Since there was a rather underwhelming lack of response to my last post, I asked myself this question: what do I want to cook? After a brief exploration into some of my recipes, I decided to make lemon curd. Lemon curd is a jam-like spread that is usually used on pastries in place of jelly. It's often characterized by its sweet and tangy flavor profiles.
But of course a modernist chef doesn't want to make traditional lemon curd, but how can you make a delicious spread all science-y? Well the molecular gastronomy chef tells us that we should either put something new in, or take something essential out.
So I made lemon curd without lemons.
No zest, no juice, and no lemons were harmed in the making of this curd.
So how did I do it? Well, I used a relatively traditional recipe but used an ingredient that provides the same flavor as lemon. What is it you ask? Well this is molecular gastronomy, of course its a small white crystalline powder with a chemical name! In this case, I used Citric Acid.
Citric acid is the compound that gives all citrus its tangy flavor. Except this stuff is highly concentrated. I only used about 4 grams to go with more than 10x that amount of egg yolks. The citric acid is dissolved in a sugar syrup and combined with cooked egg yolks (sous vide of course) and butter. Whip it all together and refrigerate, and you have Not-Lemon Curd!
Comment if you want the recipe!
Friday, March 29, 2013
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Blog Posts A La Carte
Since I’ve been so busy working on planning and trying out
all the dishes on my menu (which will continue to remain secretly mysterious
for now), I want to give an opportunity for people to ask specific questions
about molecular gastronomy and cooking in general!
There are so many different topics that I do not have a
chance to cover but a fraction of them in this blog! So, you, as my readers,
have the opportunity to choose what my next blog post will be on!
Just leave a comment below and I will spend a portion of
next week researching your question and do my best to answer it. Think outside
the box! You can ask questions on how appliances work, or about why different
techniques yield different results in cooking, or why that last recipe that you
FOLLOWED PERFECTLY didn’t turn out so well.
I expect the blogosphere to be abuzz with a different
culinary query every minute! Don’t hesitate! Don’t be shy! This is how
molecular gastronomy can be applied into our home kitchens! First we have to
ask the simple question of our delicious meals: why does this work? Or, perhaps
more importantly: why didn’t this work?
Science is about asking a question and trying to answer it
through experimentation. Cooking is the same way. I have mushrooms, onions,
eggs and milk in my fridge; what can I make with that? (If you were thinking
quiche or frittata, bravo).
I can deal with things many consider hard to swallow (pun
intended), so give me your hypotheses and questions!
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Fizzy Fruit
Hello again! After a relaxing week off, I am back with more food than before! I am well into designing the menu for my dinners that will be the final product of my presentation, and will be continuing to perfect those recipes as time goes on. But for now, I have a very fun and simple experiment that most people can do at home!
Ever had sparkling cider? Or perhaps a different fruit flavored soda? We like the sweetness of the fruit combined with the carbonation of the liquid. What if we could do that...but inside the fruit?
Carbonation is the process of putting Carbon Dioxide bubbles into a liquid under pressure. When the pressure is released, the Carbon Dioxide leaves the liquid over time in the form of small bubbles, which we perceive as fizziness. That's why we can have drinks like sodas stay carbonated for long periods of time when they're unopened; they're still under pressure.
But back to the fruit. It's pretty obvious that most kinds of fruit are full of juice. We often drink it from a concentrated form with breakfast. But how could we carbonate the juice inside of an orange? The pretty simple answer involves using a form of Carbon Dioxide that most people are familiar with: dry ice.
Dry ice is a relatively easily obtained ingredient and is available at many regular grocery stores if you just ask the cashier when you check out. At only a few dollars a pound, it is also very reasonably priced. But how does one go about actually carbonating fruit with a chunk of dry ice?
Here's a step by step process that I've come up with:
1. Cut whatever fruit you wish to carbonate into pieces so that the flesh is exposed. The gas can only penetrate the skin of some fruits. The peel and pith of an orange is too think for example. Grapes do not need any preparation. Experiment with different types of fruit!
2. Get a small ice chest and put a block of dry ice in the bottom (you really don't need more than a pound or two). Fill the ice chest with water so that the dry ice is about covered to ensure that it sublimates correctly. IMPORTANT If you don't put enough water in the bottom, the "fog" that is characteristic of dry ice will not be produced, and the fruit will not carbonate.
3. Put the tray of fruit into the ice chest so that it is above the water level. (Use a bowl turned upside down or something that will make sure that the fruit doesn't fall in the water. Nobody likes soggy fruit. Ew.)
4. With the water and the fruit in the ice chest, close the lid but do not latch the ice chest closed.
5. For an hour check the chest periodically and make sure the lid is closed, if it pops open, just close it again. This is just a way of allowing excess pressure to vent.
6. An hour later, pull out your fruit and enjoy some very exotic fizziness to your fruit immediately!
What happens in the ice chest during that hour is that as the dry ice sublimates (turns from a solid into a gas) the pressure inside builds, forcing carbon dioxide into the fruit. Think of this like an unopened soda can. When you take the fruit out of the ice chest, it's like opening the can of soda. The difference in pressure means that the Carbon Dioxide bubbles in the fruit are being pulled out by the pressure differential. For this reason, eating the fruit right after you take it out of the ice chest is the best way to ensure maximum carbonation. Just like any fizzy drink, the fruit will go flat after a few minutes of sitting out.
This is a very easy and fun thing to do! Give it a try and let me know in the comments how it goes! Don't hesitate with any questions!
Ever had sparkling cider? Or perhaps a different fruit flavored soda? We like the sweetness of the fruit combined with the carbonation of the liquid. What if we could do that...but inside the fruit?
Carbonation is the process of putting Carbon Dioxide bubbles into a liquid under pressure. When the pressure is released, the Carbon Dioxide leaves the liquid over time in the form of small bubbles, which we perceive as fizziness. That's why we can have drinks like sodas stay carbonated for long periods of time when they're unopened; they're still under pressure.
But back to the fruit. It's pretty obvious that most kinds of fruit are full of juice. We often drink it from a concentrated form with breakfast. But how could we carbonate the juice inside of an orange? The pretty simple answer involves using a form of Carbon Dioxide that most people are familiar with: dry ice.
Dry ice is a relatively easily obtained ingredient and is available at many regular grocery stores if you just ask the cashier when you check out. At only a few dollars a pound, it is also very reasonably priced. But how does one go about actually carbonating fruit with a chunk of dry ice?
Here's a step by step process that I've come up with:
1. Cut whatever fruit you wish to carbonate into pieces so that the flesh is exposed. The gas can only penetrate the skin of some fruits. The peel and pith of an orange is too think for example. Grapes do not need any preparation. Experiment with different types of fruit!
2. Get a small ice chest and put a block of dry ice in the bottom (you really don't need more than a pound or two). Fill the ice chest with water so that the dry ice is about covered to ensure that it sublimates correctly. IMPORTANT If you don't put enough water in the bottom, the "fog" that is characteristic of dry ice will not be produced, and the fruit will not carbonate.
3. Put the tray of fruit into the ice chest so that it is above the water level. (Use a bowl turned upside down or something that will make sure that the fruit doesn't fall in the water. Nobody likes soggy fruit. Ew.)
4. With the water and the fruit in the ice chest, close the lid but do not latch the ice chest closed.
5. For an hour check the chest periodically and make sure the lid is closed, if it pops open, just close it again. This is just a way of allowing excess pressure to vent.
6. An hour later, pull out your fruit and enjoy some very exotic fizziness to your fruit immediately!
What happens in the ice chest during that hour is that as the dry ice sublimates (turns from a solid into a gas) the pressure inside builds, forcing carbon dioxide into the fruit. Think of this like an unopened soda can. When you take the fruit out of the ice chest, it's like opening the can of soda. The difference in pressure means that the Carbon Dioxide bubbles in the fruit are being pulled out by the pressure differential. For this reason, eating the fruit right after you take it out of the ice chest is the best way to ensure maximum carbonation. Just like any fizzy drink, the fruit will go flat after a few minutes of sitting out.
This is a very easy and fun thing to do! Give it a try and let me know in the comments how it goes! Don't hesitate with any questions!
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Open Flames and Alcohol...What Could Go Wrong?
Yesterday, I decided to try making bananas foster. For those who don't know, bananas foster is a dish where a sauce is made from butter and brown sugar, bananas are added, then after adding a bit of rum, you light the entire pan on fire.
It's all very good fun.
Lighting things on fire in cooking has a fancy french term (like most other things in cooking) called flambé. In the case of bananas foster, lighting the dish on fire allows two things to occur: caramelization of the bananas, and the burning off of the alcohol in the rum. Unfortunately, as I did my cooking, none of my pictures particularly turned out any good results, as the flame was nearly impossible to see in the sunlight since I was cooking outside (to ensure I didn't destroy anything). But this is a picture I found that gives you the general idea:
The flambé-ing in bananas foster is a way of reducing the liquid in the pan. When using a flame to burn off the alcohol, the water based components of the liquid are left behind. A more traditional form of reduction is simmering a sauce or soup on the stove. So after a few minutes of reducing something on the stove, it usually becomes thicker and the flavors are accentuated because water no longer dilutes it. Reducing on the stove liquids containing alcohol, usually wine or brandy or something of a lower concentration than rum, also gets rid of much of the alcohol. A normal bottle of wine usually contains somewhere between 10-15% alcohol, which is not very much by volume. The boiling point of alcohol is around 173 degrees Fahrenheit, which is more than 30 degrees below that of water at 212. So when cooking down a sauce, the alcohol is actually the first ingredient to begin to vaporize. Flavors become more concentrated when reducing because when the water and the alcohol are both removed, only a little of the original liquid is left, and it has much more concentrated flavor.
By comparison, dark rum like that used in bananas foster contains about 40% alcohol. Why not just use traditional reduction techniques? The first is that because it has such a high alcohol content, flambé is a much more efficient way of reducing the liquid without losing a lot of the water that is necessary to make the sauce for the bananas. The second is that the flame helps to caramelize the sugar on the bananas and really seal in the flavor. Perhaps the third reason is that frankly, who doesn't like to set things on fire?
For those of you who are still curious about the dish in the last post, it was green beans, gnocchi, and fried chicken hearts. If there is one rule I have about food, it is that I will try almost anything once. It's not about what something is, it's about how it tastes. And its amazing what can taste a lot better than you would think. Thanks for reading! As usual, please feel free to comment with any questions!
It's all very good fun.
Lighting things on fire in cooking has a fancy french term (like most other things in cooking) called flambé. In the case of bananas foster, lighting the dish on fire allows two things to occur: caramelization of the bananas, and the burning off of the alcohol in the rum. Unfortunately, as I did my cooking, none of my pictures particularly turned out any good results, as the flame was nearly impossible to see in the sunlight since I was cooking outside (to ensure I didn't destroy anything). But this is a picture I found that gives you the general idea:
The flambé-ing in bananas foster is a way of reducing the liquid in the pan. When using a flame to burn off the alcohol, the water based components of the liquid are left behind. A more traditional form of reduction is simmering a sauce or soup on the stove. So after a few minutes of reducing something on the stove, it usually becomes thicker and the flavors are accentuated because water no longer dilutes it. Reducing on the stove liquids containing alcohol, usually wine or brandy or something of a lower concentration than rum, also gets rid of much of the alcohol. A normal bottle of wine usually contains somewhere between 10-15% alcohol, which is not very much by volume. The boiling point of alcohol is around 173 degrees Fahrenheit, which is more than 30 degrees below that of water at 212. So when cooking down a sauce, the alcohol is actually the first ingredient to begin to vaporize. Flavors become more concentrated when reducing because when the water and the alcohol are both removed, only a little of the original liquid is left, and it has much more concentrated flavor.
By comparison, dark rum like that used in bananas foster contains about 40% alcohol. Why not just use traditional reduction techniques? The first is that because it has such a high alcohol content, flambé is a much more efficient way of reducing the liquid without losing a lot of the water that is necessary to make the sauce for the bananas. The second is that the flame helps to caramelize the sugar on the bananas and really seal in the flavor. Perhaps the third reason is that frankly, who doesn't like to set things on fire?
For those of you who are still curious about the dish in the last post, it was green beans, gnocchi, and fried chicken hearts. If there is one rule I have about food, it is that I will try almost anything once. It's not about what something is, it's about how it tastes. And its amazing what can taste a lot better than you would think. Thanks for reading! As usual, please feel free to comment with any questions!
Friday, March 1, 2013
A Word on Improvisation
Anyone who is a frequent home chef knows that often meals are more based on what's available in the refrigerator than following some recipe. So how can molecular gastronomy play a role in this sort of offhand, improvised cooking? The idea of molecular gastronomy is based on two smaller ideas: using science to improve food, and creating dishes that are innovative and new. Most of this project thus far has focused on the science aspect, but the innovation is probably the more important of the two. The science behind molecular gastronomy cannot function without the ingenuity and creativity behind it. Making some sort of vegetable gel is all well and good, but nobody really wants to have a block of gel as their dinner. The way that science and art come together is best presented in the experimentation of cooking. When we try to create new dishes, we are looking for compatible flavors and textures that are pleasing to the palette, but we also need to ensure that our idea is feasibly executable, and we cannot do that without an understanding of the science behind our food. So, go try something new. Often, molecular gastronomy is simply taking a classic dish and turning each of the elements into something new. Have you ever thought of trying a mexican hot sauce on a chinese dish that needs a little spice? Or, what if you used a dijon mustard foam on top of lamb chops, rather than a traditional sauce? The possibilities are as limitless as the human imagination, and all we have to do is try something new. Not all experiments are delicious successes, but I do believe that you'll be surprised at how often your cooking instict is right.
Since I did not have an actual experiment to go with this post, instead, I have a challenge. Below is a picture of a dish I had on a recent visit to one of my favorite restaurants, Posh. Try and guess what is on this plate! (Hint: Think outside the box). I'll let you know in the next post what it actually is!
Good luck!
Since I did not have an actual experiment to go with this post, instead, I have a challenge. Below is a picture of a dish I had on a recent visit to one of my favorite restaurants, Posh. Try and guess what is on this plate! (Hint: Think outside the box). I'll let you know in the next post what it actually is!
Good luck!
.JPG) |
| A Spectacular Dish |
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