5. Serve immediately—the lollipops will hold their shape for about 1 minute.
Peter Mumford
Spherification: where soda takes on the texture of caviar.
Peter Mumford
The secret to snacking success lurks inside the Geek's gun.
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Spherified DRY Lavender Soda Bellini
Spherification is one of the hallmark techniques of modernist cooking, made popular by El Bulli chef Ferran Adrià. At its core, spherification is the process of forming a membrane around a liquid so that it takes on the appearance and texture of caviar, olive-shaped balls, or noodles.
Achieving good spherification requires precision, patience, and practice. Unlike traditional cooking, where you can eyeball ingredients and make additions or substitutions and predict the outcome, the process of spherification is quite sensitive to the proportions of chemicals involved and to the acidity of the liquid you're spherifying. For example, substituting alcohol for the DRY Soda in the recipe below will not lead to little pearls—it will lead to wasted alcohol and a big, fat frown. Don't be discouraged, though; there are tons of spherification recipes online, and with a little practice, you'll develop an intuition for creating your own.
For this recipe, the barely sweetened DRY lavender soda is a delightful surprise, as it bursts through the membrane of a caviar-like pearl on your tongue. And remembering the "food first" philosophy behind these techniques, it's also worth appreciating that DRY Soda is made from all-natural ingredients. As you top each serving with prosecco, the tiny bubbles will hold on to the lavender spheres and make them dance in the glass.
Working time: 45 minutes
Total kitchen time: 45 minutes
Special equipment required: gram scale, immersion (aka stick, wand, hand) blender, turkey baster or other dropper, small fine-mesh strainer
Shopping list:
• 1 bottle DRY Lavender Soda
• 1.8g sodium alginate
• .5g sodium citrate
• 6.5g calcium chloride
• 1 liter + 1/2 liter filtered water (divided)
• 1 bottle prosecco
1. Pour the DRY Soda into a tall container that will fit your immersion blender. Carefully measure and add the sodium alginate and sodium citrate to the soda. Blend well until completely incorporated—the mixture should have a thick, snot-like consistency. Wash and dry your stick blender before proceeding.
2. In a large bowl, combine the calcium chloride and 1 liter of filtered water. Blend until the calcium chloride is completely dissolved.
3. Pour 1/2 liter of filtered water into a bowl—this will be used for rinsing the spheres after they have "baked" in the calcium chloride bath.
4. Suck a few tablespoons of the DRY Soda mixture into your turkey baster. Hold the baster about 2 over the calcium chloride bath and allow individual droplets to fall. As soon as they contact the bath, they'll form little spheres. The spheres may be hard to see in your bowl since they're transparent, but rest assured, they're there. Add as many droplets as you can in 30 seconds. Wait an additional 30 seconds to let the spheres "cook"—the longer they are left in the calcium chloride bath, the firmer the balls will be, but your timing doesn't need to be exact.
5. Scoop the balls from the bottom of the calcium chloride bath using a mesh strainer. Shake to remove as much excess water as possible, then rinse the balls by dipping them in the bowl of filtered water.
6. Repeat with the remaining DRY Soda mixture, or until you've run out of ball jokes to tell during the process. Set aside in a glass or plastic container until ready to serve. They can be made up to one day ahead of time, covered and stored in the refrigerator.
7. To serve, add a spoonful of the spheres to the bottom of a champagne flute. Present the drink by pouring the prosecco tableside and watching the spheres gently float in the glass.
All-Natural Beecher's Flagship Cheetos
Being an enlightened eater is a fantastic lifestyle choice, but it invariably comes with a downside, such as occasional cravings for the kinds of factory-made, foil-bagged snacks that you certainly won't find at Whole Foods. But eating a "Whole-ier than thou" diet doesn't have to preclude enjoying the finest products of industrial food processing at home.
Food companies know that the secret formula for craveable snacks relies on three key variables: crunch, salt and cheese. There's a reason why entire aisles of the grocery store are dedicated to this trifecta, and the Cheeto is a stunning example of what's possible with a little science and engineering.
Cheetos are made in a three-stage process: extrusion, frying, and powder-coating. First, cornmeal is mixed into a batter and pumped at high pressure through an extrusion die into a chamber of heated air. The pressure and temperature cause the batter to "pop" into a fluffy treat. A quick dip in the fryer is followed by the crucial step of dusting the snacks with iridescent-orange powdered cheese. And let's be honest: It's the powdered cheese that keeps us coming back.
Luckily, you can approximate this process at home. A cookie press, the kind used for stamping out dozens of sugar cookies, is a good substitute for the extrusion machine, and allows you to quickly recreate the Cheeto's signature shape. And the cheese powder? That's the fun part.
Commercial food producers use a modified starch tapioca called maltodextrin to create the sticky, cheesy powder that leaves you with bright-orange fingers. This starch, sometimes sold under the brand name N-Zorbit, is also used by modernist chefs as an easy way to turn fats into powder. Although maltodextrin is available through online suppliers, it turns out that plain old tapioca is a pretty decent substitute. Tapioca is also a starch, and if you grind it into a powder, it exhibits a similar dehydrating behavior. Note, though, that you're not looking for Jell-O tapioca mix—you're looking for tapioca pearls. Many grocery stores even carry organic brands of tapioca pearls, and if you go now, you might be the first person in your neighborhood to cook an organic Cheeto!
