aerated chocolate

Heston Blumenthal has been described as a mad food scientist. If this is true, then his madness is borne of an exquisitely focused curiosity of food.
In his books "In Search of Perfection" and "Further Adventures in Search of Perfection", Blumenthal turns this curiosity to classic dishes that evoke fond memories and nostalgia. They are last meal dishes. He dissects them and goes to extraordinary lengths to execute each component according to his standards of perfection, which are high indeed.
There is much to be learned from these books; simple and practical lessons on how to properly roast a chicken, knead bread, fry potatoes. He almost had me convinced that he is not mad. Then he goes and vacuums chocolate with a Dyson.

special equipment:
whipped cream dispenser
3 N2O charges for dispenser
a vacuum sealer such as foodsaver with its large canister*
a plastic container that will fit inside the large canister

set up:
fill a small saucepan with 2" of water and bring to a simmer
place whipped cream dispenser in a bowl of warm water
place plastic container in large canister and surround with ice
attach hose from vacuum sealer to lid of large canister

step 1 (melt chocolate)

place 18 oz (500g) of good quality chocolate that has been chopped into small chunks into a metal or glass bowl. Add 1/3 cup (65g) peanut oil. Set bowl over simmering water in saucepan. Stir occasionally until completely melted and smooth.

step 2 (foaming)
pour the melted chocolate into the warmed whipped cream dispenser. Screw on the top and charge with 3 N2O charges. Shake vigorously and discharge into the bottom of the plastic container, stopping when the chocolate foam is halfway up the container. Immediately place dish on ice in large canister.

step 3 (aerating)

place lid securely on canister. Begin vacuum. When the chocolate has doubled in bulk, stop the vacuum. Remove the hose attachment and carefully transfer the canister to the refrigerator to chill.

step 4 (chilling)

let canister chill in refrigerator for at least 1 hour. Remove and release pressure from canister. Remove plastic container from inside canister and unmold aerated chocolate by running a thin knife along the sides. If the chocolate does not release, wrap a towel that has been soaked in hot water around the outside of container.

* in ISoP, Blumenthal uses a plastic storage container to hold the foamed chocolate,then places it into a plastic baggie and inserts the nozzle of a Dyson vacuum into the opening.

lyophilized

Freeze drying is a complex process in which a product is frozen and dehydrated under vacuum. It differs from other drying methods in that the resulting products are virtually weightless and possess a shattering crisp bite similar to baked meringues that melts quickly away .The process leaves the flavor true and intact, yet amazingly amplified.

Chef Laurent Gras, formerly of Peacock Alley, NYC, and currently preparing to open his own restaurant, L.2O in Chicago, has installed a custom designed freeze dry machine in his new kitchen and it is formidable, both in presence and potential. Follow his odyssey into the making of what promises to be an exciting new restaurant on his L.2O blog.

The call of the rainforest

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.