freeze dried Archives - Seattle Food Geek

Cryopoached Coconut Meringue with Powdered Strawberry

cryopoached coconut puff copy

Jethro and I were asked to create a dish with “wow factor” for a group of scientists for an upcoming event. We wanted to craft a bite that’s first and foremost delicious, but also illustrates some of the hallmarks of modernist cooking: textural transformation, surprise, and use of unconventional techniques to refine and reinterpret something traditional. It also had to be practical and economical, since we’ll be serving nearly 200 people in two hours. This meant quick plating time, low portion cost, and minimal prep. After some brainstorming, we decided that a cryopoached (liquid nitrogen-frozen) puff would fit the bill. Jethro had already made the Fat Duck’s Cryopoached Green Tea Sour (which I recognized from Modernist Cuisine), but we wanted to make a version that was our own, and frankly, one that was simpler and cheaper.

I knew from prior experience that coconut milk foams nicely through a whipping siphon – I use it as a garnish for MC’s caramelized carrot soup. Jeth and I came up with a list of complimentary flavors, including licorice and lime. We combined coconut milk with a shot of absinthe, which made a delicious puff. However, the strong licorice flavor of absinthe turns a lot of folks off, so we decided it wouldn’t be a crowd pleaser. But coconut and lime? Who wouldn’t love that. And, for a little color and flavor contrast, we dusted the tops with ground, freeze-dried strawberries.

cryopoached coconut puff open copy

When cryopoached properly, the “meringue” has a crunchy exterior shell that gives way to a light, foamy interior. But, within a second of being in your mouth, the whole thing melts into liquid – the sensation all but forces a smile! We got the best textural results when we poached the meringues for 20 seconds, flipping once, then letting it rest 10 seconds before eating.

Makes: a lot
Total kitchen time: 20 minutes
Special equipment required: liquid nitrogen, whipping siphon

INGREDIENT	QTY.	SCALING	PROCEDURE
Thai Kitchen coconut milk	387g	100%	Combine all ingredients in a whipping siphon. Attach the top of the siphon and shake to mix well. Prepare a medium bowl of liquid nitrogen. Charge the siphon with 2 cartridges of nitrous dioxide. To serve, dispense a small ball of the meringue base onto a spoon. Drop in the liquid nitrogen. Poach, turning constantly until frozen on the outside but still soft on the inside, about 20 seconds.
Sugar	67g	17%
Vanilla extract	2g	0.5%
Lime juice	4g	1%
Iota carrageenan	2g	0.5%

Freeze dried strawberry, powdered	as needed		5. Dust over the frozen meringues and serve immediately.

Also, an important safety note: DON’T LICK THE SPOON! Any metal or dense materials that come in contact with the liquid nitrogen will get cold and stay cold – cold enough to burn your skin and freeze your tongue like a flagpole in a snowstorm. As a gentleman and a friend, I’m choosing not to post the picture of Jethro’s “lesson” in thermodynamics, but let’s just say that the spoon now has more taste buds than he does.

*Thanks to Mr. Eric Rivera for the carrageenan tip!

3 Laboratory Devices that will Appear in Your Kitchen by 2020

I think we can agree that by now we all expected to fly around in jetpacks and watch porn through a plug in our skull. Unfortunately, those technologies have not yet become commercial, so we’ll have to make due until modern science can sort out its priorities.

In the meantime, I thought I’d share a little prediction. By the year 2020, you’ll be able to purchase the following items anywhere that also carries a George Foreman Grill. These devices are way out there now – only the most adventurous (and well funded) chefs are using them, but they’re headed to a kitchen near you… along with those jetpacks.

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What the hell is it?
A centrifuge.

What does it do?
It spins little vials of liquid around really, really fast.

What say the white lab coats?
Centrifuges are used for separating out the parts of a liquid by density. Your doctor probably uses one to separate your blood cells from plasma to, um, look at them and stuff.

You put food in that thing?
Although centrifuges have already been used for years in industrial food processing (separating cream from milk, separating sugar crystals from their mother liquor), they’re just now starting to appear in the geekiest restaurant kitchens. Chefs use centrifuges to clarify stocks, sauces and even lime juice. Even the finest mesh strainer is no match for the separating power of the sedimentation principle, so the next time you’re making consommé consider your centrifuge instead of your chinoise.

What the hell is it?
A rotary evaporator.

What does it do?
It extracts solvents from substances. Kind of like a moonshine still, but designed by robots from the future.

What say the white lab coats?
By creating a vacuum inside the glass chamber, the rotary evaporator reduces the boiling point of a compound liquid. Then, through gentle heating and turning, solvents dissolved in the liquid are evaporated and removed.

You put food in that thing?
Imagine being able to extract the essential flavor from just about anything into a highly-concentrated liquid. Sure, you can go buy mint extract or even rosemary extract (if you know where to look), but what about the essential oil of bacon or saffron? Chicago’s famed Alinea restaurant has been using rotovaps to distill the essential oils from herbs, and even chiles – all flavor, no heat. So, when you’re baking cookies and the recipe calls for vanilla extract, don’t turn to the plastic vial from the grocery store; make your own!

XL_triaditem What the hell is it?
It’s a freeze dryer.

What does it do?
It freeze dries, R-tard.

What say the white lab coats?
Freeze drying has all the benefits of freezing, but without those nasty ice crystals. The freeze dryer freezes the materials inside, then creates a vacuum and adds just enough heat so that the water frozen inside the materials converts directly to gas and escapes.

You put food in that thing?
It may not surprise you to hear that freeze dryers are used for culinary applications. After all, this was the space-age piece of technology that brought us Astronaut Ice Cream. But it’s not all about infinite shelf lives and lightweight transportation. Ferran Adrià, often called the best chef in the world, has been freeze drying slices of fruit at his restaurant El Bulli. 10 years from now, when you want to make apple chips and jerky, you won’t be reaching for the dehydrator – you’ll be freeze drying!