Aquarian chef Roberto Cortez taught me to create ‘caviar’ from Blue Curacao liqueur for an Aquarian cocktail. Spherification class on April 7th.
A chef and his laptop
The chemicals
Step 1
Step 4
Step 6
Step 7
Step 7
Step 9
To turn a liquid into a sphere:
Step 1:
Take 1 litre of water
6 g of Calcium chloride
Hand whisk it until fully dissolved.
Step 2:
1.5g of Sodium Citrate (Sodium salt of Citric Acid) This is important for regulating the ph balance.
2.6g Sodium Alginate (this reacts with the lactate)
30g of caster sugar
100ml water.
Step 3:
Add sugar to Citrate then add the 100ml water.
Step 4:
Use a hand blender to emulsify the blend. Do it in something tall and narrow, this way you have a better distribution of the chemicals.
Step 5:
Add the Sodium Alginate. Use hand blender until slightly thickened and dissolved.You get a funky reaction. It doesn’t dissolve easily.
Step 6:
Boil the Citrate/Alginate mixture in a small pan with not too much water. Whisk it as it boils. After 30 seconds it looks like wallpaper paste.
Step 7:
Strain it always to get rid of any bits, into a jug.
Leave to cool to room temperature.
Step 8:
Then take 350 g of Blue Curacao (or whatever you have decided to use). Incorporate it into the Citrate/Sodium Alginate mixture. If you can leave this mixture a while to settle.
Step 9:
Using a squeezy bottle (smell first) or a syringe to make droplets into the Calcium Chloride and water. Do it in small batches, say 20-30 at a time, otherwise they will all have different ‘cooking’ times. The first drops will have a thicker skin than the later drops. Leave it 2 -3 minutes. Scoop them out with a sieve or tea strainer in a scooping motion.
Step 10:
Rinse the droplets, which have now turned to ‘caviar’, liquid with a skin membrane which remains liquid inside, in fresh water, to take away any residual chemical taste.
The Raspberry Pomegranate ‘air’.
Take 600m juice
5g Soy Lecithin powder
90g sugar
A box of fresh raspberries
Big slug of Kir.
You mix all the ingredients together with a hand blender in one corner of the bowl. This way the froth consists of similar size bubbles.
hi, interesting blog, er I just had a thought upon seeing your blue spheres and the obvious effort than went into them – did you think of trying tapioca? You can buy it already coloured from some chinese supermarkets or maybe soak the plain stuff in something coloured and it would look just like that…maybe.
then again it would also have a completely different texture, I didn’t consider that!
Hi! We have a little tutorial video on Spherfication on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZhTAUwCDW8
and also a comparison between 2 ‘caviarmakers’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2e6MeYSiJ-Y