r Gelato, the backbone of Italian desserts, commonly made from sweet fruits, flavored cremes, and other sweet treats.
Today in class, we took the age old traditions of gelato and turned them on their head using a combination of unconvential ingredients and liquid nitrogen.
Liquid nitrogen is cold to say the least. At -321 Fahrenheit it can cause instant frost bite, and can freeze any substance almost instantaneously. This is what is used to cryogenically freeze people. It also makes great ice cream. (you can read about the rest of the scientific stuff behind it elsewhere)...
The reason it makes great ice cream is the size of the ice crystals. In conventional methods, Gelato is made in a machine that spins the base around, creating ice crystals, which are then smashed into other ice crystals, giving a creamy consistency. With liquid nitrogen, the ice crystals are much, much, much smaller when the nitrogen is mixed into the base properly. This creates a smoother mouth feel and creamer consistency than normal gelato or ice cream.
In class, we took this concept and applied it to both ice creams that could be made normally, and some that would be impossible to make without the use of liquid nitrogen.
We produced two dishes: A meringue with an yeast ice cream with white chocolate and almonds and Tuna Tartare with Bottarga and oil gelato, tomato sorbet, and iced guacamole.
The first dish: we made normal meringue, wrapped it with plastic wrap and steamed it so it would remain white and "mushy" in texture. The yeast ice cream was made my making normal ice cream base, with the addition of yeast. The yeast was allowed to bloom and then it was killed by bringing the base to a boil. From there, we transferred to a bowl and whisked in the LN2. After the ice cream was made (approx. 2.5 minutes), we plated the dessert. First came the square of meringue, then a bed of grated almonds and white chocolate, followed by a quinelle of the ice cream then garnished with silver flakes. The plate visually was stunning. While it was all hues of white, it was interesting to see how they all played off each other. The white porcelan with the stark white meringue with the dark cream of the chocolate and almond topped with a light cream of the ice cream garnished with the bright silver. The taste was different. It tasted like fresh yeast bread on a cloud of sweet air.
The second dish was the tuna tartare. For those who don't know, tartare is raw meet that is finely chopped and enhanced a touch with herbs, spices, and sauces. We topped three circles of tuna with a tomato sorbet, iced guac, and the bottarga gelato. All three of these would had been impossible to make with conventional ice cream machine, because of the fat or alcohol content. But because the nitrogen is colder than the freezing point of the culprate of these three: Oil, Alcohol, and Fat they all can be made. The colors of the three played well with the dark of the tuna providing a pop of color atop a dark base. The flavors were all around good. Bottarga, dehydrated fish roe that has been pressed, had a slight tangy salty flavor. The tomato sorbet tasted like a bloody mary and the guac tasted like, well guac (my favorite of the three flavors).
After class, we went to lecture where we learned about the history of ice cream and watched a dialogue-less documentary against the industrialization of food called Our Daily Bread. Neither one I found very intriguing.
After a short nap at the apartment, I headed to Ganzo for dinner service. I was on pantry/dessert with 4 other people (yes we are a bit overstaffed for a kitchen that can run with 4 people including the dishwasher). We got out around 11, then it was off to home and bed for me.
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