Nicholo P

The main reason I did this was really to see if I can make my own butter with a higher percentage of butter fat. I also saw it in modernist cuisine and wanted to give it a go. So here it is right after the centrifuge! It looked pretty cool actually. Turns out, the butter I made was even lower in butter fat than the store bought variety, 75% fat to be exact. However, the flavour of the butter is just much much cleaner! Again, it's really just a way to more possibilities in making your own butter. Cultured butter perhaps. Also, I can't ignore the other 2 layers that were formed with the centrifuge. The lowest one has subtle milk flavours, but a VERY luxurious texture. The middle layer has a texture similar to skim milk, but you get an a strong milky sweetness you would get from full milk. Visit the blog if you want to read a bit more detail. Next up, I'm using a rotary evaporator to distill some bourbon. Gonna see if I can make my own grain alcohol. I can also probably use what's left in the evaporation chamber to make some nice bourbon custards.

I have tons of photos from a certain market, but that was from another visit and is in my other computer. I will most definitely post them here when I get to it.

I brought in the foie gras, centrifuged tomato consomme, sous vide short ribs. I purchased double smoked bacon and guanciale in Canada. Those are the main ones at least. Other ingredients were my mushroom powders, freeze dried roasted garlic, xanthan gum, lambda carrageenan, flexigel, Pure Algin, calcium chloride and many more that I just can't remember. As for special equipment, I only brought in my smoke gun and some microplanes.

The standard in Philippines is that each house has 2 kitchens - a clean kitchen and a dirty kitchen. The dirty kitchen isn't exactly dirty, but rather it's where the maids do the cooking for the people in the house. The clean kitchen is for the owner who usually will do minimal cooking. In other words, it's mostly for show. The dirty kitchen wasn't much better and was used by the maids, so we decided not to get in their way. Thanks for the compliments! I too have a love for calamansi, especially when made into a hot lemonade. I miss it already.

It's been a while since I posted in the forums, but I wanted to share this with the community. I spent part of my holidays in the Philippines and decided to cook a tasting dinner for my mother and her friends. The idea was to use modern techniques as well as gums from GPI. I have to say, this was one of the most challenging dinners I have ever made. Partly because of the menu, but mostly because of the location! Do not underestimate what humidity can do. Salts clump up, flours have a bit more moisture, and fridges are extremely humid and don't get as cold as fridges here in North America. Add in the tropical heat and it makes things even more different. However, dinner was a success and I greatly enjoyed the learning experience. We cooked my aunt's house that only had 3 burners and a very limited number of pots. This was definitely a bottleneck during the cooking. Here are a few photos of the dinner. Wasn't able to take photos of all the dishes though. Hope you guys enjoy! The 3 burners Mango and apricot ravioli with basil. I used our sodium alginate for this one. Poached pear and gorgonzola nugget Tomato espuma, guanciale, mussel, cherry tomato, basil. Xanthan gum and lecithin was used as the stabilizer. I didn't want to use only lecithin as it would impart a beany taste. Squash soup, creme fraiche, candied pecans. I used iota carrageenan to improve the rich texture. Soup was poured table side. Scallop and squid, uni puree, apple puree. Lambda carrageenan was used to thicken the purees. Enjoy!

Just wanted to share a dish I made in an effort to be more "healthy". My friends know me for my love of all things fatty. I tried to make it healthy at first with a salad, but I couldn't resist pairing the apple dressing with bacon. At least they had the option of not putting bacon on their salad. The apples were cooked sous vide to preserve the colour. The cured pork belly was fried on an iron skillet at medium. Also some freeze dried pancetta and stilton blue cheese. The perilla flowers were from my sister-in law's garden. Croutons were dressed with a mixture of extra virgin olive oil and canola, then baked.

I respect the posters query. It's a valid question, but I also second the thought that it is, indeed, a strange one. To me at least. RichardJones, I know of an article in the newspaper here (Toronto, Canada) written not loo long ago about a restaurant serving breast milk cheese. Perhaps search for that in google?

I freeze dried some tomatoes and then ground them in a vitamix blender. Alternatively, I hear you can buy tomato powder, haha! Though I'm not quite sure where.

Eternal, YES, it tasted really good. I just need to find better basil. The ones available at the nearby grocery store give off a bit too much earthy flavour when blitzed to a puree. Kieth_W, the tomato gelee had a very intense tomato flavour. Everyone here agreed and liked the flavour release. The only thing is that since it is presented in such a different way from what a tomato would appear, it takes a while for people to clue in. They all agree it tastes like something very familiar. When I tell them it's tomato, they do the "YES, THATS IT" expression. There was no difference in the taste, but a slight difference on how quickly the flavour is released. Just the physics of a liquid being more volatile perhaps.

I've tried using kappa carrageenan filtration, I find that the yield is quite low in general, and also, it just takes too much time. What is curious about the basil water is why it turned brown. Maybe Nathan Myhrvold can drop by and help! hehe.

Quite an interesting question. Some initial thoughts: I think it will have to be spun at a MUCH higher rate to separate the components with various densities because dough is much much more viscous. If I do get the chance to try it out, I'll have to buy centrifuge vials rated for higher RPM. The ones I have are rated for 10,000 rpm max, and cost $120 for 6 vials. Yeah, not cheap!!!!

Kouign, just to elaborate, there are 2 kinds of tomato pulp that are separated. The one at the bottom is a very dense one, mixed with the seeds. I'm not quite sure what makes up the top layer. In any case, the top layer has no flavor while the bottom layer has some taste to it. It tastes a bit mineral-like, and there is also a thin white substance on the surface of that bottom layer. You could probably mix it with fresh pasta. But other than color, its resemblance to the tomato flavour is quite low, in my opinion.

Thanks for the kind words Genkinaonna. Something I wanted to add. The gelee is clear enough to do a magnifiying glass effect to the flash I used for the photo. Take a look at the bright white dot beside the gelee.

Sorry for the late update. If you're interested in what I did with the tomato consomme, I started a new thread in egullet. As for the centrifuged basil, the results were far from what I was expecting. Though it had the aroma of basil, the water came out...well, you can take a look at the photo. haha. It's the 2nd one from the right

Just wanted to share a dish I made using some modernist equipment and ingredients. Caprese salad. This dish sprung initially from the tomato consomme I made 2 weeks ago using a centrifuge. Components: Tomato gelee freeze dried roasted garlic basil puree smoked extra virgin olive oil tomato powder buffala mozarella Feel free to visit the blog for more details and another photo. http://playingwithfoodandgel.blogspot.com/2011/09/new-caprese.html

I used to dip my bananas in ketchup when I was a kid. I also used to put potato chips on my ice cream. Everyone thought it was disgusting. Now you have everyone adding a salty component to their desserts. I was on to something!!!!

I believe we have this equipment as well. I'll have to save that step for next week. I'm currently waiting for my freeze dried pancetta and blue cheese.

tomato and basil mixtures spinning as we speak! photos later today.

Funny, I had a similar idea of serving caprese but with tomato consomme. Your idea takes it even further, and I really like it! Initial thoughts: 1. Use the brine that usually comes with buffala mozzarella to add volume, as well as ground bits of the mozzarela. 2. infuse basil in the water. Need to find a way to extract the flavour without heat. 3. tomato consomme from above. 4. Thicken the clarified liquids so they don't mix in a shot glass. Alternatively, I could also turn them into gels as you suggested. My first questions are: 1. since all the liquids would be fairly clear, would it need some color so the person being served the shot would "clue in" on the caprese? 2. How to make it so the olive oil stays at the bottom of the shot. If it's at the top, the oil will be first to come in contact with the tongue, therefore coating the tongue and the flavors of the other liquid would not be as apparent. Hmmm...I like this. I might tackle the clarification process today. I'll keep everyone posted.

The taste is exactly like watermelon, but the experience is quite different. So it takes a while for some people to recognize it. I suppose the lack of pulp and colour make it very interesting. Haha. But yes, it is quite tasty and very refreshing. I can imagine infusing it with a mild hint of mint or basil, or even while balsamic just to add an extra layer of flavour. As for the beef stock...carbonated consomme sounds interesting, but I don't know how people would receive it. Haha. When I have some beef stock around, I'll give it a go.

So I had a go with our centrifuge a few days ago, and let me tell you that it makes the most amazing and clearest consommes I have ever come across. First off was tomato, as demonstrated in the Modernist Cuisine book. I had tomato puree spun at 8,200 RPM. The result was a clear, sweet consomme with a prominent tomato flavour. I then proceeded to make a sauce out of it using xanthan gum and a white roux; a white tomato sauce. The clear liquid on the right is a watermelon consomme. I can't begin to imagine the possibilities with this centrifuge. Any suggestions? Or anything you are curious to see undergo that process? I was told that the machine is worth $20,000. So under that assumption, I imagine not a lot of people have access to one. So if you are curious to see what a certain ingredient will look like after this process, let me know!

I saw a recent post on the MC blog of a pumpkin pie recipe they created using iota and kappa carrageenan. http://modernistcuisine.com/2010/12/a-modernist-christmas-feast/ I decided to recreate the pumpkin pie component using a different blend of carrageenan. Much more convenient for me since I have it laying around. Here is a link to the recipe in my blog. http://playingwithfoodandgel.blogspot.com/2011/08/oh-hello.html

I can completely relate to the results you gathered. General wisdom would say that the more tender, the better. Yet, when I marinated a chicken breast with one of the tenderizers we produced, people were a bit suspicious of the texture. Mind you, this tenderizer was originally designed for tougher beef cuts, so really, the overly tender chicken was just a result of curiosity. People were saying that it was too tender and felt unnatural.