nude (big ideas)

agar clarification.  first try.  rhubarb juice. the one on the left is clarified.  hope you can tell.  taste is the same.  rhubarb juice and a little simple syrup.  not too bad.  there is still a little bit of solids when you look really up close.  what to do with it now? 

shiso

the next macaron.  shiso with black sesame.  blended cream with shiso, used shiso milk to make a ganache with white chocolate.  black sesame for texture and color.  it tastes very much like matcha tea.

the sweets

i was craving something sweet and gooey.  the one thing that i think rises to the top of that definition is the english sticky toffee pudding.  a cake made with brown sugar, butter, dates, beer, and soaked in a brown sugar/butter toffee sauce.  could it get more gooey and sweet. 

at the market there is a lady who sells wonderfully plump dates.  next to her is another lady selling kumquats.  what luck, within four square feet are the makings of a dish.  dates with a bitter orange flavor lead me to pistachios which guide me to cardamom and the flavors are done.
the toffee pudding cake is warmed to order and soaked in the toffee sauce.  kumquats are blanched and candied with vanilla.  green pistachios are chopped.  some of the kumquats are pureed and to it passion fruit juice is added to balance out the flavor and give some acidity.  that is made into a sauce and a croquant.  an eggless cardamom ice cream adds a cool creamy texture.  finish with a chiffonade of shiso. 

"you'll feel better if you have a cookie"

a really good cookie is all it takes

earl grey tea macaron

switched over to the cooked syrup method for meringue in macarons.  need to get used to it, after 7 years of making a traditional meringue.  we'll see how we go from here

a means to an end

damn it took a while. 
i have changed the components of this dish for two weeks now.  now i am a little happy with it.  it started with the whipped milk chocolate ganache recipe i got from the Valrhona sessions. it has a great texture, close to a chocolate chantilly, but with a little more body.  i had to use it.  though i think the final result isn't quite what the people at Valrhona had in mind. 
whipped, spread between acetate, frozen, broken into shards, and then kept frozen.  on the pick-up they are arranged on the plate.  because they are thin, within about two minutes they are no longer frozen but creamy. 

to give it a fuller chocolate flavor, chocolate mint (thanks brittany) is blended with cocoa to make a fluid gel. raspberry meringue is dried and broken.  rooibos tea is set into a gelee.  fresh raspberries and chocolate mint, raspberry sorbet.

a cool down

i have been trying the ice water tempering method for chocolate.  been wanting to do it for a while now. 

essentially you fill a container with ice water, not too much ice, just really cold.  when the chocolate hits about 40C, pipe it in.  this shocks the chocolate into setting up, but there is a window of seconds where the chocolate is firm but maleable.

after shaping the chocolate, you let it sit in the water for a few minutes (that time is what i am playing with) until the cocoa butter crystalizes and it holds the shapes you made.

you then remove it from the water and keep it cold (or frozen maybe).

what i like about this technique is that it offers you the ability to create 3 dimensional shapes with an organic twist.

the longer you leave it in the water the more it loses color, which is kinda cool, it really gives it a "rotten wood" look

if anyone has any ideas, tips, or suggestions with this technique than please speak up, i'd love to hear what others are doing with this

recipe for success

i got a request for the namelaka recipe.  i do have to give credit to Chef Philippe Givre.  he is Head Pastry Chef at Ecole du Grand Chocolat.

200g  milk

zest of 2 lemons (or other zest)

10g  glucose

3 sheets gelatin (depending on what you are doing you can increase or decrease gelatin)

340g  Ivoire chocolate

400g  cream

rehydrate gelatin sheets, reserve.  warm chocolate to 40-45C and add glucose, reserve.  warm milk, infuse with zest.  return milk to simmer, add gelatin, strain.  emulsify with chocolate.  once fully emulsified, add cream, mix.  allow to crystallize in fridge. 

do want you want with it now.  let me know, forward pics. interested to see what others do with this.

that is what the internet is for, yeah?

we're just...a minor threat

while at the Valrhona factory, we saw how they make their praline paste.  a very interesting site indeed (no photos allowed within the working factory!).  they have a giant copper kettle that the caramel is made in, nuts are added and the mixture is turned until cool.  it is poured out and there is one dude that breaks it up with a giant mallet, drops it into a bucket, and places the small broken pieces into the grinders.  similar to the conching machines for the cocoa beans, the praline is ground and crushed until a fine paste is formed. 
the awesome thing about that process as well as with the chocolate paste is that they control the measurement of the grinding so that it is just small enough so that your palate cannot detect any grains.  they actually have a measurement and setting for that. 
not much different than a fluid gel i guess.  grind it up enough to where it feels smooth on your tongue.

i was initially wanting to make ground up caramelized walnuts, but i walked away from the praline for a minute too long and so a paste was forming.  seeing an opportunity to compete with the big guys at Valrhona (ha ha) i kept it going about 10 minutes until a smooth paste was formed. 

the toasted walnut with bitter fruit flavor was great.  very earthy. still wanting a powder form and not liquid, i added tapioca maltodextrin.

now i had a soft powder with that amazing sweet toasted walnut flavor.

it's actually way better than just the ground caramelized walnuts i was starting with.

namelaka

the name is a japanese term for "creamy texture".  it is a great technique/recipe taken from the Valrhona school.  basically a ganache made with milk, emulsified, gelatin added, and finished with cream.  a few hours to crystalize in the fridge and what you have is a wonderful creme au chocolat. 

i have been infusing mine with lime thyme and lime zest.  though it is made with white chocolate, all the extra dairy in it tames the sweetness, as opposed to a traditional white chocolate ganache. 

the namelaka can be scooped with a spoon (as in this photo) or piped as i do on the plated dish.

another great technique to help enhance a dish

rites of spring

upon returning from france i set a goal on myself to incorporate into new desserts as many recipes from the Valrhona class as possible.  i thought to myself  how much of a shame it would be to go all that way and not utilize anything that was shown to me and the other chef's.  though the finished dishes were nothing like what i would do, the beauty of it all is that the finished product is only part of the process.  it's the journey that takes you there; the techniques, the inspiration, that i sometimes find more rewarding.

one of the recipes was of a sponge scented with lemon verbena.  basically a firm gelee set with gelatin and whipped in a mixer.  there is a lot of gelatin in it but when it becomes aerated, chilled, and cut, the sponge just dissolves on your tongue like a memory. 

it's not a new technique, but one i seemed to have passed up on using in lieu of others.  this one is made of lime juice and infused with lime thyme from my garden.

we are in full swing with spring and there are finally berries at the market.  not quite the best yet but some of the stands have a few winners.

compressed strawberries, lime sponge, strawberry sorbet, white chocolate namelaka, strawberry gel, strawberry croquant, fennel and cilantro

more on the white chocolate namelaka later.....