Cake Inverse

Given my profound interest in philosophy, I cannot help myself but attach meaning to a dish. Once every few months however...
The brain ticks, connecting seemingly trivial incidents disguised as a neoteric idea.

My favourite 'modernistic' piece of equipment is by far the siphon. I should not touch topics pertaining to the disasters I have had with it, or the first time I fell sick after using it.
It offers a very interesting texture- incorporating lightness without actually 'whipping' the base, per se. Sure, it does not produce a very stable foam, but the few moments after being expelled from the nozzle make up for it lack of shelf life. Unless, you freeze it that is.
In that case, you have landed yourself the technique to incorporate more fat in your base than a usual ice cream could deal with and aerate what would not be great to churn. (exceptions: soft serve)

Always warning my friends to steer clear of raw eggs, my mind ran along the idea of a cake batter. I had been thinking of using eggs in a more explicit manner, but when have they been tastier than in a cake? (more exceptions: scrambled eggs.) With a piece of a simple chocolate cake in hand, months of incubated ideas began to amalgamate- I would freeze a cake batter. Made of  baked cake. An inverse cake.

My short lived creative streak decided to travel an extra mile this time. Trying to introduce umami or salty in new ways, I was hell bent on adding crispy chicken skin. All was great, except I never had actually butchered a chicken.

After spending (just) 20 minutes simply taking the skin off in one piece, I put it in the oven with a tray on. Although next time, I try puffing it up. An hour and a half and some salt later, I removed the crispy chicken skin from my sight for obvious reasons.

Certain 'universal' flavours like caramel, vanilla and chocolate ease the adaption of some of the rather far out elements in desserts. I had my frozen chocolate cake, so I further added a vanilla custard and the chicken skin to a crispy caramel.

Acidity is just as important in a dessert as salt. My personal preference dictates addition of some aroma, in a manner that engages olfaction noticeably- enough to juxtapose a general taste perception which involves the tastebuds, and one which relies heavily on olfactory receptors. For this reason, I added the zests of four different citrus- gondhoraj, Tahitian lime, citron and blood lime. I had to be careful of the fat levels on this considering my frozen cake was heavy, so I used guar gum to thicken the milk for the ice cream to get it to the desired texture. To reinforce the zests in the ice, I made a yuzu syrup to go with it.

frozen cake batter, Ice cream of many zests, Vanilla custard, Yuzu Syrup Crispy chicken skin, Crispy chicken skin caramel

New not-so-native Ingredients

I was thrilled when I landed some native produce- not native to my country, that is. The excitement usually overshadows the doubt there is when working with new food and the hundred and one questions there like,'Okay I have tasted it, but what does it really taste like?'

My initial idea was to bring together blood limes and mascarpone, regardless of how confident I was that the two would never create a stand alone dessert. I simply couldn't get over the sheer complexity of the cheese; after all these years of eating the terrible stuff, I was not going to play around with it this time.

Speaking of blood limes- they happen to be a citrus hybrid! And they give 'caviar' just like finger limes.

Chayote. After almost a moth of googling and texting people asking what it was, I accidentally found it searching under the 'cactus' tag. A vegetable, chayote has an almost pear like smell. Guess I knew a sorbet was coming way before.

I am more keen on trying to incorporate more breads and venoisseries in my desserts and step away from cakes and crumbs for a while (I will contradict this in my next post [spoiler alert]). Now that I have learnt how to deal with puff pastry in a 40 degree weather, that was my first choice.
I added some blueberries which though not many, significantly lift the dish as a whole as I left the blood lime on as a caviar..

Puff Pastry, Raspberry Macarpone, Mascarpone anglaise, Blood Lime, Blueberries,

 Chayote Yuzu Sorbet

Morels, Truffles..

I ended up with some dried morels when I went shopping for mushrooms a few months back in a bid to try incorporating mushrooms in my desserts. Locally known as gucchi, these aesthetic mushrooms were the least easy to incorporate, as experience dictates... I had seen shimeji, shiitake and gorgeous truffles being turned into almost empyruematic, earthy desserts, some even introducing warmth to an otherwise fresh dish. But morels... incited a near aversion in me to them. Many new forms of expression out of disgust were discovered during the process. Overcoming an aversion seems to be more satisfying than gulping down gratifying creme caramels at 3 in the morning as you fight the urge to sleep. A semi helpful note- try eating a new food sans manipulation, even if that means burning a hole in your pocket.

I can hardly forget how something so amazing as morels cooked in some butter ended up tasting like burnt charcoal paper- a result of me trying to drying them post cooking. Regardless, I simply could not convince myself to surmount my disinclination towards its texture. Unsurprisingly, dried morels behaved significantly different than the fresh ones. The key to well cooked dried morels heavily relies on the hydration time before cooking. Then there's also the dirt to deal with, I wonder if they were picked from the beach. Occasional agitation during hydration does the needful.

Seemingly, pureeing was my last resort. Some cream, some meringue. Light, outspoken and great texture! However, a mousse wasn't going to suffice.

I seized the opportunity of using the white truffle oil I've had in my pantry. I've noticed while trying to incorporate unconventionals, usually salted caramel and/ or chocolate come to the rescue. Deciding to test my hypothesis, the truffle was added to an a la minute ganache (That happens to be my favorite stage of ganache crystallization)  and paired it with a salted caramel and clotted cream gelato. Did I mention I 'harvest' my own clotted cream? Goodbye UHT!

A little footnote about caramel- surely cooking sugar causes dehydration of sugar. The result is somewhat like concentrating carbon leading to a different and more difficult metabolization than sugar, making it unhealthier than table sugar. Not that I intend to be a nutritionist, I find composition and effects of food significant for the same reason most of us don't enjoy ice cream with a humongous amount of air. Kind of like biting into a choux without cream. Just some of the perks of studying science.

To underscore the flavors, I introduced nuances of tea and coffee in the texturals of the dessert.
The tea meringue in particular offers a felling similar to chewing tea leaves without the harsh bitterness. I achieved this by boiling down my tea infusion to almost obtain a concentrate so as to not compromise the desired texture of the meringue.

Acidity is another parameter to achieve equipoise in the dish. A blood lime did the job, juice sacks with its pectiny walls almost mimicking a sour, vibrant caviar. More on them in another post.

Morel Mousse, Salted Caramel and Clotted Cream Gelato, Black Tea Meringue, Baileys Pastry, A La Minute White Truffle Ganache, Pan cooked Morels and Blood Lime

'Semi' Fermented Yogurt

My aversion to yogurt in desserts was something I was willing to overcome since long. Sugar and yogurt never tasted amalgamated to my palette; instead sugar restrained to yogurt's beautiful sourness. Watching my grandmother set yogurt in a span of few hours on a cold winter day prompted me to try setting my own and reviving the practice which was nearly forgotten in my home. As it turns out, commercial yogurt does not make for a trustworthy starter.

Fiddly and inquisitive as I am, I checked the yogurt after every couple of hours and caused concern when I could see hardly any signs of setting. But just as it started to set the slightest...
there it was. the yogurt for a dessert. It tasted mildly sour and accentuated the sweetness of the milk. All was left for me to do was  make a wholesome and acidic dessert out of it.

I paired it with rhubarb for acidity and raspberry for fruitiness. Eyeing my brioche shenanigans, I baked them off with some almond cream. Turned the poaching liquid into ice- consider retaining flavor.

Poached rhubarb, semi fermented yogurt, almond brioche, raspberry caramel, rhubarb and mausambi (an Indian citrus) ice.