Recently in Mixology Category
This last Saturday we had company over for dinner. Aidan and Finn ran around and exhausted each other while I ran a marathon in the kitchen. Piet, his wife (and their son), brought over some excellent gravlax and sauce. I made some sourdough pumpernickel bread. This was my first time making pumpernickel, it was surprising that so few stores have pumpernickel flour. I tried Ukrops, Krogers, The Fresh Market, and Elwood Thompson's. As a last attempt, I tried the organic section of the Ukrops by my house. They had a small bag of dark rye flour, this is not pumpernickel flour, but it was really close, and closer then anything I had found. The addition of coffee and the molasses from the brown sugar made a very dark crust, and a deep, rich colored crumb. 
Next was a little kitchen science. This was my first attempt at the elBulli staple: Liquid Pea Ravioli. This is a simple mixture of peas, mint, and two chemicals, topped with a tiny mint leaf and a bit of sea salt. This was interesting, the texture of the peas is much thicker then the fruit juice mixtures I've been doing. It took a little experimenting to get a clean release from the spoon, but once that was solved, we had a handful of pea ravioli to munch on.During this entire time, we were sipping miscellaneous drinks. We had carbonated Bombay Sapphire Gin, foamy absinthe mojitos, and passionfruit whisky sours with passionfruit foam. The mojitos were made in the soda siphon, and the passionfruit foam was made in the gourmet whip. We broke up the red wine and white wine for dinner.
I had been rolling and cutting pasta all afternoon. The KitchenAid attachment makes this so easy. If you like to make pasta, I highly recommend the attachments. No hand cranking, variable speeds and size settings. I've rolled pasta by hand, without the aid of a crank machine, and they all produce the same quality, but the amount of work involved in making the pasta is minimal with the automated tools. Once the pasta was rolled and cut, it rested for a few hours in the refrigerator. Next up was more food prep. Pancetta and bacon from Belmont Butchery. The smell of cured and smoky pork. Mmmmmmmmm.This was sauteed in white wine, then tossed with the hot pasta with eggs, parmegianno reggiano, pecorino romano, and garlic. More commonly known as Pasta alla Carbonara. This was accompanied with some sundreid tomato, basil, and parmigiano sourdough bread. We had a fresh heirloom tomato and olive oil topping for the bread. The pasta cooked in two minutes and thirty seconds, one of the nice things about fresh pasta.
I had a intermediate course planned, but we were all full from dinner. I'll discuss this down at the bottom of the post.For dessert, we had a chocolate tart with caramel and peanuts. This was my second recipe from the Baking with Dorie cookbook. This came out very well. I made ti a few hours before company arrived, and have been enjoying it for dessert each night this week.
The skipped course. I was planning on sfering some cantaloupe and serving it with prosciutto. Sunday night, amid the thunderstorms, I was in the kitchen. Like Dr. Frankenstein, I was making something come to life as the lightning struck around me. Drip Drip Drip Drip. One by one, droplets of melon were going into a waterbath and being transformed into melon caviar. I've made fruit caviar a few times, and I have the technique down.
Normally, people buy soda siphons to carbonate water. They make seltzer, that's about it. When we were at WD~50, Jen had a drink that was made with carbonated vodka. Sure, you can cut vodka with seltzer, but it dilutes the vodka, and dilutes the c02 distribution in the drink. After scouring the web for ways to carbonate alcohol, I found a solution. I figured my wife might not like a 50 pound c02 tank under the sink, so I had to find a smaller alternative. I knew soda siphons carbonated water through a c02 charger, but could it do alcohol? Would that muck up the dispersion system? Are other people doing this? If so, where are their posts?This was actually pretty hard to find. I guess people don't play with mixology. I found one guy who was carbonating apple juice for his kids. If the siphons can do apple juice, they should be able to do alcohol. A quick test with water shows you one thing: you don't want to serve the alcohol under pressure if you want it to stay fizzy. Water gets everywhere if you fill the cup at the wrong angle. To remedy this problem, I removed the stem and charged the canister. Well, the stem is a two part device. Remove the straw part and put the plug back in place, then close and charge the canister. The top part of the stem forms a seal around the top of the canister. Without it, all the air escapes! You can use up to two cartridges for a full bottle.
Shake the canister for a few seconds, then place in the refrigerator. After two hours, retrieve the alcohol bottle and a funnel. Dispense the c02 in the canister by depressing the trigger, remove the top and plastic seals, then [b]slowly[/b] pour the alcohol back into the bottle. If you pour it too quickly, it will fizz all over the counter. With a quick rinse, the siphon is ready to make carbonated water again.
Last night I decided to take the Soda Siphon to another level. With help from an El Bulli recipe for a mojito, I transformed my siphon in to a kitchen beast with endless possibilities. I need to check the ratios, but take your mojito mix (I used mint from the back yard, limes, sugar, and rum), disperse 1 ½ sheets of gelatin in water, then strain and pour everything into the soda siphon. Once charged, it comes out frothy! It was a tasting experience. The foam is so punchy with the lime, but as it disperses into the liquid in the bottom of the cup, the flavor mellows.Jen commented on how strong the flavors were in the foam, but how they were very balanced by the end of the drink. I guess this has to do with the air molecules in the liquid. The gelatin is unnoticeable; the drink feels the same on your tongue, well, except for the foam part. This technique can apply to just about any drink.
The only problem with the siphon is that we seem to run out of water when Jen goes to get a glass for dinner. Aidan loves sparkling water in his juice
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