Salute to Alinea, Part 2

Today's quest is from the Alinea cookbook: "Mango, Bonito, Soy, Sesame".  The recipe doesn't look too difficult, though there are tools that we may have to improvise.

First task is to cut up some mango, and blend it.  As I wandered through the grocery store to buy an mango, I realized I had never bought or cut a mango before.  Learning something new at my advanced age, go figure.

Mango Puree

Peeling the mango was pretty straightforward, but figuring out where the "pit" was stymied me for a bit, but eventually figured it out.

The next task was to add enough simple syrup to the mango puree so that it registers 20 Brix on a refractometer --what what what?

According to the Alineaphile blog (http://alineaphile.com/2008/11/mango-bonito-soy-sesame/), "refractometer is used to “determine the refractive index of a substance.”  (aka the sugar content of a mixture.)

Refractometer

Through the miracle that is EBay, I found one cheap.  They are pretty cool. 

There is a plastic 'cover" at the top of the device that covers a piece of glass. You put a drop liquid on the piece of glass, close the cover, and look through the eyepiece.  Based on how dense the liquid is, a "chart" of measurements is covered or uncovered, showing the Brix level.  Very mad-scientisty.

So, using my new favorite mad scientist device, added simple syrup to the mango puree to get it to the right level.  From there, put it in a squirt bottle, and set it aside for a bit.

Next step is to gelatinize some soy sauce (using our old friend agar-agar).  Standard methods apply:  mix the ingredients and bring them to a boil for a few minutes.  Then throw the hot mess of soy sauce in the refrigerator for a few hours.  Take the gelatinized soy sauce, and put it in a blender and pulverize it, and put that in a squirt bottle.

Cool, boiling hot soy sauce with agar agar

Soy Sauce Gelatin

The next step is to put medallions of the mango puree on an Anti-Griddle...oh wait, I don't have one of those.  (http://www.cuisinetechnology.com/the-anti-griddle.php)  An Anti-Griddle is a neat device that immediately freezes anything you put on it.    There is a "home version" of this device that folks have made using dry ice and a sheet pan (http://www.molecularrecipes.com/techniques/anti-griddle-home/).  

But I am too cheap for even that, so I try to use a sheet pan pre-frozen in my freezer.  So, I put the mango puree on that and freeze them up.

Mango Chillin'

This improvisational method of freezing the mango was only marginally successful, and would come back to haunt me later...I should have brought home some dry ice.

Now for the assembly of the dish.  First you put a drop of sesame oil on each of the "mango patties".  Freeze that for a little bit longer.  Then you put a drop of the soy sauce gelatin on top of the previous drop of sesame oil.

The next step is to shave some bonito flakes on top of each.  I walked around an Asian market for 30 minutes yesterday and couldn't find any bonito flakes.  I ran out of time, and couldn't find any helpful people to ask so decided to do without it.  From what I read, bonito flakes are kind of fishy / salty, so I decided that if I needed something salty on the dish, I would add parmesan cheese.  (Major violation of ingredient substitution rules here.)

Presentation-wise, this dish is a mess.   None of the drops of sesame oil or soy sauce gelatin went where I wanted.  Flavor-wise, even without the parmesan cheese, these were salty little dudes.  The texture of the frozen mango is lovely though.

Hopefully my next attempt will have more success.  Time to invest in some dry ice, and find some bonito.

Salute To Alinea

My Christmas present to myself this year was the "Alinea" cookbook, containing recipes from the Alinea restaurant in Chicago. http://www.amazon.com/Alinea-Grant-Achatz/dp/1580089283

Lots of ambitious recipes in this fine book, many of which are difficult to attempt with the tools of a home cook.  But one caught my eye, because it was relatively easy, and sounded fabulous: "Caramel Popcorn, Liquified"

This recipe has two components: a caramel foam that is used to top the other component, a buttered popcorn soup.  So, first I attempt the caramel.  It involves all the usual ingredients of making caramel, such as sugar and water.  First, you make the caramel liquid and let it come to room temperature.

Caramel, cooling.

Now, onto making the amazing popcorn soup.  First, you make popcorn the old fashioned way, using oil in a pot.  (No microwaves were harmed in making this dish.)  Then, you throw the popcorn in a pot with a gob of butter, salt, a lot of water and a passel of white sugar.  (Hmmm, all the ingredients of buttered, salted caramel popcorn.)

Buttered Caramel Popcorn Soup, Phase 1

If you look carefully, you can see that I burned a few kernels of popcorn, but shhhhh, don't point that out to anyone.

Now comes the part that involves multiple "filtration" steps, and lets you make a really big mess of your kitchen.

First, you strain out all the kernels using a chinois,  Then, you submit it to five minutes of blenderizing, (not a real word, but I like it), followed by straining it again.

You end up with a soup that looks like buttered milk, but tastes just like salty caramel popcorn.  Amazing.

Now, you go back to the caramel that you made originally, and add some soy lecithin.  Soy lecithin is a "foaming agent".  You get out your old hand blender, and blend it into a foamy froth.  That's the theory, but it didn't happen.  Very little foam, but more of big mess in the kitchen.   (A couple of bloggers who also made this recipe had the same problem, so I don't feel badly.) 

I have used soy lecithin previously in a recipe called "Frozen Chocolate Wind" (http://www.molecule-r.com/en/content/55-frozen-chocolate-wind)  That was also a big mess, but the chocolate actually foamed up, and the result was delicious.  The keys seem to be to put the liquid in a tall glass (reduces the mess) and to have a non-wimpy hand-blender (I think mine is moderately wimpy).

So, no caramel foam on my liquified popcorn, but it still tastes mighty fine.

Caramel Popcorn, Liquified

This recipe is fairly easy, and can be made ahead of time.  (Don't do the caramel foam, just do the popcorn soup.)  I will probably serve it in a small shot glass as a dessert component at a future get-together

Here is the recipe if you would like to give it a try: http://www.molecularrecipes.com/surprises/liquid-popcorn-caramel-froth/.

Sous Vide-a-loca

My food experiments so far have been focused mainly on items involving "Molecular Gastronomy" (MG).  Sometimes MG is rolled into the broader term of "Modernist Cuisine".

Nathan Myhrvold (former Microsoft CTO) sticks to this term, and used it to title his epic $500 cookbook set. (http://www.amazon.com/Modernist-Cuisine-The-Science-Cooking/dp/0982761007/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334452836&sr=8-1-spell)   Check out youtube for some great talks on the topic by Nathan, especially the lecture at Harvard (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcnW49luEGQ).

Modernist Cuisine is a much broader topic, and in studying that, I came across the topic of "Sous Vide" cooking.  Wikipedia says that Sous Vide is "a method of cooking food sealed in airtight plastic bags in a water bath for a long time—72 hours is not unusual—at an accurately determined temperature much lower than normally used for cooking, typically around 60 °C or 140 °F. The intention is to cook the item evenly, not overcook the outside while still keeping the inside at the same 'doneness' and to keep the food juicier."

This cooking method has actually been around since 1799, so not sure what makes it "modern" other than it took things like the microprocessor to make this technique easy for the home cook.  (Bread machines have microprocessors, but I guess bread has been around forever, so that doesn't apply.)

My Sous Vide Supreme

After watching for a scratch and dent deal on Ebay, I pooled my spare change and bought a Sous Vide Supreme.   It basically heats a big water bath and keeps it at the temperature that you choose for hours (days) at a time.  (Check out youtube for folks who have rigged up versions using crockpots or beer coolers for a cheaper method.)

What really attracted me to this method of cooking was that it was very forgiving of time and "doneness" on most types of meat.  (Fish are the main exception).

My first attempt was to cook chicken breasts.  You throw the seasoned chicken into a plastic bag, and then vacuum seal the bag and throw it in the water at 140 degrees.  The recipe said to leave them there for "2-4 hours".    So, I planned so my 2 hours ended at 6pm.  Then, at 530, I get a call from work, and I end up dealing with an issue until 7 pm.  Any other cooking technique would have given me a ruined dinner, but because of the the time window, when I finally got back to my chicken, it was still just fine.

All the internet discussions of sous vide chicken breasts say that chicken cooked this way isn't much different than  poached chicken, and I would agree.

The netverse seems to universally agree that Sous Vide Beef Short Ribs were delightful, so that is what I did next.  Beef Ribs cooked this way require at least 48 hours of cook time (yes, 2 whole days).  I followed the "Chinn Chinn's Asian Short Rib's Recipe" (http://blog.sousvidesupreme.com/2012/01/chinn-chinns-asian-short-ribs/).

Short Ribs, ready for their bath!

Per the recipe, applied the rub, let them sit in the fridge for a while, and then bagged them up.

Put them in the SVS (Sous Vide Supreme) on Thursday night, and didn't mess with them again until Saturday night. (I love that story!)

I think all my future dinner parties are going to have a Sous Vide main course, because it is so forgiving about time.  No worrying because the guests are late, or because your side dish isn't done yet, or because you forgot you had to buy wine for the meal and have to run out and get some -- who cares!  You meat is happy if it comes out of the bag at 6pm or 9pm!
 
This particular recipe is wonderful because you can use the juices left in the bag after cooking and reduce them into a lovely sauce.

2 days later...

The other interesting thing about Sous Vide cooking is that because the temperatures are so low, you don't get browning or searing of the meat (also known as the maillard reaction).  There three different methods for "browning" seen in all the Sous Vide recipes are:

1. After the bath, brown the meat in a pan before serving.  (boring!)
2. After the bath, brown the meat on a BBQ grill.  (boring!)
3. After the bath, brown the meat using a Chef's Torch (Right on!)

Fire! Awesome!

Guess which one I chose?  (heh heh heh)

After waiting 2 days, I "de-bagged" the meat, made a sauce from the juices, and browned them with a torch, and it didn't take more than 10 minutes.  Totally doable for a party, and even fun to watch!







How did it taste?  Those ribs were perfectly-cooked nuggets of tasty goodness.  The texture was soft and wonderfully juicy.  Easily the best ribs I have ever had.  This particular recipe was good as well, but very spicy, so if you are cooking for others, make sure they are good for spicy.

I will be trying pork chops next. Yay!  And to my local friends, yes, you can borrow this wonder device.

Sources

Molecular Gastronomy is a fun cooking method, but the start-up costs for some of the "chemicals" can be a little daunting.

You can use the google to find a lot of different sources for your different ingredients, but it sure would be nice to find another source, or more importantly a local source (ie. no shipping costs) for some of these items.

My Molecular Pantry

Another interesting twist is that since so many of these recipes come from Europe (where a lot of this style of cooking originated), the recipes use different names for ingredients than us folks in the New World are used to.

So, as I find alternate places to acquire these ingredients, I will update this spot.

Agar Agar

Supposedly this is used a lot in Asian cooking and it is widely available in Asian markets (and comes in multiple "flavors").  Haven't been able to confirm this yet.

Glycerine

Available in stores that sell supplies for brewing beer / making wine at home.

Dextrose

Available in stores that sell supplies for brewing beer / making wine at home, but in those stores it is called "Corn Sugar".  Also known as Glucose (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glucose)

Glucose

See "Dextrose".

Glucose Syrup

In America, we call this "corn syrup" and you can get it at any grocery store. (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_syrup)

Molecular Mojito

Yes, it's true, bartenders can be culinary scientists too!  Today we celebrate the Molecular Mojito.

This is a very well documented recipe http://www.molecule-r.com/en/content/38-molecular-mojito that is also accompanied by a video with a lovely soundtrack http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bpl29em--C4&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL6398D9ED305F39D6

In other versions of this recipe, it is sometimes called a "Mojito Ravioli", which actually pretty well describes the texture of your final product.   The process used to create this delightful item is called "spherification".  It is the culinary process of shaping a liquid into spheres of liquid held by a thin gel membrane which visually and texturally resemble caviar.  (That's what the definition is at this website http://www.molecule-r.com/en/content/7-molecular-gastronomy-definitions)

I have tried a couple of "spherification" recipes, and they are all pretty easy.  For this one, you whip up the ingredients in the "sphere's", and throw them in a mold and put them in a freezer.  This make it easy to whip them out at party time.  Ahead of party time, you need to create the sodium alginate bath, which you can do a few days ahead of time as well (as long as you keep it in the refrigerator).

And when you are ready to serve, you put the frozen sphere's in the alginate bath for 3 minutes (stir around), and then you put them in a water bath for a few minutes (stir around) and then you serve.

I learned the hard way that you should really set your alginate bath out and let it get to room temp ahead of serving, otherwise you risk serving semi-frozen "ravioli's" to your guests.

What you end up with is a "bubble" with a thin skin around it, that when you put it into your mouth, explodes into a liquid mojito, very cool.

There are a lot of molecular cocktail recipes out there, and a few bars around the country that specialize in molecular cocktails, so make some and see what you get.

Tapioca Maltodextrin, Grrrr.

Tapioca Maltodextrin is a big name for a super-light, flour-like substance.  It has magical powers in that it can convert a fat into a powder. (The scientific way of saying that it is "a modified food starch that thickens and stabilizes fatty compounds")

There are a lot of "recipes" out there for using this stuff, but really, just think of the equation that anything with fat or oil in it, plus Tapioca Maltodextrin (TM), equals flavored powder.

Bacon Fat + TM = Bacon Powder
Peanut Butter + TM = Peanut Butter Powder
Olive Oil + TM = Olive Oil Powder.
Nutella + TM = Nutella Powder

My first exploration into using TM was to make Nutella powder, which I made without any measuring, and it turned out fantastic.    I found Emily's fabulous blog and made the powder and the cake and it was de-lish.
 http://emilysculinaryadventures.blogspot.com/2010/12/emilys-chemistry-adventures-flourless.html 

 I threw Nutella and TM into my food processor, and a magical powder came out.

Unfortunately, every powder I have attempted after that one has been a failure.  I follow the recipe, throw measured ingredients into my food processor, and no matter how much TM I throw in there, the mixture never gets powdery.

So, this time, I decided I would follow the recipe EXACTLY and see how it came out.  Set my sights on the classic "Dry Caramel With Sea Salt" http://www.molecularrecipes.com/transformation/dry-caramel-salt/

First, made the caramel.  That turned out just fine.

The next step was: " in food processor combine caramel base with Tapioca Maltodextrin and process until caramel base is completely absorbed."  And so I did.  I measured the TM, combined it in the food processor.  I processed it and processed it and processed it.  Still a "wet" mess.  Added more TM. And more, and more, well beyond the scope of the recipe.  (and this is also what happened in my other failed "powder" attempts.

It looked like powder, but it was chewy.  Was it good?  Oh, yes.  Was it the right texture?  I didn't think so.

So, now I have failed on three different powders, time to think outside of the recipe to look for a cause.

1. Caramel wasn't cooked enough?  I think the caramel was right on, and certainly that doesn't account for the previous olive oil or bacon fat failures.

2. High humidity?  Uh, no.  This is Phoenix, in April, 17% humidity max.

So, I surrendered to the internet, and found other "powder makers" on YouTube and looked for their technique.

First, I found this inadvertently hilarious lady who had the same problem I had with bacon fat powder:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLKDVHUzyqk&list=PL83FF2C3331E96CA9&index=4&feature=plpp_video   (and she is entirely too excited about her bacon fat).

But the next video was a gold mine.  The originators of the Dry Caramel with Sea Salt recipe (Alinea Restaurant, Chicago) demonstrate how to make it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTWZIDUrUzo
It's supposed to be soft and chewy in your mouth!  Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner!

So, mine was probably OK, but I think I had more "blobs" than powder for the most part.  After watching a lot of videos on YouTube, I think the next time I make a "powder" I will use my whisk instead of my food processor and see if it comes out better.   (Most all of the chef-types in the videos were whisking to make their powder instead of using a machine.)

I see a bacon powder attempt in my near future...

Parmesan Spaghetti and Syringes

Today's cooking adventure involves parmesan cheese (yum), agar agar, syringes, and plastic tubing from Home Depot.  Here's the recipe:http://www.molecularrecipes.com/gelification/parmesan-spaghetto/

The "executive summary" for this recipe is that you reduce the parmesan cheese into just the whey, and then you gelatinize that with agar agar, and while it is hot, inject it with a syringe into some plastic tubing.  You cool that tube full of parmesan in an ice bath for 3 minutes, and then you use a syringe full of air to pump it out of the tube, forming a stunning white noodle.

Here is a video showing the method with arugula instead of parmesan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt34q4TVFyY

I have made the arugula spaghetti, and it was ok, but the parmesan spaghetti is much better.

The new adventure for me in this recipe was taking parmesan cheese and separating out the whey.  The recipe describes exactly how to do it, and it worked great.

There was a massive amount of parmesan "paste" left in the cheesecloth, and I am much too frugal to throw that away, but I can't figure out what to do with it, so for now, it sits in my refrigerator.

The whey and the fat separated after 12 hours in the refrigerator just like the recipe said, and it was easy to spoon the fat off.

The recipe called for 300 g of whey, and I only got 288 g of whey out of my cheese, so I just used agar agar in the same proportion as the recipe, and everything came out fine.

For the tubing, I bought the tubing at Home Depot (recommended here: http://www.molecularrecipes.com/gelification/agar-agar-spaghetti/)  I bought 10 feet, and cut it into 5 foot lengths, but I wish I had bought 20 feet and cut it into 5 foot lengths.  It is a race against time to get the parmesan gel into the tubes before it starts to get hard, and 4 tubes would have worked better.  Some recipes say to leave the tubes 10 feet long, but that is a lot of air to drive through there with a little syringe -- 5 feet worked great for me.  (and who needs a 10 foot noodle anyway?)

The final product turned out perfectly, more than enough for an appetizer or side for 4 people.  The texture is a lot like a soba noodle, but with the taste of pure parmesan, really good.

The recipe said they could be served hot or cold, but i put them in the microwave on high for 5 seconds and they started to melt.  So, either low power on the microwave, or maybe put them in warm (but not hot) water to warm them up.

The serving suggestion from the recipe was: "Serve on a plate sprinkled with freshly grated Parmesan cheese, grate lemon zest on top and carefully add a few drops on the plate of olive oil and balsamic reduction".    Sounds good to me.

Serving it with this would be good too: http://www.molecularrecipes.com/gelification/balsamic-vinegar-pearls/

Next adventure: Dry Caramel with Sea Salt, or my "continuing battle with Tapioca Maltodextrin"

ISOMALT-a-go-go

Always searching for new MG (molecular gastronomy) recipes, and so I googled upon this one: http://herbivoracious.com/2008/01/fun-with-isomal.html

Now that I have a goal, first to get some isomalt.  Didn't find any locally, so I used amazon.com.  (if anyone knows of somewhere in Phoenix to get some isomalt, let me know.)  What is isomalt?  It is a sugar-substitute that won't cause tooth decay (there are some other features, but that's the one I remembered.)

Followed the recipe, and it went pretty well.  Lessons learned:  My ginormous commercial stove always cooks things too quickly, so I probably over-cooked my isomalt by a little bit.  Don't think it affected flavor, but it gave it a light brown tinge.

The recipe called for a coffee grinder to take the cooled isomalt and make it back into a powder, but my little food processor did just fine, though it was violently loud and scared the pupster.  (My neurotic dog who does not like any noise.)

It made a lovely white powder, and I used a ring mold to try to make a lovely circle on the silpat.  That was wishful thinking, because unless I layered the isomalt perfectly evenly, it is not going to form a perfect circle in the oven.

I didn't have the snappy assortment of spices shown in the original recipe, so I did two combos:  mustard seed+chili powder+pepper, and mushroom salt+sesame seeds.

The recipe says to wait a few seconds before peeling them off the silpat -- unless you are in a freezer, that is not long enough -- you will see them start to harden around the edges, took a few minutes for me -- that's when you can peel them off.

Texture-wise, they are kind of like a thin peanut brittle.  Thinner layer of isomat powder on the silpat  works best for the best texture.  Tastewise -- just a hint of sweetness, and I liked the salt+sesame combo best, but I am crazy for salt, so possibly not the best judge.

So what would I do with this to actually make it part of a meal?  Possibly an interesting stand-alone appetizer, or perhaps on top of a salad, who knows.

The Alinea cookbook has a lot of recipes with isomalt, and there are also many videos on YouTube that show fun things to do with isomalt.

What the heck?

So here's the deal.  I like food.  I like science.  Then I discovered "Molecular Gastronomy".  Began to attempt some of these recipes.  Some turned out well.  Some turned out not so well.  Some friends think it's cool.  Some friends think I am crazy.

This will be the space where I document the journey.

Coming soon:  Fun with Isomalt, and making parmesan spaghetti (and my first time making whey!)