Alpha

It's the middle of the night, so this seems as good a time as any to embark on my new digital journey. I can't sleep from all of the recent inspiration I've had - from tonight's foray into home-cooked molecular gastronomy, then browsing dozens of beautiful home decor and DIY blogs, to the launch of my Etsy site. I want to stay up all night and make creative, cute, original STUFF!

However, I'll begin by giving you a glimpse into tonight's aforementioned caprese dinner. The inspiration comes from a Freakonomics Radio podcast my husband and I heard on NPR last year, with Alice Waters ("the godmother of the slow food movement") and Nathan Myhrvold (Modernist Cuisine cookbook author and chemist/chef) comparing and contrasting food philosophies. A short time later, we saw the documentary El Bulli - Cooking in Progress at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. This Christmas, the ZoPère Noël brought my husband a Cusine R-Evolution kit. I pride myself on being a budding foodie and decent sous-chef, so now that we have moved closer to our gastro-version of "mecca" - Chez Panisse - I figured it was time to create a chemical reaction of our own. Or two.

BASIL-PARSLEY SPAGHETTI
2 cups basil-parsley
3/4 cup water (H20 somehow seems more appropriate)
1 sachet agar-agar

First, we blended the herbs and water in a blender.

Next, we boiled the mixture and filled it into three little tubes with a special food syringe. We then put the tubes in an ice bath for three minutes.

Finally, we used the empty food syringe to push the "spaghetti" out of the tube and onto the plate. Overall, this process was pretty easy!

BALSAMIC VINEGAR CAVIAR
2/3 cup olive oil
2/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1 sachet agar-agar

First, we put the olive oil in the freezer for half an hour. Then, we brought the vinegar and agar-agar to a boil.

Then, we used the syringe to drop individual drops of balsamic vinegar into the glass of icy olive oil. Needless to say, the correct timing with respect to temperature and force on the syringe was difficult to master and the "caviar" looked like it had had pebbles mixed into it.

Finally, we sliced up two Roma tomatoes and mozzarella ... and voilà! Our very own caprese creation!

FINAL THOUGHTS: 

The culinary experience was very unique because of the unfamiliar texture/flavor associations. I might scale down the serving size next time and focus more on the visual aesthetic, since at this point, that is the novelty of this project. The pure balsamic vinegar "caviar" was flavorful, but the watery "spaghetti" was slightly bland. Overall, it was worth our combined efforts and I'm excited to try different food textures in other recipes, using sodium alginate or one of the other alien ingredients we received in our kit. When will we make this next meal, you might ask? Well, my dear, the answer is blowing in the chocolate wind ...