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Molecular Dinner for 20

post #1 of 30
7/6/11 at 1:21pm
Thread Starter 

The caterer I'm working with wants to get in on this trend. So we're working on a package for a late august dinner party.

 

I'm supposed to come up with 1) 1 Hors 2) Salad course 3) Plated app 4) Dessert 5) Chocolates. The boss is taking care of mains, soup, and rest of the hors.

 

Soup will be some kind of agar/gelatin clarified consume. Mains will feature sous vide cooking. Beyond that, I don't know what's being planned yet.

 

1) My Hors:  I'm thinking of making a brown butter pate a choux stuffed with something. I'd add extra milk solids to the butter so it's REALLY brown buttery. Beyond that, I'm not sure where to go on the stuffing. I was thinking of smoked trout or hot smoked salmon salad with some lemon 'cavier.' The flavors kind of play off classic fish dish.

 

2) Salad: I was thinking of making a vegetable terrine. The veggies would be rough diced and bound with a gelee. The idea being that the slices would have a coarse granite look. Flavors would be ala greque. Plated with a little fluff of greens with lemon olive oil vinegrette.

 

3) Plated app: I want to feature a 63 degree egg. Think soft boiled, but sous vide method. I was thinking in the shell would be a cool presentation using an egg topper. Looking at using some flavor combinations from Escoffier. The egg would be held in a donut shaped crouton that's been fried in butter. Some kind of tuile, frica, or cracker would stick out the top of the egg. Sauce would surround the egg. I'm considering either sauce Aurore or Chateubriand. Dunno if it would be worth the trouble of doing a bordelaise just for this dish.

 

4) Dessert: Ironically, drawing a goose egg. Not sure what to do here that would be sufficiently "molecular." I've rejected frozen hollow spheres as too problematic. There is an entire genre of microwave cakes, but I dunno how I'd serve 20 at once.

 

5) Chocolates: Selection of three truffles. Thinking 1 with chili, 1 with salty caramel, 1 with something smokey (bacon?). I was thinking of puffing some basmati rice to use in the coating of the caramel one.

 

 

Thoughts?

 

 

PS, Oh yeah, we're going to build our own sous vide cooker with a PID controller. bounce.gif

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post #2 of 30
7/7/11 at 2:03pm

August....hot.....really hot......heavy foods are not appetizing....

 

handmade mozz balloons are fun, tomatoes are in full bloom then so maybe a fun take on caprese

powdered, oiled, pearls.....

or compressed watermelon/tomato salad

 

63* egg....what about using it on a pasta, even a "pasta" dish....light....let the yolk add richness to the sauce. ouva ravioli like

 

love the hodo you've got....

 

dessert....well you've got choc covered so there's nut, citrus, fruit, butterscotch/caramel.....

 

Tin, designing a menu means looking at the whole to evaluate balance in flavors/richness/textures/etc....you wouldn't have cheese 3-4 times in a meal, you'd not have viniagrettes everywhere, you'd not have richness in all courses.

 

 

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post #3 of 30
7/7/11 at 7:05pm
Thread Starter 

Can you do good compressions with a food saver vac? We don't have the budget for a chamber sealer.

 

hmm, mozz balloons? Did they do that on Quantum Kitchen? to hulu! Could do a mozz rolade no problem. Hmmm, I bet I could even make burrata, that could be something...

 

Good suggestion about that pasta. I was blown away when I saw egg yolk ravioli for the first time. What kind of flavors? I can only think of carbonera. Same principle works with the that frisee bistro salad, yeah? I could make some of that bacon powder I've been reading about.

 

Chocolates are party favor sort of things, but yah, can't do a chocolate dessert too.

 

http://blogquat.blogspot.com/2010/10/recipe-carrot-spice-tower.html That presentation really hit my happy place. Have to tinker the flavors to make it a little more summer, then fall.

 

Thanks for the hodo love! I tried it with some chicken salad today. It worked very well. The only thing I'm not happy about was that the 'caviar' was a little too pale, so there wasn't much contrast. I'm also going to try dressing them with a little olive oil to give them a little sheen and clinginess like real cavier. A wine and herb reduction ala bernaise added to the juice would pretty good too. Need to refine my sphere technique too.

 

 

Quote:

Tin, designing a menu means looking at the whole to evaluate balance in flavors/richness/textures/etc....you wouldn't have cheese 3-4 times in a meal, you'd not have viniagrettes everywhere, you'd not have richness in all courses.

Sometimes I feel like I need a color wheel type of thing, but for food, lol. The art part of cooking is tough. I feel more like 2cnd violin then the conducter.

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post #4 of 30
7/8/11 at 8:46am

compressed tomatoes & watermelon ala homecook

http://www.feaststl.com/multimedia/videos/vmix_7865bd12-a007-11e0-b47c-0019bb30f31a.html

 

labcoat mozzarella balloon video is a great how to, would not use Andy Snow's recipe though.....raw garlic barf, roasted garlic air in balloon not good, tomatoes sliced length way ?! 

 

One of the chefs here makes tomato 6 or 7 ways.....beautiful presentation....powder, sorbet, leather, etc......

 

Remember when you mess with molecular that in the end it's still gotta taste good and come together. 

 

If I were designing a mozz balloon plate (molecular) it'd have some gelee tiny cubes, herloom tomato slice, maybe some basil powder/oil not pearls, balsamic syrup, great evo...

 

There are a ton of recipes on line for uova ravioli.....you don't need truffle, frankly I prefer it without.....swiss chard works as well as spinach....the yolk helps make the sauce unctious.  This is a show stopper if done right.  Not really molecular but seriously great dish.  No bacon powder....do the bacon with choc truffle.

 

It takes a whole lotta experience to find your food voice, and it's always a process of learning....when you quit learning you die.....so just keep thinking about balance.  There are some really incredible posts in the archives about menu writing.....so many gild the lily and destroy simple perfection.....sometimes less is actually better.  

 

One thing to remember for your 20 dinner, plating is important, have some GREAT garnishes......make sure it's easy to replicate/assemble offsite.....

I'm around if you wanna keep a dialog going.

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post #5 of 30
7/8/11 at 8:54am

If you are thinking carbonara how about some parmesan spaghetti with the sous vide egg and bacon powder?

 

And for dessert and staying with the egg theme a mango panna cotta sunny side up.

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post #6 of 30
7/9/11 at 11:03pm
Thread Starter 

Ordered some rennet for mozzerella.

 

How long before service can you do those balloons? Lol at the garlic breath balloons. Maybe some kind of smoke? I keep thinking about house made buratta, but that's more artisinal then molecular.

 

Friggin Dr Suess cooking, that's what it seems like sometimes...

 

 

What are your guys thoughts on those way out there plates and utensils? Pipettes were mentioned. I think they could work with the balsamic syrup.

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post #7 of 30
7/10/11 at 6:42am

In 50 years I have seen a lot, This molecular thing will go he way of the Hula Hoop, Slinky, Rubiks cube etc. Good cooking is not a fad. This caterer simply wants to keep up or pass the Joneses

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post #8 of 30
7/10/11 at 8:21am


 

Quote:
Originally Posted by shroomgirl View Post

.

 

handmade mozz balloons are fun,

 

 


Maybe I'm in the minority here, but the mozz balls are just creepy to me.  They look like something I'd find on the beach and would make me move my chair back up to the pool where it's safe.

 

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post #9 of 30
7/10/11 at 9:37am

Tin Cook,

   I just wanted to say, I am giving into Molecular a little. I still feel like Chefed though. I have a Chef friend who is taking the

time to spend with some local students and myself investigating the Molecular concept. So I should be throwing in my

2 cents shortly. So far I have not found things to difficult since a lot of the ingredients and chemicals have been around

the science of baking for a while.

  Off molecular, I really like Shroomgirls idea for the Uova raviola. I was picturing it inside-out. A donut shape raviola, pressing the center together, not cutting the hole. Like a pillow.It

will be easier to cook. Stuffed with a Maitake or earthy type mushroom duxelle. The egg sitting in the middle. Mayby a cage or small birds nest of some type of fried Asian noodle on top or over for texture. shoot, i just made myself hungry.

   Now, to hijack everything, the hor. I'm really not tasting savory with the brown butter. I don't know, I would be more excited to taste herbs, like a foccocia or dill puff. OK I'll stop

pan

 

 

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post #10 of 30
7/10/11 at 10:03am
Thread Starter 

lentil- heh, my first thought when I watched that video was 'jellyfish!'

 

 

This whole thing is a surprisingly difficult conceptual enterprise. I'm thinking a safe guideline would be to take a preparation that would be solid under 'normal' cooking conditions, and include one or two molecular elements. Also avoid foods that mimic the appearance of other foods, i.e. savory preparations that look like sweet stuff. I think the clash between the visual and the taste is more nauseating then whimsical.

 

Ok, so what options do we got so far?

 

Mozzarella and Tomato Plate Molecular Options

 

Mozzarella balloon filled w/ air, garlic gas, or smoke?

Burratta (There is a molecular version where you mash up some fresh mozz with cream, add some extra calcium and set blobs of it in an alginate bath)

 

Compressed tomato

Tomato leather

Tomato water gelee

Tomato sorbet

Tomato powder (source freeze dried?)

 

Basil oil powder

Olive oil powder or nuggets

Balsamic redux in pipette

 

 

 

Found a procedure by Achatz that fills the balloon with tomato water/gelatin foam.

 

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post #11 of 30
7/10/11 at 5:31pm

offsite, 20 plates, multicourse.......keep repeating that while designing the menu.

 

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post #12 of 30
7/10/11 at 7:24pm
Thread Starter 

That's a good mantra.

 

Panini, please hijack away. Riffing is like 80% of the fun. It seems like the key to molecular is restraint. Fun stuff, but I think too much turns people off. Then again, I'm on of those that thinks cooking is a craft, and not art. I don't get how the dimpled uovo ravioli would work. Wouldn't the dimpling pop the yolk? Or you're putting the yolk in the dimple and it's on top?

 

This whole thing makes me want to do an egg degustation.

 

I'd like to use some of the Asian greens for the filling instead of chard or spinach. Chrysathimum has a knock out flavor.

 

What kind of sauce goes with it? butter and sage, brodo? Also needs a molecular component. I refuse to use molecular pasta (the xanthum gum one). It's crud.

 

 

I wish you guys could see the crazyness going on with the other stuff. They're gluing chicken skin to stuff.

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post #13 of 30
7/11/11 at 3:19pm
Thread Starter 

Uovo ravioli are locked in on the menu. We're going to do it with some sage lecithin foam and some browned butter with some minced parsley.

 

We tried some basil oil powder, Nobody really liked it. Got some basil gelee in the cooler.

 

Had about a pound of extra dark chocolate ganache, so we played with it. Flavored some with a little bacon fat, not too bad. It worked kinda subtle so you had to think about what you're tasting. Not too happy with the chili flavors. Heat is ok, but it's the chili component. Tried it with siracha, california, and japonese peppers. Nothing real steller. I'm going to go get some cacabels, mulatos, and anchos. I have high hopes for the last two because they are used in mole that has chocolate in it.

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post #14 of 30
7/11/11 at 4:06pm

some chocolatiers I know infuse cream prior to making ganauche......may work better for you.  

 

chipotle, cinnamon, vanilla, espresso make an outrageous truffle.....marshmallow.....whatever.....I love that profile

 

some "hip" flavors: Earl Grey

Rose hip

Scotch

kefir lime

lemongrass

 

Personally I'm weird about chocolate and flavors.....choc orange works for me,  choc & fruit, choc and nuts, choc and caramel.....but the other shtuff is a turn off.

 

uovo ravioli has reduced  cream sauce....filling is mascarpone, ricotta, parm, chard or spinach....egg.....make sure the water temp is good....take extra with you, just in case.....

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post #15 of 30
7/11/11 at 6:35pm

Tin,

on the ravioli. I'm picturing a ravioli shaped like a large Krispy creme donut or bagel. The egg would lay in the middle. Capisce? You pipe the filling, donut shape on a pasta sheet.

A sheet over the top. Now your going to crinp/push around the donut on the outside and the inside. Cut around the outside but leave the crimped center. Crap,

I'm making some pasta manana I'll make one and take a pic. I really think this would be a winner.

choco and ancho is a wonderful marrige. I'm made chocolate ancho ice cream and also tarts.

are you familiar with Trablit?

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post #16 of 30
7/11/11 at 10:22pm
Thread Starter 

We'd have to order it special. Depends on the application, but it seems that this outfit usually uses Nescafe crystals... blushing.gif

 

 

I must be a slow learner, because I keep thinking you'd have to poke the yolk and it would pop. Unless it's off center. Looking forward to your food pron.

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post #17 of 30
7/12/11 at 3:46am

If I had a convention or banquet for pharmacist I would serve Molecular Cuisine.

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post #18 of 30
7/12/11 at 4:59am

inside out cabron. The egg would sit on top.Outside the rav. Like when the drop the bowling ball on the sobacawa pillow on late night TV. It leaves a depression in the middle.

That is where the egg is placed. easy servicedrinkbeer.gif

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post #19 of 30
7/12/11 at 12:06pm

Ed,

molecular has a negative sounding name.....I was messing around with powders, oils, fruit leather, agar agar (macrobiotic cooking class) circa early 1980's.....it was a way to preserve bounty.  cryovac has been around France for forever too.....

 

Just like anything happening with food, if it doesn't taste good (or better than minimal prep) WHY do it......it's just a wasted exercise.  But if it does give a sense of aha! that can be fun....doesn't have to be yucky....seriously think of all the overworked food from the 60's or some of the fruffy French food that's just a turn off to look at.

 

I'll see if I can pull up the info on Atlantico mini bar dinner.....it's in the CT archives.

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post #20 of 30
7/12/11 at 4:05pm

I worked with Cryovac and Visking back in the early 50s  we put a rib or steak in a plain plastic bag and then put the nozzle of a plain old shop vac

in the bag and sucked out the air then heat sealed it. It let meat last about a week longer tnen normal. I believe the first cryovac and visking process( both similar) was developed by Union Carbide Co.

 

I fool around with additives, infused oils and powders of all kinds. But when I eat I don't want foams, I want good solid food.

 

 

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post #21 of 30
7/12/11 at 8:44pm
Thread Starter 

Looks like the meat course is going to be carne pizzaioli done sous vide.

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post #22 of 30
7/12/11 at 9:13pm
Thread Starter 

The mozzarella balloon idea got nixed in favor of the burratta for practical reasons. 1) Worried about the performance on the day of, and 2) turns out nobody owns an iSi. Everyone really liked the idea. We tried the method in the Kymos textbook using an alginate bath and a mozz/cream/calcium center, but the general consensus was that a cheese skin would be preferable to the alginate skin. Not too happy with the basil gelee. Everyone's like just do a chiff and move on rolleyes.gif. Tomato components are going to be compressed tomatoes, tomato confit (the house-dried kind). Also considering tomato water gelee if everything else isn't too hectic. (The one time you need aspic cutters, right?)

 

Any hot heirloom tomatoes I should keep an eye out for? I only know brandywine and green zebra.

 

 

One guy suggested that we could make some bacon feuilltine to crisp up the truffle. I guess replace the butter in a tuille batter with some or all bacon fat?

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post #23 of 30
7/13/11 at 6:25am

black cherry are fun

I like mortage lifters, germans, black cherokee, sungold......candy sweet, planted romas......

 

Kakao here makes a bacon brittle....

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post #24 of 30
7/13/11 at 7:01am

Tin,

sitting here this morning realizing that I don't have a clue how to get these pics posted.

I have that same pit in my stomach whenever I feel that tech. and things are just flying by me and I'll never catch up. Feeling very senior.

Not as bad as last night though. Our little group met last night to discuss molecular gastronomy. My chef friend is younger tham me but the

chefs were really young. Most are just out of the local community school. OMG I was so impressed with this group. Knowledgable and intelligent.

We started with reviewing equipment. Hello! feeling senior again.LOL. My friend has worked with many chefs in this type of cooking.

The group seemed to know who he referred to for a lot of techniques . To embarrased to ask. um. Homero Cantu.? Who dat? Why have I've never heard

of him. My buddy seems to have spent a lot of time with him.

Sophie's awake, I'll she if we can post the ravioli.

I thought they came out great. I just made it with what I had. portabello, little riccota impastata, had some leftover frozen dandilion greens, yadda yadda.

Lost some in deep water. So I used a big skillet shallow water and spooned water over top while poaching. I don't like poached eggs so I soft boiled some

and put it in the center. I just spooned out the egg so the yolk was broken, but the neighboor foodies and us really enjoyed it. Oh, I sprinkled some fresh

really cooked bacon bits  for texture.

Well can't post now.

pan

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post #25 of 30
7/13/11 at 1:07pm
Thread Starter 

Man, I wish I belonged to a culinary salon like that. Right now, I kinda feel like a idiot studying hard to be a moron.

 

Don't think you really qualify for the senior syndrome yet. Could be worse. We've got a family friend (the ex flavor chemist for BR) that got himself in some serious trouble. He when in to the doctor a few weeks ago, the doc tells him that it's time to replace the battery on his pacemaker, and they need to schedule the procedure. Well, our friend FORGOT all about it. The battery ran out of juice while he was at home approx late Thurs/early Fri before Indepence Day. He got to spend the weekend hooked up to machines. For an extra kick in the pants, his wife's car got towed when she came to pick him up.

 

You think you've got problems? Some kid asked me who Nirvana was the other day. FFS, I'm not even thirty!

 

I'm not sure what to make of Cantu. I saw him on TV on Iron Chef. His claim to fame was shooting a packing peanut with a laser. No joke.

 

I might make some rav tonight. Got some milk that's going to hit it's sell by, might as well turn it into some ricotta type thingy for filling.

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post #26 of 30
7/21/11 at 11:59am
Thread Starter 

Made a test batch of mozzerella using a mesophillic culture from commercial buttermilk. Man, it's a finicky process, biggest problem is the aging of the curd. Really throws your timing off. You have to get it acid enough, otherwise it won't stretch. But if you get it too acid, it will get grainy. I've read that once you get the curd acid enough that it passes the spin test, you can stick it in the fridge to halt the process, and pull the curd at your leisure. I guess citric acid method mozzerella solves this at the cost of flavor. Sadly, there is no budget for a ph meter. Maybe we'll get some ph paper.

 

We made three jelly fish looking burrattas, and some interesting ricotta from the whey.

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post #27 of 30
7/22/11 at 9:14am

cool.

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post #28 of 30
7/25/11 at 2:30pm
Thread Starter 

I think we're going to use a ricotta plus cream filling for the burrata. Making the moz scrap is kinda tedious. Also, the boss is going to order some Flora Danica culture. Can't wait to try it.

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post #29 of 30
8/26/11 at 2:44pm
Thread Starter 

It's going down tonight. I'm not assigned to the onsite crew, but I will let you guys know how it went.

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post #30 of 30
8/27/11 at 7:49pm

Thanks! would love a recap

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