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.