saucepan. Remove from heat.
* Place egg yolks in heat-proof bowl. Add hot liquid to yolks, whisking just to blend. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Pour through fine sieve and freeze in an ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s directions. Sprinkle a bit of Demerara sugar over each serving.
1 quart. Each 1/2 cup: 607 calories; 108 mg sodium; 575 mg cholesterol; 46 grams fat; 40 grams carbohydrates; 10 grams protein; 0 fiber.
Palm Sugar Panna Cotta
Active Work Time: 40 minutes * Total Preparation Time: 1 hour 1 hour cooling plus 4 hours chilling
From George McKirdy, executive pastry chef, W Hotel in New York. Green cardamom pods are available at Indian and Middle Eastern markets.
2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin
2 cups milk
2 tablespoons grated jaggery, lightly packed
1/2 teaspoon green cardamom seeds, removed from pods
Zest of 1 1/2 limes
1 cup plain yogurt
* Soften gelatin in 1 cup cold milk.
* Bring remaining cup milk and jaggery to boil with cardamom and zest. Remove from heat. Add softened gelatin to hot milk and stir until dissolved. Let come to room temperature, about 1 hour. Stir in yogurt. Strain through fine sieve. Pour mixture into 5 individual (4-ounce) ramekins. Chill in refrigerator until completely set, at least 4 hours.
PALM SUGAR SYRUP
1 cup water
1 cup grated palm sugar, lightly packed
1 tablespoon lemon juice
* Place water, palm sugar and lemon juice in saucepan over medium heat. Just before syrup comes to a simmer, skim off top as some impurities may rise to surface. Bring to full rolling boil, remove from heat, then cool.
ASSEMBLY
4 lemons, peeled, pith removed, cut into segments, for garnish
1 1/2 cups grapes, for garnish
* To serve, dip ramekins in hot water just a few seconds to loosen panna cotta. Invert onto serving dish and remove ramekin. Pour small amount of palm sugar syrup on top of each panna cotta and surround each with lemon segments and grapes. Panna cotta will be bitter without syrup.
5 servings. Each serving: 275 calories; 92 mg sodium; 13 mg cholesterol; 4 grams fat; 52 grams carbohydrates; 7 grams protein; 0.02 gram fiber.