Recipes with Julie Van Rosendaal: How to cook with bitter ingredients

Most of us enjoy foods that have a combination of our five basic tastes — sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami.

While we often think of bitterness as something to reduce — we might add cream to coffee, or a pinch of salt to the neck of a hoppy beer. We also add bitters to cocktails to offset their sweetness, a handful of bitter arugula on a rich, creamy pizza, and stir semi-sweet chocolate chips into one of the world's most popular cookies.

Bitterness adds complexity and balances sweetness and richness, whether the food itself contains bitter compounds, like dark chocolate, coffee, tea, brassica veggies, greens, herbs, tonic water, hoppy beer, or the act of cooking it creates bitter notes as food gets toasted, grilled, roasted and charred. 

We're hard-wired to not like bitter. Many bitter compounds are warnings of toxins of some sort. But we all experience it differently.

Humans have far more bitter receptors than we realize. Evolutionarily speaking, it was beneficial for our ancestors to be able to detect bitterness, and there are thousands of compounds that make up the taste we know as bitter.

Genetically, 25 to 30 per cent of the population is unable to detect certain bitter compounds because they lack a particular set of taste receptor genes, and in the absence of bitter, sweetness and salinity are more paramount.

To test whether or not you're in that category, you can order testing strips treated with phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) or propylthiouracil (PROP), chemicals that either taste bitter or are tasteless depending on the genetic makeup of the taster.

Though bitter has come to refer to something unpleasant, it's a key component in so many delicious things. Here are a few recipes that might make you rethink bitter. 

Coffee Chocolate Chunk Blondies 

The bitterness of coffee, instant and grounds, along with (or instead of) dark chocolate offsets the sweetness of blondie batter. If you like, add a little more bitterness/complexity by using dark brown sugar, and/or adding a tablespoon of dark molasses along with it.

Ingredients

• ½ cup butter
• 1 cup packed brown sugar 
• 1 tbsp. instant coffee or espresso 
• 1 large egg 
• 1 tsp. vanilla 
• 1 cup all-purpose flour 
• ½ tsp. baking powder 
• ¼ tsp. fine salt 
• 1-2 tbsp. ground coffee or espresso
• ½ cup dark chocolate chunks (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In a small saucepan, combine the butter, brown sugar and instant coffee. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until the butter melts and the mixture is smooth. Transfer to a medium bowl and let it cool down a bit.

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Add the egg and vanilla and stir until well-blended and smooth. Sprinkle the flour, baking powder and salt overtop and stir by hand until almost combined; add the coffee grounds and dark chocolate (if you're using it) and stir just until blended.

LISTEN | Julie Van Rosendaal talks about bitter recipes: 

Spread the batter into a parchment-lined 8-x8-inch pan and bake for about 25 minutes, until the edges are golden and starting to pull away from the sides of the pan.

Cool in the pan before lifting out and cutting into squares or bars.

Makes: About 12 blondies. 

Bitter Brassica Salad with Pickle-Tahini Dressing

All brassica veggies go well together. You can chop up your favourites and toss them together, keeping them raw or roasting them first.

I added a few chopped dates for sweetness, and some crumbled feta for salty brininess, and toasted walnuts also add a slightly bitter crunch.

Soft cooked or canned chickpeas or lentils would be a welcome addition, too. If you like, scrunch the kale with a drizzle of olive or other vegetable oil to tame it a bit before you add the rest. I like sprinkling it all with a bit of salt, too. 

Ingredients

Bitter Brassica Salad

• 2-3 kale leaves, pulled off their stems and chopped or torn
• 3-5 large Brussels sprouts, halved and thinly sliced (toss the stems)
• A small bundle of broccoli florets, chopped
• A small chunk of cauliflower, chopped
• Salt, to taste
• 3-5 Medjool dates, pitted and chopped
• ½ cup chopped walnuts, toasted
• ¼ to ½ cup crumbled feta
• A handful of soft, fresh herbs, like parsley or cilantro

Dressing:

• Tahini
• Pickle brine (I used a slightly sweet brine, but dill works, too)

Toss all the brassicas together in a shallow bowl or platter, sprinkle with a bit of salt if you like, and scatter with the dates, walnuts, feta and herbs.

To make the dressing, whisk together equal parts tahini and pickle brine until smooth, adding a bit more brine if it's too thick. Make as much as you like. Extras keep well in the fridge.

Drizzle over the salad before serving.

Serves: 4.