While the temperature hovers around 0 degrees here in the Northeast, I should be thinking about hot, soothing soup, or a slow-braised joint of meat. Instead, I am finding comfort in dreaming of the tropics.

The rainforest fascinates me…an infinite and largely undiscovered source of plant and animal life. As a teenager, I spent a glorious month in Brazil, staying with family in Santos, but my stay was confined to the coast around Sao Paulo, and only skimmed the outer edges of the Amazon.

Perhaps the most celebrated chef in Brazil today is Alex Atala of D.O.M. Restaurante in Sao Paulo, which is counted among the top 50 restaurants in the world. Besides being a gifted chef and speaking 3 languages fluently, chef Atala is enthusiastic about discovering and sharing the resources of the rainforest, which he calls "a universe of aromas". This is no small feat, considering that the Brazilian diet is still tied to old customs and subsists largely on rice and beans and other imported goods.

Having captured my imagination, I set out to weave together flavors/aromas from crops that are widely grown in rainforest climates…and I do mean weave in a literal sense…hey, if Wylie can tie foie in a knot, why not weave?  I edited a long list of possibilities down to those that I knew would work well together:
banana
coconut
lime
tamarind
coffee
vanilla
cashew

I began with a piece of grouper, which was seasoned and placed in a bag with vanilla-infused coconut milk and a piece of banana leaf, sealed under vacuum, and cooked sous-vide at 50C for 20 minutes.

Next, I separated the flavors and aromas into two agar sheets. I chose agar because of its heat stability–I didn’t want it to melt as soon as it came in contact with the hot fish–but I was careful to keep these sheets on the soft side, barely firm enough to manipulate. The first sheet (creamy, rich, slightly sweet)  was made by mashing bananas with lime juice(for flavor and to retard darkening), I added agar to the coconut milk, brought to a boil, then combined this with the banana mash. I then poured this out onto a plastic-lined flat container to a thickness of 1/4" and chilled until set.

The second sheet (aromatic, tart, bitter) was made using the same procedure, except the agar was heated with tamarind puree and a hint of vanilla extract, then combined with a pulled shot of espresso and molded.

After both sheets set up, I cut them into 1/2" strips and carefully wove them together, holding them in the refrigerator until just before service, when they were inverted onto the squares of grouper. To finish, a little sprinkle of ground cashews and lime zest.

So, you may ask, is this dish "a universe of aromas"?
No…but, maybe a microcosm.