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COCONUT CREAM RAVIOLI

This is probably the third of fourth attempt at this. Luckily this time it didn’t end in dismal failure again or I would have ran

out into the street screaming that your favourite sports team is crap and then waited to see the Pearly Gates before me.

Coconut cream and honey raviolis

The method for fake ravioli is simple:

1. MIx 1g Sodium Alginate into your liquid (roughly

1 cup) you want to raviolify.

 2. Mix 3g Calcium Lactate into water (Roughly 2

cups) to make a chemical bath.

3. Spoon your Sodium Alginate liquid into the

chemical bath and watch as it forms a skin.

4. Spoon out your perfectly formed sphere and rinse

carefully in water.

5. Dry

6. Plate

7. Eat

It is NOT that simple. Try as I might I could not do step number 3. It is very finicky to spoon your liquid into the chemical

bath into the shape of a perfect sphere without a lot of practice. Try it. I dare you. If you can do well then well done to

you (please let me know your secrets oh wise one!).

Perfectly formed frozen coconut cream and honey fake raviolis

So the little trick I have for you is put your liquid in an ice block tray and freeze. I used coconut milk and honey, it tastes

great and the Sodium Alginate thickens the cream slightly for a fantastic consistency. Second trick I will share with you

is once you have your little ice blocks done, place the back end under some warm water and they’ll pop out easier. I

think the neighbours thought I was attempting to slaughter someone because of the banging, until I added some warm

water to the equation.

freshly out of the freezer where they lived for a short while in the “council houses” of the freezer world – in the ice cube

tray

place your ice blocks of bliss into the chemical bath and leave for about 5-10 minutes, this will also give the fluid inside

time to thaw.
Yes, this is the food colouring I used, if I had used “blood of the innocent” colouring maybe my “red” ones wouldn’t have

been pink…

You don’t need to do the next step (or any of this mind you), but I rinsed them in water with food colouring. You can

leave them there for as long as you like, just remember that the reaction started in the chemical bath will continue so

this is better eaten sooner than later.

 The “pink” ones were intended to be deep red but I guess it makes sense – white cream and red colouring makes

pink… sigh

Take them out and dry. There you have fantastic little coconut and honey cream squishy spheres that you can add to

your deserts or put something else inside, like chocolate or coffee.

 Soft and squishy, smooth and yum.

CHEMICALS

As said in my last post, I searched throughout all the lands in hope of finding some of these precious substances that would turn

water into something less watery. In retrospect it does sound like a strange thing to get excited about.

But wait until I tell what these beautifully vacuum packed silver bagged chemicals can do:

Calcium Lactate:
 Also great for a quick acting antacid

Typically it‟s found in dairy products, broccoli and rhubarb and is fantastic at keeping your pearly-whites pearly white. In molecular

gastronomic terms it is most used to make a Calcium bath and reacts with Sodium alginate to form a gelatinous skin. It seems this

reaction can‟t be stopped once it begins so if you are hoping to spherify something then you should eat it quickly unless you would

like to eat a jelly-ball

Sodium Alginate:

Extracted from brown sea weed, Laminaria sp to be exact.

This is one of those chemicals that come along and chemists and chefs start to see stars at the possibilities. It can be used to increase

viscosity and as an emulsifier, and it‟s most fun use is sherification to make fake caviar and foams.

Agar Agar:
 Derived from red sea weed and could help with digestive disorders

Although Agar Agar can be used as a laxative and a clarifying agent in brewing, it is mainly used in the food industry as a superior

replacement for gelatine.

Soy Lecithin:

And you can probably have this even if you‟re allergic to Soy

This Soy by-product is made up of 3 types of phospholipids and is used as an emulsifier and stabilizer and is what helps margarine

to stay solid as well as gives things a creamy consistency. Plus it‟s good for you because it‟s a great source of choline which is a big

part of what cell membranes are made of.

These are the 4 main chemicals I have to play with at the moment, hopefully with some time, I‟ll perfect some recipes for you to try

out.

APPLE & GINGER JELLY

Straight lines are a trademark of humanity – it seems no other animal goes out of its way to create so many straight lines in its

surroundings. In a way, it could be why we sometimes want to leave the cubicle in search for the wild side of life; perhaps straight

lines make us feel safe in our humanity but also keeps the wild, messy, world outside? We see it everywhere and I must admit that

seeing perfectly cut little cubes of delicious edible delights on my plate sends a tingle up my spine – it‟s not the shape (I‟m not a

“that” weird), so much as it is the accuracy of cut. Someone has spent time and concentration making sure that even the tiniest bit of

food placed in front of me is thought out and deliberate.

I suck at it.

The recipe is simple enough:

 the blood of 4 apples (you can also use its juice if you

really have to)

 a large knuckle of ginger, juiced as well

 half a teaspoon of Agar agar

 chocolate – I used 70% Lindt cooking chocolate

 candied ginger for garnish. You can make this by

placing slivers of ginger in to a syrup of half

water/sugar solution.

Heat the juices, add the agar, cook till all is dissolved, strain, place in a mold to set, cut into cubes, dip into the melted chocolate,

and place the candied ginger atop the treat for good luck, because when trying to cut perfect little squares you will need all the luck

the world can offer!

I call this masterpiece: “The long shadows of 4pm”. Note how all the cubes are different sizes? That is exactly how you shouldn‟t

do it.
Ah, this is yet another way of how you shouldn‟t add chocolate to the equation.
 And finally, after dipping and candying, this is the final product. It tastes quite good, and the candied ginger gives a nice sweet

chewy texture to add to the mix. This was taken with my wife‟s camera. There is envy in my heart.

CARAMELIZED OLIVE OIL

I found this nifty little diddy from Chef Jose Andres on a Youtube vid on the EnthusioChefs channel. It‟s a great place to find some

inspiration.

Incredibly thin sugar capsules filled with olive oil. So simple and yet I keep staring at them.

You can watch it here:

It seems simple enough but there isn‟t much to go on in the description besides:

…caramelized olive is passed through a ring mold filled with isomalt, encapsulating the olive oil in a glass candy coating.
To be honest, in typical manly fashion, I didn‟t actually read the “About” section before doing it, so I guess I found another way to

skin the same cat.

It looks a little like a ghost tadpole. That little red spot is burnt lemon zest. Silly rookie mistake tut tut.
How I made mine is with plane castor sugar, heated up to melting point, dipped in a washer, and then poured in cool olive into the

washer. What I found is that the sugar needs to be heated very gently or it will burn and go bitter. Also, I made the rookie mistake

of adding lemon zest to the sugar solution, which just burn. In a later attempt I added the lemon zest to the olive oil instead and it

worked great.

“A pinch of joy” of olive oil is all you need (that translates to 1/4 ts in case you didn‟t know). My wife does a lot of happy baking,

they‟re her heart-shaped measuring spoons… mine are in the wash.

It takes a bit of experimentation to get the right sugar temperature, too hot and the sugar won‟t adhere to the washer, too cool and

the droplet won‟t form completely. My rough judgement is that it worked best at 105º C.
 I had to MacGyver this one somewhat. Look familiar? It should, it‟s a toothpaste nozzle.

As you would guess the better the olive oil the better. I opted for an Olyvenbosch olive oil that nabbed a Silver at the SA Olive

Awards this year.

 As you can see by the broken droplet yonder, they are incredibly brittle, and pretty frig‟n awesome.

So long as you melt your sugar really slowly and use good olive oil, this is a definite winner. Something I see myself making a lot

more in the future.

DULCE DE HABANERO

If you have ever dived deep into the wonderful and unpredictable world of chilli you would definitely have stumbled upon the

deceptively bell-pepper-shaped Habanero. These little orange (and they even have an orangey taste) pack a punch of between 100

000 and 350 000 Scovilles which made it the Guinness world record holder for hottest chilli in 2000. Things have changed since

then with other chillies besting it but it‟s still damnably hot – Tabasco is only at around 3500 – 8000 Scovilles to give you some

indication. Read about it here

 Awww wook at all da widdle…. AHHHHH IT HURTS IT HURTS CUT OFF MY TONGUE! AHHHHHH!

Handled wrongly this chilli will hurt you. It‟s almost a full day later and although I‟ve washed my hands many times with many

different types of soap I still have a fear every time I touch my face because some parts of my hands are still burning!

But on the other hand if handled right this happy little chilli can create some remarkable things. This recipe was inspired by two

things – Grapefruit rind candy, and a sweet chilli sauce I made a while back that is still the best one I‟ve ever tasted (I‟ll put the

recipe up soon).
 Looks so gentle and innocent right?

The method is quite simple:

Step 1: Take out the stalks and seeds, and cut spirally.

Step 2: Put in cold water and bring to the boil, let it boil for 1 minute, rinse in cold water, repeat 3 times.

Step 3: Make a saturated sugar solution (1 cup water : about 2.5 cups castor sugar)

Step 4: Place chillies in sugar solution and slowly bring to the boil. Simmer for 10-15 minutes. Let cool for about an hour.
Step 5: String up chilli strips with cotton and place in oven to dry at low heat – You don‟t want to cook it, just let it dry out so it

becomes tacky.
Step 6: Once tacky, coat in castor sugar.
 Leave this lying around the house and you will probably get murdered dead in your sleep.

What you end up with is a candy with a fiery hot punch, that I found works nicely with ice cream.
 Who would have thought that Chilli candy would go so well with White Truffle Gelato?

After note: After writing this I had the good fortune of making friends with the guys at San Julian Mexican restaurant, who gave me

the top tip of soaking the chillies in cold filter coffee once you‟ve cut them open – apparently this denatures the chemicals that burn

the living crap out you.

REVERSE CHOCOLATE SPHERES

Spherification involves adding Sodium Alginate to the liquid you would like to spherify and then placing it in a Calcium bath, when

the chemicals react they will form a skin and presto!- you have a sphere. However, a big problem with normal spherification is that

it doesn‟t work well with dairy or alcohol.

This is where reverse spherification come into play. By simply adding Calcium your liquid to and placing it in a Sodium Alginate

bath you can get a very similar reaction and a light skin will form.
Something to keep in mind is that with normal spherification, the skin being formed is made up of the liquid you have inside your

sphere. With reverse spherification, your liquid is inside a skin made of the Sodium Alginate solution. It is a strange concept but

critical to remember.

My Nomu reverse spheres with some ice cream. These were incredibly delicate and of the 20 or so I tried making these were the

only survivors… which I promptly ate.

Originally I thought that there would be enough Calcium in the milk to react with the Sodium Alginate. I was severely mistaken so

ended up adding Calcium Lactate to the chocolate milk mix.

The measurements would be the same as for normal spherification as far as I can tell.
 Awesome wedding Favours – Nomu Hot Chocolate with marshmallows :D

It‟s worth noting that I made the spheres by freezing the liquid in an ice cube tray first or else it‟s a nightmare to try and get proper

round spheres.

GRAPEFRUIT RIND CANDY

I have to admit upfront that I am a huge lover of the citrus fruit, Citrus paradisi, commonly known as the Grapefruit.

There is something so sublime about its bitterness that I go through phases of eating up to 3 a day (without sugar!). So when I

came across a recipe at Smitten Kitchen (amazing pics by the way), I had to try it out for myself.
 This is from my first attempt, quite bitter but incredibly addictive despite only being able to have 1 every half hour or so…

After looking around for some variations of this recipe and studying up a bit on candied fruit in general, this is what I deem to be a

damn near fool-proof method for amazing candied grapefruit rinds:

2 grapefruit yields enough candied rinds to give you a very high dose of Vitamin C and ensures that you will have more friends than

normal for about 3-7 days.

Ingredients:

 2 grapefruit

 3 cups castor sugar

Method:

Cut your grapefruit into quarters and remove the flesh so only the rinds remain. Cut into strips. The thinner the strips the less bitter I

found, but be careful not to cut too thinly because the slight bitterness helps cut through the sweetness.

Place your cut rinds into a pot of cold water and slowly bring to the boil, once boiling, let it boil for about 1 minute.

Take rinds off heat, strain, rinse and repeat. This process removes the bitterness – the first time I tried it I did it thrice and although it

did remove most of the bitterness it was still quite bitter; the second time I did it four times and the results were amazing.

To 1 cup of water add enough sugar to make a saturated sugar solution, with castor sugar this is around 2.5 cups of sugar (amazing

how soluble it is!), and while still cool add your rinds. Slowly bring to the boil and then let it simmer for around 10 minutes. I left
the pot to cool for about an hour to make sure the syrup had permeated the rinds and it makes it much easier to handle so you don‟t

melt your digits off.

This was my first attempt – looks amazing but quite a fair amount of bitterness comes through because of the thickness of the rind

and the amount of times they were boiled in the first phase.

Once cooled, place the pieces on a drying rack so that they can dry out a bit till „tacky‟. Many references left theirs for up to 8hrs -

which I, dictated by my sweet-tooth, found completely unacceptable. So I turned up the heat a in the oven for 5 minutes and then

allowed to cool. This is a much easier alternative

 This was my second attempt. They may look paper-thin but don‟t let that fool you – they will all very soon be relocated to the past

tense post haste.

Coat in castor sugar.

Eat.
Apparently they can last for a week or 2 if left out in the open, I‟m not going to test out that theory…

PS. if you want the nerd in you to come out a play for a bit have a look at “the Grapefruit effect”

AGAR PANNA COTTA

I was looking for something quite specific to create a secret dish (I‟ll let you know closer to the time but don‟t want to let the cat out

of the bag just yet), when I came across this really easy Panna Cotta recipe.
 Tada, Vanilla Agar Panna Cotta!

Here‟s the recipe:

 1 cup thick cream

 1.5 cups full cream milk

 4 table spoons sugar

 1.5 tea spoons Agar Agar (powdered)

 

Milk, cream, agar, vanilla and some sugar – quick

panna cotta. Just heat and eat.

Mix all your ingredients, add your flavouring, and heat up until just below boiling. This will ensure that your agar can melt in and

dissolve.
 I used a rubber cupcake tray which makes turning out way easier.

Then that is left to do is test out the density of your panna cotta by putting a drop or two on a cold plate and see how it sets and

tasting it. I did find that 2 tea spoons of agar was a bit too much for my liking so I would suggest 1.5 tea spoons or even less. Play

around with it till you‟re happy. Then eat and be more happy
 Vanilla seeds. Mmmmmm

JUICE

The end and beginning of the year are always great for retrospection and aiming high so I created a bucket list of 100 things I want

to do by the end of 2013. One of them was to create a 6 course meal for friends so I thought I‟d go big. This post is a test of concept

for an aspect of one of the courses.

 I bet Armstrong‟s breakfast “juice” didn‟t look this good.

I found some magnetic lettering and then thought of many complicated ways of making a mold/cast of my letters, and after what felt

like an eternity I realised that using a hot glue gun would suffice. It did. Some points to consider is making sure your letters are

lubed up or the glue will do what glue does best – stick to stuff. I thought I‟d save myself some time cleaning up by doing all of this

on a cling film, not the best move because invariably the hot glue will melt the thin plastic (duh).
With the cries of a small child dwindling into the distance as I ran from the scene of the crime with some magnetic letters I knew it

was going to be a good day.

 Once the glue dries, pop out your letters and look for holes.

If you do find any holes just put your letter back and glue up the holes. Let dry. Pop out.

I filled my awesome new molds with the liquid I had melted Agar Agar into. I think I‟ve got a head cold or didn‟t sleep well or

something so exact measurements slipped my mind but it was roughly about a tea spoon worth of Agar with around 2 cups of

water…. or there abouts. Best thing to do is once you‟ve melted your agar into the liquid, test a drop on a cold plate and see if

you‟re happy with the jellyness. You can always add more water or agar until you reach your desired rubberyness.
 This seems like such an obvious and simple idea but somehow I get a kick out serving juice as juice.

The results of this have been better than I had hoped and I can‟t wait to have my 6 course dinner, if that goes well I‟ll test the dinner

out on some other peoples so let me know if you‟d be keen

 This is really quite fun to play with.

VERMONT MOUSSE & MANGO PUREE EGG

My fiance, the Gorgeous Gourmet, got me into watching Master Chef Australia when we first started dating. At first I wasn‟t super

keen to watch a cooking show but figured it was worth the brownie points. Then I saw an episode were they made a fake soft-boiled

egg and it blew my mind.

So in tribute to that amazing episode, here‟s mine:

 Tada – Vermouth-vanilla mousse with Mango puree. That‟s how I roll.

You can read about how to make the Vermouth Mousse here.

Besides that, everything is fairly straight forward and the only thing that takes a bit of time to do is to cut the shell – patience is key.
Those cuts are done with a steak knife. Very slowly. Very. Slowly. Let that sink in.
Some Mango pieces ready to become puree.
You don‟t have to use syringes but it‟s much less messy if you do, not to mention the cool factor goes up… which I just mentioned.
Mix your mixture to form soft peaks. Note the Vanilla seeds.
this is from a few seconds in the microwave, and just illustrates how amaze-ballsically surgical my shell cutting skills are. Booya!
 And here we have the final product. I used an apple corer to make the cavity for the Mango puree.

This is a new favourite.

Thank you MC Oz.

VERMOUTH MOUSSE

Let me begin by saying that I have a major head cold and this idea came to me in my delirium. That being said, it is amazing! I need

to get head colds more often if this is the result.

 Super light, and super bright, have some molecular vermouth mousse tonight!

What you need is:

 1 shot vermouth. I used Martini Bianco Torino

Vermouth (I don‟t drink much and found this in the

back of the cupboard after making my fiancé a

surprise Mojito).

 2 egg whites.

 Half a cup of sugar, I used brown sugar because it has

a more wholesome flavour, that and it was all I had.

 An orange/grapefruit .
 So simple. So good. (Unless you‟re an alcoholic in which case it‟s terrible, don‟t try it.)

Beat the egg whites and sugar till they form soft peaks. If you can do this part with Michael Jackson‟s just beat it playing in the

background you get extra pun points.

Then add the shot of vermouth. Beat further till you get soft peaks once again.

Put your alcoholic meringue in the microwave for 30 or so seconds. Take out, slice, pour some orange/grapefruit juice over it.

Serve.
 This stuff is super light and yet you can cut it quite easily and it keeps its shape – Magic

What happens is that microwaves make the water molecules in your meringue vibrate and heat up, this is what cooks your food. The

heat from these agitated water molecules denatures the proteins in your egg whites and they form a gel. The air in your mixture will

also expand slightly, but be warned, eat this within 30 minutes or it will start to shrink a bit and separate slightly.
 Drizzle some orange/grapefruit juice over it to cut some of the richness.

This gellified foam/mouse is incredibly light and amazingly delicious and would go well with dark chocolate shavings or even a

citrus sorbet on the side. Enjoy!

STRAWBERRY AND CORIANDER AIR

A little while back I had the honour of going to La Colombe with my amazing fiancé, the Gorgeous Gourmet, and for desert she had

this:
 Quite a yum desert from La Colombe. Look at that foamy stuff.

I‟d seen restaurants on the interweb giving their patrons big glasses full of foam they called “Air”, and after having a spoonful of the

foam from La Colombe I decided I would give it a crack and see what I came up with.

In the research I did on Soy Lecithin, I discovered that it‟s a great emulsifier and is perfect for creating a flavoured foam.
 Useful ingredient in vegan mayonnaise and can usually be eaten even by people with Soy allergies

It‟s not often you get to make “air” for the first time so I thought I‟d be adventurous and make a strawberry and coriander air. The

thought being that it would be sweet from the strawberries and savoury from the coriander.
 An interesting combination for sure but a nice savoury twist.

So, you‟ll need to get your own blend of ingredients to suite your palate – I very technically just put a “bunch” of both in, added half

a cup of water and mixed them in the blender and then measured out 350ml. This brings us to what you will need to make your very

own foam/air.

350 grams liquid (which is pretty much the same in millilitres)

2 grams Soy Lecithin

 For the technically inclined out there, this is what my quantitative stipulation of ”a bunch” is.

Mix them with an immersion blender (because the aim is to get bubbles), and scoop the bubbles off. This air can apparently last for

a few hours and can even be frozen for a few months.

 I present my strawberry and coriander foam. I guess in retrospect it would make sense that red and green make orange-brown. At

least it taste good.

I froze mine and put it on Lemon curd and cinnamon ice cream I made a while back. There‟s no photo because I‟m not a good food

blogger yet and I ate it before I could take a pic. My apologies. Not really.

FAKE CAVIAR

After hunting down chemical companies for weeks I finally found one that can help me, and today I cut open the vacuum sealed

silver bags for the first time – It is an early Christmas!

 With a drop of colour PRESTO! You have yourself some fake pomegranate seeds

I get Calcium Alginate all over my hand so try and wash it off, at which point my hand immediately gets covered in slime- I am half

super hero with creepy slime ability and half idiot. Great start.

The great restaurant elBulli discovered that if they dissolved Sodium Alginate into one liquid and then dripped it into a Calcium

bath the two chemicals would react forming a thin gelatinous skin around the first liquid.

What you then had was a small, round, liquid filled ball, so they called the process spherification, which I guess does sound better

than ballification but can seem a little poncy.

Here is what you‟ll need:

1g Sodium Alginate

3g Calcium Lactate
255g Juice

510g Cold water

Syringe

Strainer

Straining spoon

Blender

First thing to do is mix the Sodium Alginate into your juice/alcohol/soup/stock. I used Apple juice. I like apples. One day I‟ll be

more hard core and go for bat‟s blood but for today I choose the juice of the innocent apple. This takes longer than expected but a

good idea is to mix it into half your juice first and then add the rest to it.

It will thicken your liquid a bit so the trapped bubbles will take a while to escape. Straining this gloopy liquid will help get out the

bits of Sodium Alginate that you missed.

While you leave your thickened chemical ridden juice to get rid of its unwanted gas, you can start on your Calcium bath. Some

people use Calcium Chloride but I used Calcium Lactate because that‟s how I roll. Its takes a minute or two to whisk the 3 grams of

chemical into your water.

Its best to leave the juice for a bit before putting it in the chemical bath to get the bubbles out, but it still looks look awesome – that

is grape juice!
The next step is to suck up Juice with a syringe and drip it into your Calcium bath. This I have learned is a skill, so easy does it. My

first attempt was quite ambitious and I ended up with worm shaped fake caviar. The second thing I learned was that you need a

decent scale, or you may fall into the trap I did of adding too much Sodium Alginate. This made my juice quite thick and the

bubbles refused to leave no matter how I begged and pleaded. Worse than that, I could not get a perfect sphere. The best I got was a

little tear drop shape, probably the scale trying to mock me for trying to improvise.

As soon as you drop in the juice it will start to react with the Calcium bath, and will continue to do so until the entire droplet has

gelified. This method is best suited for immediate consumption.

After about a minute or so take your newly formed fake caviar out of the chemical bath with your slotted spoon and put it in some

cold water to wash off any excess Calcium Lactate solution.

Then very carefully dry your fake caviar.

Ideally, when you eat it you shouldn‟t notice the skin as it bursts in your mouth, so play around with the chemical bath times until

you find what works for you.

BEETROOT CAVIAR

Beetroot. I have rediscovered it, and reclaimed it from my childhood plate where it was always a crinkle-cut purple slab that oozed

and stained everything that was within dribble distance.

This hearty and wholesome root has an earthy flavour that makes you feel healthy just tasting it!
 Sent this to my girlfriend- She‟s now my wife. Showing that bad food punnage works… or I‟m just really good looking.

Cringe-factor cuteness aside, here‟s how to make what you came here to make:

Add 1g Sodium Alginate to about a cup of beetroot juice, blend till in solution. Put in the fridge and give it some time for the

bubbles to go out.

Prepare a Calcium bath so long by mixing 3g Calcium Lactate into about 500ml water. Put into fridge to cool down.

Once your bubbles are out of the beet juice (you can leave the bubbles in if you want but it looks better without bubbles), drip into

the calcium bath one drop at a time. This takes practice because if you drip from too high the drops will flatten and won‟t form nice

little spheres, if you drop from too low the drops won‟t sink down and you won‟t get nice little spheres. If you drip too fast, you

won‟t get nice little spheres. You get the picture. Good luck and have fun with it.
Why yes, this is stick blender some water with Calcium Lactate.
The blood of the innocent. Apparently it‟s also very good for you, will clear your debts, give you sexual powers, and make things

better with noisy neighbours. That‟s at least what Dr Jumbawisa says…

It turns out the pigment is really quite sneaky at escaping from membranes. This are pigment trails from caviar at the surface.
Ever play that game “Goo”, well I tried playing the real version while shooting this.
 Rorscharch test of the culinarily insane.

SUSHI AIR

Sometimes you really feel like sushi but your wallet is looking decidedly dusty, and you realize you are just craving the taste, the

reminder of good times with friends.

As said in an earlier post about making foams/airs, it‟s a great technique that was stolen by the pretentious. I‟m taking it back. Food

should be delicious and fun and close to heart (just not in a heart disease kind of way), and if you happen to fall into the crowd that

would battle to get a pin out of your derrieres with a tractor please do not try this. Ponsy folks please stay at home.

Soy Lecithin is the key ingredient here. For each cup of liquid I added roughly a teaspoon of SL powder, whipped it up with my

trusty stick blender, waited a few seconds for the foam to stabilize, and scooped off.
 For this I took a few good sized pieces of pickled ginger, added some water and the liquid from the PG‟s bottle and blitzed it up.

Add ginger till you‟re happy with it.

Once I had foams for cucumber, wasabi, soy and pickled ginger, I bunged them into the freezer for a few minutes. Layered the

frozen foam on each other and sprinkled some caviar for the fish factor. It is incredibly weird to put something in your mouth that

seems to explode with flavour and BAM! is gone. It‟s like a flavour ghost is haunting your mouth.
This picture has the highest pride:weight ratio of any I‟ve taken so far.
Moonscapes of flavour. David Bowie‟s next album cover.
 For some reason you really don‟t expect much from this dish when you look at it but when it‟s in your mouth it‟s sushi. Happy,

friendly, sushi.

CHEESE RUSSIAN HOT DOG & WASABI FOAM

In a past post I tried to create an “air” with only half-hearted success. Sure, it was technically foam but it didn‟t live up to the hype

in my head, and I realised that the big problem was that I made it with a blender. It‟s a KitchenAid blender and is quite amazing, but

somehow I couldn‟t make it do what I wanted, namely – go upside down and froth till the cows came home.

Enter Uber cheep stick blender from Clicks. Foamy goodness abounds. Just goes to show you always need the right tools for the job.

A second problem I had previously wasn‟t in the making of the foam but rather the pretentiousness that went with it. I could

imagine one of my friends coming to visit and this is what the conversation would be like:
 You can even freeze this foam so it has an interesting crunchiness.

Friend: “So what you making?”

Me: “Foam.”

Friend: “Cool. What for, is there a fire or something?”

Me: “It‟s to put on food, kinda like a sauce.”

Friend: “Oh, cool. So why don‟t you just make a sauce, I saw some sweet chilli in the fridge if you want it?”

Me: “No, thanks though. It‟s meant to be a foam that tastes like stuff.”

Friend: “Oh ok. So it‟s a sauce that taste like other stuff without being that other stuff?”

Me: “Yup.”

Friend: “Sounds a bit hoity toity to me hey. Hey do you have any leftover pizza?”

So how do you unpretentiousnessness something? By using it on the food of the people – Hot dogs!
 One Cheese Russian with Wasabi foam Hot Dog. Yum

Ingredients:

 Tablespoon Wasabi

 Tablespoon Rice vinegar

 4 Tablespoons water (just to add more liquid)

 1 Gram of Soy Lecithin (add more if you want a

thicker foam/mousse)
 This in my humble opinion is the best way to cut a hot dog roll so that it holds onto the sausage and has space enough for sauce.

Mix them with an immersion blender until you have foam. You can either keep blending or scoop off the foam as it rises.
 Cheesy, porky, burny goodness.

This sounds obvious but wear eye protection… It didn‟t sound that obvious to me. Just saying.

JACK & LIME SPHERIFICATION

I‟ve briefly covered how to make fake caviar in a previous post, using Sodium Alginate and a calcium bath.

But what if you don‟t have those chemicals and still want to do something?

Well never fear, Agar agar is here, or at least it‟s still an easier option. The only down side is that that your spheres will be set all the

way through and not liquid in the centre. It all comes down to what you want to do with it.
 1 part Jack. 1 part Lime. Good times.

One of my favourite drinks is a Jack & Lime (1 shot Jack Daniels Whiskey and 1 shot Lime cordial)

1 shot is 44.36ml, so I‟m just going to round off to 50ml of each just to make the math easier.

You‟ll want to dissolve 1% of the liquids weight of agar agar. So in this case there is 100g of Jack & Lime (this has approximately

the same density as water so one millilitre will be roughly one gram), so we will only need 1 gram of Agar agar.
 Good „ol Tennessee Whisky and Lime cordial

Agar agar melts at 85° C so you don‟t have to boil your solution and loose the alcohol content, even if you do boil the liquid it will

still retain quite a bit, if not most of its alcohol.

Then drip the Agar/Jack solution into the cold oil and watch it fall down to the bottom. It is a good idea to have the cooled oil in a

tall, thin container so that the spheres can have time to solidify properly before getting to the bottom and losing shape by bumping

other spheres. This part is quite therapeutic and I‟d happily go through the whole process just for this step.
 Happy Jack and Lime spheres nestling at bottom of the cold oil receptacle.

After you‟ve gotten all your spheres made, wash them in warm/hot water to get the oil off.
 Caution: These little gems still have alcohol in them and you can quite easily forget than when you eat a handful…

And there you have cold oil spheres that are great to put into drinks or as fake caviar. I found that depending on how hard you

squeeze the syringe, you can create quite a variety of sphere sizes. Enjoy

GLUTEN FREE AGAR AGAR NOODLES

“I love bread. I can‟t eat bread. I cry myself to sleep…”

That is an extract from my new hit single “Gluten blues” and if anyone wants it, it will be available for download at some point in

the future depending on demand.

I also really enjoy pasta in all its wonderful forms, regrettably however, most of it has gluten in it. So in true MacGyver style, I

made my own. It was good. Darn good.

 Food meets science meets my stomach.

You can make these noodles out of any liquid so long as it‟s not too acidic or the Agar agar won‟t set, you could try adding some

Bicarbonate of Soda to make it more alkaline.

These are the tools I used:

1 x 2m long tubing (you can get it from any pet store and it‟s pretty cheap)

1 x Syringe

2 teaspoons of Agar agar

2 cups of Chicken stock

I made my own stock from some chicken pieces that I browned in a pot with 1 teaspoon of garlic. Once browned, I added enough

water to cover the pieces, the rest of the chicken carcass and a pack of basil. Let that simmer so that all the flavours can mingle.

After straining my stock I added 2 teaspoons of Agar agar and brought it to the boil, then let it simmer for 5 minutes while stirring

so that all of the Agar can melt into your stock. It has a melting point of around 78 degrees Celsius but luckily your mouth will burn

with food hotter than 65 degrees Celsius which works well for everyone that‟s worried about their noodles melting. Don‟t worry if

the stock sets while you‟re doing something else, just heat it up a bit and it will melt again.
Once all of the Agar agar has melted into the stock attach your tubing to the syringe and suck up your glossy, yum looking stock.

Careful, the tubing is hot and will burn you- it didn‟t burn me because I‟m hardcore.

Hint: Use water to push it out with your syringe.

Take your coiled tubing and put it in the freezer for a few minutes to set, it will set anyway but this speeds up the process.

Hint: an easy way of getting the noodle out of the tubing without too much fuss is to fill the syringe with cold water. Air compresses

and takes ages to get your 2 meter long noodle out- water does the job much quicker. I caught my noodles in a strainer and dried

them off before plating.

And that is how you can make gluten-free noodles easily.

 Chicken, garlic and basil noodles, perfect with some sweet corn soup.-Yum indeed.

COFEE & AMARULA SPHERES

Sometimes my caffeine dependency gets too much, and gets the better of me, at which point I need something stronger, smoother,

and more refreshing.

 Cold percolated coffee using a standard percolator “Macgyver” style.

This is where cold percolated coffee comes in. Imagine if coffee wasn‟t as bitter, didn‟t need milk or sugar, and no risk of burning

yourself with pesky spills.

Having none of the fancy equipment needed, I decided to improvise. It might be insightful to mention that even in pre-school my

nickname was “Macgyver”. The simplest way I could find was to take a normal coffee percolator and invert it with ice in the water

compartment, then take out the coffee cup filter and place it underneath so that the melted ice water would slowly drip into your

coffee grinds, filter, and collect into a glass. This is not an easy road to take for coffee, and took a good few hours to produce a

single cup.
 With a little rearrangement of my coffee percolator I was able to have produce a smooth tasting ice percolated coffee. Took hours

though…

This was all fun and all, but I wanted more.

We have just had a house-warming party and someone gave us a bottle of Amarula. After having a somewhat misspent childhood,

even the thought of this drink has since sent shivers down my body, accompanied by vivid flash-backs. That was until I had a little

test-sip of marvellous stuff. But still, you have to ease your way back into the Amarula good books, and what better way than to

spherify it. Cold oil spherification to be precise.

Soft little spheres of Amarula waiting happily to be devoured.

The process is simple enough:

1. Melt agar into the liquid you want to spherify.

2. Using a syringe/pipette, drip the liquid into oil that has

been chilled in the freezer.

3. Rinse your spheres in warm water to remove the oil.

The ratio I found that worked best to give the spheres a subtle firmness was 2/3 ts agar powder : 65ml Amarula
 With the mildly demonic looking bunny-of-Amarula-past appeased, here is my cold percolated coffee with Amarula spheres.

(note: 1/3 ts agar :65ml Amarula makes for a really great Amarula Panna Cotta!)

BACON INFUSED JACK DANIELS

For the bacon lovers out there that can‟t get enough of the other white meat, there‟s bacon bits, bacon jam, and even bacon ice

cream.

Now for your over indulgence I present the “Jack-Ham‟er” – bacon infused Jack Daniels.
 Now you can “Swine & Dine”… Da dum tshhh

I opted for Gentleman Jack, which in a nutshell is Jack Daniels that‟s been twice charcoal mellowed instead of once, and makes it

smoooooth.
 Double charcoal mellowed smooth Jacky D.

All you need is:

1. 1 pack bacon

2. 250ml Jack Daniels

 3. Avo to eat with the bacon after you‟ve fried it

Grill/fry the bacon and put 2 teaspoons of the rendered fat in your Jack.

Stir it up a bit to get a good mix and leave it out for 12 hours or so, to let all the bacony goodness infuse into the Jacky goodness. As

a point of note, apparently when fat is put into bourbon it absorbs a lot of the harshness (brilliant), and then the alcohol dissolves a

lot of the aromatic compounds that make bacon so awesome (twice brilliant!).

Just in case you didn‟t know what frying bacon looked like…

Cool for a bit to solidify the fat and strain. Strain again for good luck – as much as bacon is delicious, finding a fat globule in your

evening drink isn‟t.

 Good little piggy.

You can also read how to make Jack into fake caviar here.

Molecular Gastronomy – Spherical mango yolk

Hey there, I‟m happy to let you know that this post is the first of three back to back
basic spherification posts. These recipes and experiments are designed to help you learn
and deconstruct the concept of spherification for yourself while having fun in your
kitchen.

So, yesterday I decided to open up my sodium alginate and thus open the gateway for
spherification and more advanced molecular gastronomy. Sodium alginate is derived
from different types of brown algae which grow in cold water regions all over the
planet! It gels in the presence of Calcium and is soluble in cold and warm liquids.
Sodium Alginate and sodium citrate - click to buy

What I set out to test for this experiment was to see if using the sodium alginate would
in fact gel in presence of calcium ion. I also wanted to test to see if that gel would be
strong enough to hold firm when combined with the mango puree.

For this experiment/recipe I needed a spherical mango base that consisted of sodium
alginate (1.8g), sodium citrate (1.3g), water (250g), and mango pure (250g).

What I did first was to mix the sodium citrate in water in my vita-mix blender.

Blending the sodium citrate - click to buy sodium citrate

I added the sodium alginate and blended again.

Blending the sodium alginate and sodium citrate

Once the two ingredients where blended I transferred the solution to a saucepan until
boiling stirring constantly.

Mixing the solution to a boil

After I reached a boil I allowed the mixture to cool down. Once the mixture cools down
enough you could add the mango puree.

But first, let‟s do the mango puree.

How I pureed my mangoes was quite easy. All I did was peel three mangoes and cut
them into chunks.
Cutting up mangoes

After I cut up the mangoes I transferred them to the vita-mix for blending. I put the
magoes in the blender until a puree formed (about level 6 for 2min).

mango puree

Next, I combined the mango pure with the sodium alginate and sodium citrate solution.
Mixing mango puree with solution

After I combine these ingredients I keep them in a hermetically sealed container and
stick it in my refrigerator.

Mango puree and mix

Once I had the mango base ready I had to prepare the calcium bath. In this experiment I
used the texturas line „Calcic‟ molecular powder. This powder is composed of
granulated calcium chloride, and has a high water solubility.

I prepared this bath by combining Calcic (6.5g) with water (1000g) and mixing it with
my immersion blender.
Calcic a calcium chloride product - get it here

mixing with my immersion blender until completely dissolved. I also made sure to place
the mixture in a container that allowed for a height of about 5 cm (2.5in).

Mixing the water with the Calcic

Once the water was mixed I prepared for the spherification process. For this procedure
all I had to do was take my mango mixture and drop it in the Calci bath. How I did this
was to simply use a hemispherical spoon.
Mango mixture and Calcic bath

Mango mixture on hemisphereical spoon

Dunking the mango mixture in the Calcic

Once the mango mixture is the Calcic bath you could gently use your finger to guide the
mango sphere into the Calcic bath. Leave the spherical mango for 2 min in the bath.

poking my mango sphere into the Calcic

Leave the spherical mango ravioli for 2 min in the bath. Take out the mango sphere and
clean them in cold water by dunking the sphere in a pool of clean cold water. Strain the
water from the mango sphere and dry them on absorbent paper, trying not to break
them.

Cleaning the mango sphere in cold water

mango sphere

The mango spheres have a tough enough texture on the outside yet a liquid explosive
interior.

Knife test with mango ravioli

Liquid burst inside

Mango spheres
Spherical mangoes communicating

Mango sphere with lavender

The results were clear, the sodium alginate did in fact gel in the presence of calcium
ions. The reaction happened instantly and it held throughout the experiment. The inside
of the mango sphere was liquid and the outside was gelled tough but delicate texture.
The taste was amazing and the process was exhilarating.

As you can see in the pictures above the mango spheres held their texture when exposed
to the outside world. This leaves an endless amount of possibilities for further
experimentation and recipes.
until next time.

Happy spherification

your friend,

Chef Tali Clavijo

Molecular Gastronomy – Goji caviar tiny spheres

So today I decided to make goji caviar. I really wanted to just make a sphere out of a
regular dried up goji berry. So, what I needed for this recipe/experiment was 1.8 g
sodium alginate, 1.3 calcium citrate, and 6.5 calcium chloride. The first step was to
prepare the goji mixture. For this, all I did was simply blend 500 g of goji berries in my
vita-mix. The end result was 250 g of goji pulp (after passing the mixture through a
chinos).

Next, I blended the calcium citrate with 250 g of water and added the sodium alginate
until blended well. i placed this mixture in a saucepan and heated it up until boil
constantly stirring. I allowed the mixture to cool at room temperature and once cold I
added the goji puree and mixed.

For the Calcium chloride bath I mixed 1000g of water with 6.5 g of calcium chloride. I
placed the mixture aside and kept it ready for the goji mixture.
Viscosity

A material is a liquid if the molecules can move around each other

The fundamental quantity that governs this is the time that it takes for molecules to
move around their neighbors.

If it takes a long time to move by each other, the material is very viscous.

If it takes a short time, the material is less viscous.

Example: Olive Oil

It takes longer for the molecules to move through olive oil than water because it has a
higher viscosity.

Molecular viscosity

length²/time v=lxc

where v = length

c = length ⁄ time

Very important Equations:

Molecular viscosity: v = l x c

elasticity: E = kBT ⁄ l³

Let‟s look at the viscosity of hot oil

Hot oil flows faster than cold oil

Viscosity decreases with increasing temperature

Molecules move around each other more easily

Let‟s look at how using a thickener helps make liquids thicker

Xanthan Gum makes liquids thicker

Xanthan Gum (E415): makes food thick and creamy; also stabilizes foods to help solids
and liquids stay together

You could see Xanthan Gum is sauces, low fat or non-dairy, and dressings.

The reason thickeners works?

Thickener is a polymer

Polymer forms network in the water

This forms a solid gel

Note: The bonds in gels are not permanent

Molecules can move

Molecules must disentangle to move

This is important because it means if you form a gel you could easily manipulate it by
shredding it in a thermomix or blender.

doing this will change the viscosity by either a small percentage or a large one.

Let‟s get into some recipes with some molecular ingredients:

Soft Creamy Jelly

You will need:

100g of water, fruit juice, or wine.

2.5g iota

100g of olive oil (extra virgin)

Procedure:

You will need to bring water to boil and stir in iota, whisking constantly. Take the
saucepan out of the warmer and slowly add the olive oil, stirring constantly.

Pour mixture into molds and allow to cool.

Once it has set you could slowly remove the olive oil jelly from the mold
Finally, serve on bread with tomato and jamon iberico.

For the next recipe you will make Olive oil gummie bears

You will need:

150 g extra virgin olive oil

7.5g xanthan gum

7.5g locust bean gum

310g glucose
160g sugar

10g water

For the procedure you will need to use your thermomix at speed 3, veroma 100 C for
5min. Mix all ingredients.

Once the mixture is complete transfer to piping bag and pipe little goblets over
cornstarch.
Completely cover with a thin layer of cornstarch.

Molecular Gastronomy – Carrageenan Kappa and Iota

I‟m back with some awesome molecular gastronomy adventures. Today I want to take
you into the world of the Carrageenan. What are carrageenans? They are composed of a
linear polysaccharide made up of galactose units with sulfur side groups. The origin of
carrageenans are red seaweeds. There are several types of carrageenans such as, kappa,
iota, and lambda. I‟m going to focus on Kappa and Iota carrageenan for this post and
share an awesome molecular gastronomy recipe.

A short introduction to Carrageenans:

Natural Carrageenans occur in a mixture of kappa, iota, and lambda types. Note that
manufactures desperately try to separate the various types as best as they could,
nevertheless; total separation is impossible. Carrageenans also vary from mixture to
mixture, therefore; they are standardized for a particular application. Note: when
specifying for a carrageenan make sure to tell the manufacture whether you will be
using it for water based system or milk based system. Carrageenans are most often used
in milk based applications due to the fact that are effective at very low concentrations.
For example, gels can form at .3% in milk.

The Kappa and iota carrageenan can be mixed to obtain intermediate textures. Kappa
carrageenan shows a great combination with the thickener locust bean gum. By
combining these two together you get a stronger, less brittle, more cohesive, and less
prone to break. I‟ve found that the strongest and best ration is 6 parts kappa carrageenan
to 4 parts LBG. Kappa-LBG mixes are often used to substitute for gelatin and make for
a great vegan friendly dish.

You use Kappa carrageenan by dispersing it in water or milkl under shear and heat until
completely dissolved (usually above 60C). Kappa-LBG mixes need to be brought
almost to boil to become fully functional, but will set and re-melt at lower temperatures.
Solutions up to 3% can be made using cold water dispersion. Solutions up to 8% can be
made if the carregeenan is dissolved directly into very hot water under high shear.

Typical usage is .75% to 1% in water, and .35% to .5% in milk.

Kappa Carrageenan is used mostly to gel mixtures – it is the most like agar in behavior.
The gel type is thermo-reversible with a texture that is firm, strong, and brittle. Gel
temperature increases with ion concentration, with values ranging from 40C – 70C. The
setting factor is very fast with a PH tolerance down to pH 3.6 if boiled, lower is not over
heated. Moreover, the kappa carrageenan is not freezer stable and has an ion sensitivity
when potassium salts are not present. Kappa also forms gels at very low concentrations
with milk and the flavor release is good.

Iota Carrageenan is used mostly to gel mixtures – it is more rubbery in texture. The gel
type is thermo-reversible with an elastic and cohesive texture. The gel temperature
increases with ion concentration, with values ranging from 40C – 70C, and has a fast
setting time. Iota is freezer stable and has an ion sensitivity in the presence of calcium
or potassium. Once you shear Iota a gel will form and be loaded with a flavorful release.
Moreover, iota forms gels at very low concentrations with milk.

Carregeenan Recipe

Vegetarian Marshmallow

27.5 g Cornsyrup

275g Fine Sugar

2.5g Lactose (milk sugar)

12.95g Water

.5g Versawhip

28g Hi Fructose Corn Syrup

1g Genutine x-9303 Carrageenan

Combine in mixer with mixing attachment and mix until you get fluff. Next pour into
marshmallow molds (or ice molds) and allow to set. Once set, powder in confectioners
sugar and serve.
Enjoy your explorations with the Carrageenan and look for more molecular gastronomy
recipe posts coming soon.

Molecular Gastronomy – Xanthan Gum

Welcome back to my Molecular gastronomy blog. I‟m glad to say that I‟m back with
some great content for the molecular gastronome out there. Today, I‟m going to write
about the hydrocollid xanthan gum and introduce a recipe for your enjoyment.

Xanthan Gum:a brief description

Xanthan gum is a linear polysaccharide made of a cellulose backbone units with

trisaccharide side chains. It is produced by fermentation of glucose or sucrose by the
Xanthomonas campestris bacterium. It is used as a thickener.
Xanthan gum is amazing because it‟s very user friendly: Xanthan gum works on any
temperature and can be added to sauces without weighing. Pay attention to what
amount works best for you.

How to use xanthan gum in your moelcular gastronomical kitchen is by simply

dispersing it into hot or cold liquid under a shear. Typically you only want to use
between .2% – 1%.

The solution type is shear thinning, a pseudoplastic, that exhibits an effect where
viscosity decreases with increasing rate of shear stress. In high levels, xanthan gum can
give food a very thick, almost mucus-like, consistency. PH tolerance: high. Also,
xanthan gum is highly stable when frozen and thawing. The best part is xanthan gum
works well with other hydrocollids (Lotus bean gum, Kappa Carrageenan) and even
versawhip!!!

Note: Combining xanthan gum with other hydrocollids creates a synergistic chemical
reaction that will take your molecular gastro cuisine to a higher level.

RECIPE: Cupuacu Foam with Tonka Bean

Ingredients:

Almond milk 100g

Cupuacu powder .7g

Sugar: 40g

Tonka Bean: .3g

Versawhip: 2g

Xantan Gum: .5g of Texturas Brand

Procedure:

Combine all ingredients except for the xanthan gum into the vita-mix. Mix on high until
you get a nice funnel in the middle of the vita-mix. Slowly pour in xanthan gum into the
funnel until mixture starts to thicken.
That‟s it for now. Stay tuned for when I break down the Carrageenans Kappa and Iota.

Agar agar

Molecular gastronomy is back and ready to dish out more advanced and novice
molecular based gourmet recipes. I want to start with a primer of sorts: something to
introduce the topic of discourse before we start to deconstruct. For this post we will be
focusing on the hydrocolloid: Agar.
Agar: a brief description

A linear polysaccharide made of glaactose units. Agar is a red seaweed and its function
is for Gelling (but I will show you a recipe for “cold-oil spherification.”

Agar is very similar to carrageenan but lacks the sulfate groups found in carrageenans.
Agar is very adaptable to high heat and is often served hot and allowed to gel while
cooling. To use agar in “cold-oil spherification” drop liquid agar at a temperature of
roughly 45-50C into a bath of cold oil.

How to use: Disperse in a cold liquid and heat while stirring until completely dissolved.
The target temperature for this to occur is about 90C or above.

You will expect to use about .5% to 1% in your recipes

To make a fluid gel: Make an agar gel in the range of .6%-1.2% and shred in blender
until a smooth consistency is reached. You could thin out the gel by adding more liquid
or you could thicken the mixture by adding some xantham gum. Could be served hot
(but never to boiling).

Gel type: thermo-reversible: Thermo reversible gels melt when heated to a high enough
temperature. Texture: firm, strong, and brittle. Gel Temperature: Approx 35C. Setting:
Very Fast. PH tolerance: very good except for the fact that keeping acidic solutions
heated for a long time will cause the agar to break down. Freezer stable: No. Flavor
Release:Good.
Note: you could solve the issue of keeping acidic solutions hot, and thereby causing
your agar to weep, by adding some more ascorbic acid to your solution to balance
things out.

RECIPE

Blackcurrant and ginger fluid gel sauce

INGREDIENTS:

100g Simple Syrup

500g Blackcurrant puree (I use The Perfect Puree from Napa Valley)

30g ginger juice

pinch of salt

6.3g of Texturas brand Agar(.8%)

EQUIPMENT

Blender, Scale

PROCEDURE

1: Add simple syrup to the blackberry puree until you reach a desired sweetness

2: Add ginger juice

3: Add salt

4: Weight blackcurrant mixture and place in a pan with .8% by weight agar. So if total
is 780g, use .8% of 680g which will give you approx 6.34g

5: Bring mix to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer for 2min. Lower heat and stir to
dissolve the agar.

6: When agar is fully dissolved, pour into plate to chill.

7: Take the chilled gel and place it in the blender. Blend until smooth.

That‟s it for now. Feel free to ask me questions. Stay tuned for more molecular
gastronomy!!!

Coconut milk ice gelatin

Today I started a quest to make a liquid I really love into a gelatin that is frozen cold.
How could I do this? Is it even possible to have a frozen gelatin? Can I do this without
using any animal products, and make it vegan friendly? I really enjoy one liquid more
than anything in the world…Coconut milk!

I just love raw coconut milk. I love making it and love tasting it in various forms and
textures. So, after I made some of my world famous coconut milk (e-mail me for the
recipe at molecularfood@gmail.com) I started to get ready for the coconut gelatin ice
experiment.

For this recipe all I used was 500 g coconut milk, 250 g water, 36 g powdered coconut
(dehydrated and graded), 200 g of sugar, 9 g sodium alginate, 2.4 g of calcium
gluconolactate, and other 50 g of water.

Raw coconut milk

After I made my 500 g of fresh raw coconut milk I put it in a saucepan along with the
powdered coconut and 250 g of water to a heat of 70 ºC.

Coconut milk, water, and powdered coconut to 70 ºC

Once the mixture reached 70 ºC I added the sugar and the sodium alginate and stirred,
then added the calcium gluconolactate.
Mixing the sugar, sodium alginate, and calcium gluconolactate

After I added all of the ingredient, I took the mixture off of the heat and added the
remaining 50 g of water.

Adding water to the mixture

The final mixture cooling

After I took off the heat I stuck it in the fridge and allowed to rest for 3 hours.
Mixture resting in the fridge for 3 hours

After 3 hours I took out the mixture and placed in my vita-mix

Getting ready to blend mixture in vita-mix

I blended for about 2 min until the mixture was smooth

Smooth blended mixture

I transferred the mixture to a mold and placed it in the freezer for about 12 hours
Transferring mixture to mold

Coconut mixture in mold getting ready to freeze

After 12 hours, or overnight, I took out the mold and got ready to place the final
coconut gelatin serving

Flipping my coconut gelatin frozen mold

The final result

Coconut milk ice gelatin

Serving suggestion:
Coconut milk ice gelatin with wlanut dust biscuit

Suprises crispy honey

So I decided to make crispy honey today. This was achieved by simply combining
maltodextrin, sodium alginate, and some natural honey (60%). Note: for the recipe
please e-mail me at molecularfood@gmail.com.

After I got the honey mixture together it looks something like this:
Honey Crisp mixture - Learn more by clicking on pic

At this point the honey crisp mixture is just like sand so you will have to shape a layer
with your hand. I placed my mix on the parchment paper and then I stuck it in the oven
(275 F) for approximately 10 min.

Honey crisp mix in the oven - click pic to order now

After 10 min I took the honey crisp out of the oven and allowed it to cool for another 10
min. The difference in the mixture, another molecular gastronomy masterpiece.
Crispy honey - click to buy online

Once you allow the honey crisp to cool down and harden. You could easily just start to
rip pieces out of the parchment paper and start getting creative.

Honey crisp in hand - click to learn more

Final presentation.

Honey crisp panna cotta house

Honey crisp panna cotta house - click to buy now

Bath Caviar / Preparation

Ingredient Spherical Summarized
s Ingredients

custard spherical 1L (0.26 1 cup of heavy Bring the

gallons) cream cream &
water 1/6 cup sugar vanilla to
5g (0.18 4 egg yolks boil. Whisk
ounces) ¼ tsp vanilla the egg
sodium extract yolks with
alginate 5 g (0.18 the sugar in
ounces) a bowl on
Calcium simmering
Lactate water until
pinch of the mixture
Xanthan thickens.
Remove
from heat
and add the
 heated
cream. Cool,
add
xanthum if
needed.
Dilute the
calcium
lactate in a
tabespoon
of water and
add to the
custard.

chocolate spherical 500ml 250ml water Bring the

water small pinch cream &
4g (0.14 sodium vanilla to
ounces) bicarb boil. Whisk
calcium 1.8 g (0.06 the egg
lactate ounces) yolks with
Sodium the sugar in
Alginate a bowl on
250 g (8.82 simmering
ounces) dark water until
chocolate the mixture
thickens.
Remove
from heat
and add the
heated
cream. Cool,
add
xanthum if
needed.
Dilute the
calcium
lactate in a
tabespoon
of water and
add to the
custard.

Divine Chocolate Ginger Sphericals 1L (0.26 200ml cream Combine the

gallons) 1 tablespoon cream,
water grated fresh ginger,
5g (0.18 ginger sugar and
ounces) (optional) calcium
sodium 20g (0.71 chloride and
 alginate ounces) (1 microwave
tablespoon) for 1min
caster sugar 30sec (or
3.2g (0.11 bring to the
ounces) (1 boil on the
teaspoon) stovetop).
Calcium Strain
Chloride through a
100g (3.53 sieve to
ounces) dark remove
chocolate ginger and
melts (or then pour
chopped dark hot cream
chocolate) mixture
over the
dark
chocolate.

mango caviar 3g (0.11 250ml mango Pour a third

ounces) nectar of the
calcium 2g (0.07 mango
chloride ounces) nectar into
500ml sodium blender with
water alginate the alginate,
0.2g (0.01 blend well.
ounces) Heat to 90 º
sodium C and
citrate remove
heat to 90 deg from heat.
C then cool Add
remaining
juice and
dissolve the
sodium
citrate.
Strain.

melon caviar 1000ml 500 g (17.64 Puree the

water ounces) flesh of the
Cantaloupe to melon in a
make 250ml blender.
6.5g (0.23
ounces) juice Strain
through
calcium
lactate 2g (0.07 muslin
ounces) cloth.
sodium Take 100ml
Cantaloupe
 alginate juice and
mix with
sodium
alginate in
blender.
Mix with
150ml
remaining
parts, strain
and let rest
for 30 min
before
using.

blueberry caviar 6.5g (0.23 400g (14.11 Place

ounces) ounces) blueberries,
Calcium blueberries white sugar
Chloride and white
1 cup of white wine, over a
1lt of water sugar very low
½ cup good heat for an
dry white hour Puree,
wine and drain
1g (0.04 through
ounces) muslin cloth
Sodium over night.
Alginate Freeze,
¼ tsp sodium place ice
nitrate block on a
muslin cloth
again and
let “defrost”
in the fridge.
Take this
juice and
add in the
sodium
nitrate, mix
it in with a
stick
blender, add
the sodium
alginate and
blend, leave
for 1 hour.

chocolate cherry spherical 400ml 120g (4.23 Puree

water ounces) cherries and
 100ml strained strain
Maker‟s pureed cherry through
Mark 0.2g (0.01 muslin cloth
Bourbon ounces) to get 120g
30g (1.06 Ascorbic acid (4.23
ounces) 0.5g (0.02 ounces). On
cocoa ounces) a blender
2.5g (0.09 sodium add other
ounces) citrate ingredients
sodium 1.8g (0.06 one at a
alginate ounces) time.
gluconolactat Leave to
e stand for an
0.5g (0.02 hour to let
ounces) any air
xanthan bubbles
escape.

watermelon caviar 500g 250g (8.82 Boil the

(17.64 ounces) water melon
ounces) concentated juice to lose
Water watermelon some of the
2.5g (0.09 juice water. Take
ounces) 2g (0.07 250g (8.82
Calcium ounces) ounces) of
chloride Sodium this
alginate concentrate
source d juice and
blend with
sodium
alginate.

strawberry yoghurt spherical 500ml plain yoghurt mix some

water nesquick
1.5g (0.05 strawberry with the
ounces) „nesquick‟ yoghurt to
sodium powder desired
alginate taste.

lemon iced tea spherical alginate tea Mix tea

bath (no calcium salts calcium
quantities frozen lemon salts. with
given for juice Place a cube
this recipe) of frozen
lemon juice
in a
tablespoon
 of the tea.
Pour into
bath.

coconut cream spherical 4 g (0.14 10 cl of Mix coconut

ounces) coconut cream,
sodium cream water and
alginate 300ml water sugar with
calcium
6g (0.21 lactate.
ounces) Using a
calcium spoon, make
lactate pearls. Store
sugar in the
(quantity not freezer
given) before
cooking in
chocolate
lava cakes.

mint caviar 5g (0.18 1 1⁄4 cups of Blend water

ounces) water and alginate
calcium 4g (0.14 to dissolve,
lactate ounces) then put in a
4 cups of sodium pan and
water alginate bring to the
1/3 cup mint boil then set
syrup aside for 10
minutes.
Mix 1/3 cup
alginate
syrup with
mint syrup.

mint yoghurt spherical 2g (0.07 high calcium Mix mint

ounces) plain yoghurt into the
sodium chopped mint yoghurt and
alginate spoon into
500ml the alginate
water bath.
 lychee caviar 2.5 g (0.09 Use canned Blend the
ounces) lychees to get: lychee until
calcium 210 g (7.41 smooth and
chloride ounces) pass this
500 g lychee through a
(17.64 40 g (1.41 sieve.
ounces) ounces) Add Algin to
water lychee liquid 1/3 of the
2 g (0.07 lychee
ounces) mixture and
sodium blend until
alginate completely
dissolved.
Mix Algin-
lychee
mixture to
the rest of
the lychee
mixture and
leave to rest
for about 1
hr so that it
loses part of
the air
created by
blending.

pomegranate caviar 3.25g (0.11 125g (4.41 Blend the

ounces) ounces) juice and
calcium pomegranate sodium
chloride and cherry alginate
500g juice (POM using a stick
(17.64 brand) blender.
ounces) 1g (0.04 Add the
water ounces) sodium
sodium bicarbonate
alginate and blend
1/2 tsp again. This
sodium will change
bicarbonate the
consistency
to a thin gel.
Leave to
stand for
half an hour
so the air
bubbles rise
to the
 surface.

fruit gel ‘fake’ caviar cold oil Fruit or juice Heat the
that you want juice to 60
to make degrees and
spheres from add agar.
and weigh the Blitz with an
liquid amount immersion
out. blender to
Agar 2.5% of make sure
the weight of that it is
the juice. well
dispersed.
Drop into
cold oil.

grapefruit caviar 540ml 270ml Ruby Mix the

Cold Red sodium
Water Grapefruit alginate
3 g (0.11 Juice with 1/2 the
ounces) 1g (0.04 fruit juice
Calcium ounces) and blend
Chloride Sodium until
Alginate completely
dissolved.

Mix in the
remaining
fruit juice

raspberry ravioles 500ml 1 2/3 cup Blend the

water raspberries raspberries,
1 Tablespoon calcium
2 g (0.07 sugar lactate and
ounces) 1/2 teaspoon sugar in a
Sodium calcium blender.
Algninate lactate

Ten tips for making sphericals at

home:
1. If using a sodium alginate bath make it a day ahead. To mix the sodium alginate with
the water first combine it with some sugar, this helps it not to clump together. Sprinkle
a little on top of the water, mix and repeat until it is all added then blend for at least 2
minutes. You will need to use a blender. Leave in the fridge overnight so all the air
bubbles disappear and the sodium alginate can completely rehydrated. If you do not do
this you will get air bubbles in your gel coating so it will not look smooth and shiny.

2. Test, test, test… if you are trying a new recipe pour some of your alginate or calcium
bath into a small bowl and use it to test your spherical solution. If your solution does
not become properly encapsulated in alginate gel it will disperse in the bath – making a
mess. This methods saves you wasting the whole bath.

3. What if your sphericals are mishapen? If they flatten out before sinking you may
need to make you mix thicker / heavier – play with the viscosity of the solution using
xanthum gum to thicken it (remember a little goes a long way blend and leave for a
couple of minutes). It could also be too high in fat or have too many little air bubbles
both of which cause it to float. If you caviar is tadpole shaped check that it is not too
thick and experiment with adjusting the height and angle of pipette. If your caviar is
flat either thicken or drop from slightly higher so it penetrates the surface as it drops in.

4. If using an alginate bath (reverse spherification) do no allow your sphericals to touch

while in the bath or they will gel together.

5. Use distilled water in the alginate bath – or the calcium in your tap water may cause
it to gel.

6. The alginate gel is senstive to pH, it works best with pH 4.5 to 6. Click here for pH
levels of foods. You can adjust the pH content by adding sodium citrate to the liquid
base.

7. Alcohol breaks down the gel so if using in cocktails it will only work with drinks that
are less than 20% alcohol.

8. Sodium alginate cannot be dissolved in oil.

9. If it is not forming a gel and when you stir it the mixture just disperses in the bath or
it forms a weak gel that breaks as soon as you lift it out of the bath – check the amount
of additives, check the pH of the solution, look at the fat and alcohol content of
ingredients in your recipe.

10. To get perfect spheres freeze the sauce in a spherical mould and then place in a
warm bath to encapsulate.