Carrot Air

[jackal10]

I tried to make carrot "air" at the weekend.

I started with a fairly dilute carot puree, and had at it with a stick blender.

Lots of lovely light foam. Disappears in the mouth.

However:

The foam was not particularly stable. Making and serving more than two portions would be difficult.

I stabilised it by freezing, but even then there was a lump of not very nice texture solid drainage at the bottom

The texture was great, but almost no flavour.

Help? Suggestions? I'm reasonable sure the original was just carrot puree without sufacecants or gelatine added.

How do I get a stable coarse foam?

How do I get it to taste of something?

[Steve Klc]

Where were you when you had the original and thought you had pure carrot? (with no added gelatin, stabilizer or an emulsifier, like lecithin.)

[jackal10]

Where were you when you had the original and thought you had pure carrot? (with no added gelatin, stabilizer or an emulsifier, like lecithin.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/10/magazine...3b93707&ei=5070

[Steve Klc]

That's what I thought. I'm wary of anything "adapted" because it isn't Ferran doing the adapting. I suspect there's lecithin in there.

[jackal10]

The article explictly quotes Adria as saying it is only carrot.

''I have created something five times lighter than the foams. The new texture that I create is air. In the bathroom there is the bath foam. This is the same texture.''

A few more questions and his discretion dissipated. ''You will be the first journalist to see it,'' he said. He asked Castro to make preparations in the kitchen. ''It is only done with the product, nothing else,'' he explained. ''For example, the carrot is only carrot juice, nothing else.''

[Bicycle Lee]

I do not doubt the intense brilliance of Adria, but I imagine that it is quite impossible to produce the "carrot air" with nothing but carrot juice ... The air which he held on the cover of that magazine was huge....I mean a stable-looking foam 3 or 4 inches high....I'm sorry, but I don't think even Adria has made that kind of magic (nothing but juice).....yet.

Of course I could be horribly wrong, in which case I apologize, but I would need detailed instructions and proven results to sway me...

[gsquared]

I also cannot see how carrot juice can be used to produce a stable emulsion. Unless the juice contains dissolved substances that can act as emulsifiers. I could not find a reliable source for the chemical composition of carrots or carrot juice, but did come across a mention that carrots contain a small quantity of lecithin.......

[Carlovski]

May I be cynical, and pose the question Carrot Air, Why?

[Jonathan Day]

The carrot air I tasted at el Bulli was very stable -- it sat on the table for a few minutes, and in any event we ate it at a leisurely pace.

Is it conceivable that the clarified carrot juice was reduced somewhat before being foamed? I've made Keller's carrot soup in which you gently simmer carrots in carrot juice, then puree and strain the whole thing. The character of the juice changes a bit as it is heated. I have no idea whether this would make the air more stable.

[schneich]

this is very interesting since i try several complicated adria preparations at the mo

(read the jelly caviar thread)... ive seen this air stuff on arte a few month ago...

ive tried several recipes from adria´s latest book... and most of them dont

work right away.. you need to do a lot of experimenting...

with the air i can say that with carrot it could maybe work because

if you reduce the stuff pretty strong also the natural pectin will concentrate...

i dont know.. sometimes this guy seems like a magician to me

any other ideas... ????

jackal: did any foam form at all ??

did it have big "pores" or tiny small ones ??

cheers

t.

[Bicycle Lee]

One thing I want to try is reducing the carrot juice heavily, then add it in small amounts to my Liss foamer and double or even triple charge it....Tramonto has suggested that this is a way to add volume to dairyless foams....less product and more nitrous....who knows....

and yes you may be a cynic, and you might find your answer in the thread that is titled "Food as Art"

Why? because it is a new vehicle for a carrot to be driven into your conscious and subconscious.

Edited September 23, 2003 by Bicycle Lee (log)

[fifi]

Why? because it is a new vehicle for a carrot to be driven into your conscious and subconscious.

I am glad someone else asked why.

Now I have this visual of a large arm and mallet (I must have looked at an Arm & Hammer box recently.) driving a carrot into my brain!

And I don't even like carrots that much.

[jackal10]

jackal: did any foam form at all ??

did it have big "pores" or tiny small ones ??

Yes, a really nice textured foam formed, about the texture of bubbles when washing up, or a foam bath.

It was stable for a few minutes, but coalesced and formed a puddle in the bottom of the glass.

I poured off the liquid and rushed it to the freezer, where it formed a light airy sorbet, but with a puddle of solid frozen carrot in the bottom. I wonder if this was why the original disguised it with orange ice.

The texture was amazing. A spoonful disaapeared in the mouth to nothing. That was the other problem: no taste to speak of. Maybe needs more salt.

Edited September 23, 2003 by jackal10 (log)

[Bicycle Lee]

was the foam itself out of focus?

hehe

sorry I couldn't resist

[jackal10]

I tried adding some egg yolk, as a handy source of lecithin.

The stability greatly improved, although not perfect. Could probably work with it by freezing it in a chinois or something to let it drain.

However the foam was much finer textured - more like shampoo foam rather than washing up liquid bubbles, even at low concentrations - equivalent to 1 egg yolk to 10 pints. It was also rather yellower in higher concentrations. Still tasted of nothing much.

[schneich]

sorry guys... this freezing, isi foamering etc. is the wrong

way... what i saw on arte (el bulli docu) was a foam with

gigantic bubbles and very wobbly in structure

one of the staff guys came with a plate full of that air stuff

and sucked it into his mouth with a single swoosh.... :)

that was really weird... its a totally dynamic thing...

cheers

t.

where the fuck can one get this docu... ? it was about 90 mins. on arte solely on el bulli...

and other weird cooks

any ideas ??

[simon.haywood]

Having eaten et el bulli this year, and obviously eaten the carrot foam, i should say that it arrived wobbly, and not frozen. we ate it fairly slowly, obviously it is a bit of a discussion course with lotsof prodding and poking, and it remained pretty stable throughout. It does "melt" a little into an intense orange/carrotty liquid if you leave it. But it does not disap[pear into nothing when you eat/drink it. It turns into a small amount of liquid, akin to carrott juice. It is definately not frozen. I have have tried with limited success to recreate this. My initial feeling was to act like a child (of course) and blow bubbles into it. this works well but you would need superhuman cheek strehgth to get the required bubbles. maybe he has some kind of high powered blowing machine (no rude jokes please!) and a big bucket?