Apple Pie, Patis, and Pâté» Alinea

Green Almonds in Cucumber Gelée

Jude — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 06:42:19 +0000

In this relatively easy recipe from Alinea, green almonds are embedded in cucumber gelée and topped with sweet, spicy, sour, and salty elements. The crisp almonds, soft jelly, and four contrasting ingredients fully engage the senses and palate like nothing else.

Green almonds have an edible crunchy shell with a pronounced sourness, so add a pinch of salt and you can make a light snack out of it. It has a fuzzy exterior that feels and looks like the surface of a tennis ball. Try your luck finding green almonds in Middle Eastern groceries around springtime.

We’ll need the young almonds found within. The nuts, at this point in its prepubescent life, will have a thin outer layer encapsulating a semi-liquid center. It has a grassy taste and refreshing quality to it.

I made the following substitutions for the sweet, spicy, sour, and salty elements (this should give you an idea of how confused eclectic my pantry is):

Sweet: Thai coconut sugar instead of crushed sugar cubes
Spicy: Basque espelette pepper instead of cayenne pepper
Sour: Indian amchur powder (from unripe mangoes) instead of citric acid
Salty: Filipino rock salt instead of Bali sea salt

recipe adapted from Grant Achatz’s Alinea
Food in Colors: Red and Green hosted by Neha

Green Almonds in Cucumber Gelée
Sweet, Hot, Sour, Salt

makes 8 small bites

Green almond cross section.

Ingredients:

5 gelatin sheets
2 English cucumbers, quartered lengthwise and seeded
8 grams / 0.3 oz granulated sugar
5 grams / 0.2 oz kosher salt
8 green almonds, shelled

Notes:

I used 2 packets of Knox powdered gelatin (14 grams / 0.5 oz) instead of the gelatin sheets.
To shell the green almonds, use a paring knife. Cut a shallow slit on the seam that runs down the length of the almonds. The shell can be easily pried open with your fingertips.

Directions:

Line a 9- x 13-inch pan with plastic wrap. Reduce the area of the pan to 9 x 4 inches by lifting up one end of the plastic wrap. Place some sort of straight-edged object adjacent to the plastic wrap to make a barrier (I used an 8-inch springform cake pan lined with plastic wrap).
Juice the cucumbers in a juicer and strain using a fine mesh strainer (I used a blender and strained the resulting puree several times). Weigh 70 grams / 1.8 oz of juice and reserve the rest in a small bowl.
If using the gelatin sheets, immerse in iced water for about 5 minutes or until pliable. Squeeze excess water out of the sheets. Heat the measure of cucumber juice over the lowest heat setting and whisk in the gelatin sheets until fully dissolved.
If using the powdered gelatin, add to the measure of cucumber juice and stir until moistened to bloom. Heat the bloomed gelatin over low heat until liquefied.
Whisk the sugar, salt, and gelatin into the reserved cucumber juice until fully dissolved. Pour into the container lined with plastic wrap.
Evenly set the shelled green almonds in the gelatin.
Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, or until the gelatin is completely set.
Cut the cucumber gelée into 1-inch squares, centering the almonds (I used a 1.25-inch round cookie cutter). Chill until ready to serve.

To Assemble and Serve:

Gather the sweet, spicy, sour and salty elements of your choice. See the list above for the original ingredients. Add a pinch of the ingredients to each of the opposing corners and serve immediately.

Curiously addictive.

This is a post from Apple Pie, Patis, and Pate
Green Almonds in Cucumber Gelée

Chocolate Cherry Vanilla Ice Cream Cake

Jude — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 11:46:35 +0000

Gotta love it when experiments in the kitchen turn out great. I’ve always wanted to do some sort of ice cream cake. With the chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream recipes featured in this month’s Daring Bakers challenge, I came up with this idea. From top to bottom:

Flourless chocolate cake moistened with Kirschwasser (German “cherry water” brandy)
A thin layer of pureed cherry preserves
Plain vanilla ice cream
Frozen liquid sablé crust

If the frozen liquid sablé crust sounds weird, that’s because it’s borrowed from the Alinea cookbook. You won’t need to sneak into a laboratory and steal a tank of liquid nitrogen, though. The sablé crust is actually pretty straightforward.

The sandy textured frozen crust starts off as a normal shortbread made with a bit of almond flour. The baked sablé is then blended with oil, poured into a springform pan, and frozen to kickstart the bottom-up cake assembly.

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE’s blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

frozen liquid sablé recipe adapted from Grant Achatz’s Alinea

Chocolate Cherry Vanilla Ice Cream Cake on a Frozen Liquid Sablé Crust

makes one 8-inch ice cream cake

Components:

Flourless Chocolate Cake
Kirschwasser Simple Syrup (optional)
Pureed Cherry Preserves
Vanilla Ice Cream
Frozen Liquid Sablé Crust

Special Equipment:

For the Flourless Chocolate Cake:

Ingredients                  Volume          Ounces          Grams
semisweet chocolate, chopped                     16            454
unsalted butter         1/2 cup + 2 tbsp          5            142
whites from large eggs            5
yolks from large eggs             5

Flourless Chocolate Cake Instructions:

Preheat Oven    375ºF / 190ºC

Prepare an 8-inch springform cake pan by greasing with butter and
lining with a parchment circle.

Melt the Chocolate
                Put the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl. Set
                over a pan of simmering water and melt while stirring
                often. The bottom of the bowl should not touch the
                water.

Mix             Put the egg yolks and egg whites in separate bowls.

                Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks (do not over-whip or
                the cake will be dry).

                With the same beater, beat the egg yolks together. Add
                the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate and mix with a
                rubber spatula until smooth.

                Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture.
                Follow with remaining egg whites and fold gently only
                until the white streaks disappear.

Pan             Pour the cake batter into the prepared springform pan.
                The batter should fill the pan about 3/4 of the way full.
                Place the cake pan on a cookie sheet or sheet pan.

                Level and bake immediately.

Bake            375ºF / 190ºC for 25 minutes, or until a digital
                thermometer reads 140ºF / 60ºC.

                If you do not have a digital thermometer, the top of the
                cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester
                will appear wet.

Cool            Cool the cake on a wire rack for about 10 minutes
                before unmolding.

Baked flourless chocolate cake.

For the Kirschwasser Simple Syrup (optional):

2 tablespoons simple syrup
splash of Kirschwasser

For the Vanilla Ice Cream:

2 cups / 473 ml heavy cream
1 cup / 237 ml whole milk
2/3 cup / 134 grams granulated sugar
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Vanilla Ice Cream Instructions:

In a heavy saucepan, heat the heavy cream, milk, sugar, and salt to a bare simmer over medium-low heat, stirring until the sugar is dissolved.
Remove from the heat and add the vanilla extract.
Cool completely at room temperature. Store in an airtight container and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.
Churn to a soft consistency after making the frozen liquid sablé crust.

For the Frozen Liquid Sablé Crust:

Ingredients                  Volume          Ounces          Grams
all-purpose flour           1 scant cup           4.1          118
almond flour                      5 tbsp          1.4           39

unsalted butter, at room temp   1/4 cup           2.0           57
granulated sugar                  3 tbsp          1.3           38
salt                            1/4 tsp
egg yolk                          1      

vegetable oil                     6 tbsp          2.8           80

Frozen Liquid Sablé Crust Instructions:

Mix             Sift together the all-purpose and almond flours.

                In a separate bowl, mix together the butter, sugar,
                and salt with a rubber spatula until smooth. Add the
                egg yolk and continue mixing until well-blended.

                Slowly add the flours and continue mixing only until
                a dough is formed. Cover tightly with plastic wrap.

Refrigerate     At least 1 hour

Preheat Oven    350ºF / 175ºC

Prepare a sheet pan lined with parchment paper or silicone.

Roll Out        Turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface
                and roll out until about 1/4 inch thick.

Bake            20 minutes, until golden brown

Prepare an 8-inch springform cake pan lined with plastic wrap.

Blend           Break the the baked sablé into small pieces and place
                in a blender along with half of the vegetable oil.
                Blend on high speed while drizzling the remaining
                vegetable oil.

Freeze the Sablé
                Pour the liquefied sablé into the lined springform pan.
                Freeze for at least 1 hour or until thoroughly set.

Liquefied almond shortbread, ready to freeze.

Chocolate Cherry Vanilla Ice Cream Cake Assembly:

Freeze the Ice Cream
                Place the churned ice cream on top of the frozen liquid
                sablé and level. Freeze for at least 1 hour or until
                thoroughly set.

Fill            Unmold the frozen ice cream cake and place on a serving
                plate. Apply a thin layer of pureed cherry preserves,
                about 6 tablespoons.

To Finish       Moisten the flourless chocolate cake by lightly brushing
                with the Kirschwasser simple syrup, if using. Set the
                chocolate cake on top of the ice cream.

This is a post from Apple Pie, Patis, and Pate
Chocolate Cherry Vanilla Ice Cream Cake

Butternut Squash Soup – Recipe from Alinea

Jude — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 07:08:20 +0000

So you pick up a new cookbook and inhale that addictive new book smell. While eagerly perusing photographs and ingredient lists, you may be thinking, “I can make that,” or, “Time to pay Chinatown a visit.”

And then you somehow convince yourself that owning the Alinea cookbook is a good idea, fully intending to actually cook from it. How hard can it possibly be?

The package arrives and the familiar scent creeps up your nostrils as you flip the opening pages. You chuckle as you see “How to use this book” in the table of contents, and against your better judgment, skip to the recipes anyway.

Silence. The techniques require surgical precision. The equipment needed won’t be on sale at Sur la Table. You suddenly find yourself Googling improbable search terms such as “food-safe syringe.” Most of the ingredients are not available at Whole Foods. All of the ingredients are measured in weights, some as accurate to one-half of a gram. You can’t make anything even if everything is delineated in excruciating detail.

Until page 225, that is. Granted, this butternut squash soup is merely one component in a dish of 9 sub-recipes. In case you were wondering, the other elements are duck, curry, pumpkin seeds, peanuts, limes, and bananas. I don’t know how that works either but hopefully I’ll find out soon enough. If only I had some citric acid and soy lecithin.

recipe adapted from Grant Achatz’s Alinea
Weekend Herb Blogging hosted by We Are Never Full

Butternut Squash Soup

makes approximately 1115 grams of soup

1 butternut squash
60g (4 tablespoons) butter
300g (1 1/4 cups) heavy cream
200g (3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons) water
40g (3 tablespoons) sugar
15g (1 1/2 tablespoons) kosher salt

Equipment:

a weighing scale
a blender
a fine-mesh strainer

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350ºF/177ºC.

Cut the butternut squash in half lengthwise. Remove the pulp and the seeds. Divide the butter into two 30-gram pieces and place in the butternut squash cavity.

Buttered butternut squash. Music to my ears.

Roast for about 1 hour, or until tender.

Good enough to eat as is, but since there’s cream involved in the next step…

Scoop out 500 grams of butternut squash flesh (about 2 1/2 to 3 cups) and place in a saucepan. Add the heavy cream, water, sugar, and salt. Bring to a simmer while stirring.

Pour into a blender and blend until smooth. Strain using a fine-mesh strainer or chinois.

This is a post from Apple Pie, Patis, and Pate
Butternut Squash Soup – Recipe from Alinea