Gastronautics

You say tomato; I say Solanum lycopersicum

I think one of the problems with molecular gastronomy is that people assume it's hard or time consuming and not really practical as part of preparing a routine meal. This is also likely a facet of most people identifying MG as a type of cuisine in itself; when in reality it's just an approach to preparing or augmenting ingredients.

Case in point: I had powdered olive oil (made with tapioca maltodextrin) and Balsamic "jam" (balsamic reduced with bit of xanthan gum) in the fridge from a experiment a couple of weeks earlier. I wanted to make an appetizer last night and happened to have some nice vine tomatoes and some basil handy, so a tomato basil salad seemed opportune.

So here you the simple tomato salad -- slices of tomato atop fresh basil leaves, sprinkled with a little cracked black pepper an olive oil powder. A dab of balsamic jam and Parmesan cheese formed into a form a Fruit Rollup might be more comfortable in.

The saltiness of the cheese combined with the acidity of the balsamic and the sweetness of the olive oil powder was a wonderful combination on the tongue.

A tail of two fishies: adventures with meat glue

The words "meat glue" just sound wrong. The term definitely conjurs up visions of industrial processes replete with huge grinding machines and discarded animal parts. Not surprisingly, that's exactly the application this little enzyme (called transglutaminase and manufactured by Ajinomoto; the same company that brought the world MSG) is used for. Be it making that perfectly formed "ham in a can" or binding Chicken McNuggets or turning meat scraps into firm sausages. Yes, that's right folks: you've likely had meat glue at one time or another without even knowing it.

What really piqued my interest in TG (as it's referred to in the industry) was a recent visit to Guy Robino's joint 'rain'. Tipped-off by an article by Rob Mifsud, I knew that his Wagyu beef and blue fin tuna pairings had a combo that fused the beef with tuna. I was now on a mission to create my own animal fusion, and was lucky enough to have a sample of Ajinomoto's ActivaGS brand TG mailed to me by a kind donor.

The first thing that struck me when I opened the envelope and a sachet of ActivaGS fell out was that it looked cool. A metallic Cryovac bag with functional and clean graphics on the attached label. And then I noticed the hazard symbols and a large warning on the sachet that breathing the dust or spray was a no-no, getting the stuff on your skin or in your eyes was a no-no and to generally treat it like some sort of biohazard. Quick trip the hardware store and I had a dust mask, disposable food prep gloves and safety goggles.

So now I had the elusive meat glue, what should I do with it? I must admit that my first attempt was to fuse blue fin tuna and rib-eye steak. Rather, I started the process one weekend, got sick and then left the protein amalgamating mass in the fridge for nearly a week. It definitely glued together...it was a rock of not-quite-meat and not-quite-fish that looked so scary I didn't even remove the cling film.

Next up was absolutely huge scallops (far too big really) wrapped in extra thick bacon. It actually looked like it was going to work, but I made two errors: I made a slurry of TG with cold rather than warm water; and I only let it sit in the fridge for two hours rather than overnight. Don't get me wrong, the dish was fine...but not quite the bonding experience I expected.

Enter the "tail of two fishies". Yellow fin tuna this time and wild Atlantic salmon. Both are yummy. Both are relatively safe raw. I proceeded to glue various pieces of the two together...the salmon having been a steak also had skin attached on one surface and that lead for some interesting design and cooking ideas.

Pre-cooking you can see the distinct fish meats and how well bonded they are.

A quick sear and you have flakey salmon bonded to tuna that melts in your mouth. Quite the sensation to eat! Unfortunately the skin was lost during cooking.

Cut-away shot to prove that it's really salmon ;)

More meat glue adventures coming soon!

P.S: If you happen to get your hands on some TG, please be very careful! Read the warnings and wear appropriate safety gear (goggles, face mask, gloves) while using it.

The B52 dessert: da bomb!

So this is my first Gastronautics blog posting and I keep hearing Anthony Bourdain's comments about food bloggers (let's just say he has some choice words about them) in my mind. I'm also amused that my first post is about a dessert, but it seems that I've been doing quite a few things on the dessert front recently.

Inspired by a post on Khymos about edible cocktails made with gelatine and having a little time to experiment this past weekend, I set about making a B52 that you can eat with a fork. The B52 I found particularly enticing because of how visually striking the three layers of Kahlua, Bailey's and Grand Marnier look.

Making the edible version of this cocktail was simplicity itself. Simply acquire a small bottle of Kahlua, Bailey's and Grand Marnier followed by a few sachets of gelatine. I used powdered gelatine rather than the blooming sheets, and found that one sachet gave exactly the results I was looking for when I used 250mL of each of the liquors.

One point of interest is that it almost looks like the Kahlua subliminates during storage of the cocktail. I thinking I should replace the gelatine with agar next time I attempt this and create something akin to a cheesecake, but have no idea how EtOH will affect the gelling process -- although I've found agar to be resistant to high pH levels in my lime-based terrine and am hopeful that EtOH and agar are equally friendly.

So, my recipe is as follows:

250mL of Kahlua
250mL of Bailey's
250mL of Grand Marnier
3*sachets of Knox brand gelatine (7g per sachet)
75mL of water

In a small (360mL) saucepan add a small (25mL) amount of water and dissolve the gelatine in it over low heat. Add the Kahlua and warm until you start noticing liquid loss, but not at a high enough heat you boil the mixture. Pour into a loaf tin lined with cling film (using a little butter/margarine/oil to help the cling film smooth and line the tin). Place loaf tin in fridge. Repeat process with Bailey's, but be sure to let the Bailey's solution cool to close to room temperature before pouring on top of the set Kahlua. Then repeat process with Grand Marnier.

Adding a little Microplane'd lemon zest would make for an attractive presentation. Consume fairly quickly as product seems to loose shape and density after a couple of days in a cold (3c) fridge.

Enjoy!