labneh labneh labneeeh

Ever since my family switched to commercial yogurt, I've almost forgotten what the home made one tastes like. Sure, its almost got a cheese like set, but it usually all I can perceive is th tartness fro the yogurt that should last 2 weeks (sad, real sad yogurt).

As it turns out labneh is a super thick yogurt- well beyond the greek. When done right, for me it happens to be a bit reminiscent of cultured cream. Technically, it should make a nice gelato- which it did, especially by using invert sugar, which prevented a lot of technical flaws to otherwise occur. 

Yogurt, providing the white of the canvas, was ready to take on a shade of lime leaf. Just like vanilla makes almost everything better and cohesive, the lime leaf added another dimension.  

With room for acidity to be present, I felt sea buckthorn could be played with here. Turns the Himalayan region grows these really delicious berries, which ended up in a sorbet.

I wanted to avoid using any wheat based products for crunch, but couldn't quite figure out what it would be until I tried the dist with some freeze dried raspberries, which tasted like the best raspberry I've had in years.  

I still wanted an egg yolk in there. It works well in dishes with a sharp zing (the sorbet and raspberries) giving a little extra heaviness for the other components to relieve. An egg yolk custard, tocino de cielo is made with just the yolks, sugar and water. Bearing that in mind, I poached the egg yolk in a lime leaf syrup instead- enough for the outside film to become custard like and manageable, and the inside runny. It worked out pretty well, though I felt that the sugar syrup would need to be much thicker. 

Labneh and lime leaf gelato, freeze dried raspberries and basil, ''tocino del cielo'', sea buckthorn sorbet 

Microgreens make a light dessert

I'm not sure what to write today. It's just one of those days perhaps- when you sleep/ stay up through the night trying to crack a dessert idea, settling to put your big girl pants on and JUST DO IT! (Cc Shia lebeouf)

My recent trip to a market in New Delhi landed me some elusive produce- inclusive of passionfruit, sage, and some nice micro greens. I was really hoping to do something simple yet surprising,  but this was to be churned out in under an hour  (I have to study math first thing in the morning usually, this was some respite). In a way, it turned out to be special in its own right- a part of it felt almost salad like, against the very existence of dessert with all the freshness and acidity in there. The mousse pulls it back to the ground.

As per usual, I was very keen on skipping chocolate to bridge together Beetroot micro greens to the yuzu and chestnut mousse; coffee and kinako seemed like my best shot (which it turned out to be, was).

During one of the weddings this year, I was served some passionfruit with black salt. It was hands down the best thing I ate all week, especially with its lesson in simplicity. Sensing the need for cold, I took my sakte passionfruit and froze it- resulting in a nice and crunchy ice disk. The black salt really makes an impact.

On a side note: enoki mushrooms are the vegetarian meat noodles of this world.

Yuzu and Chestnut Mousse, Frozen Passionfruit with black salt, Beetroot Microgreens, Kinako and Coffee crumble

The many forms of soy

I remember reading about kinako a while back- on how the Japanese used it as a powder and sprinkled it on things like icing sugar. Turned out, it was actually roasted soy bean powder, and considering it couldn't be too hard, I gave it a go. This is my first dessert with this beautiful product with only a single word in my vocabulary to describe the taste- toasty.

Now that it has cooled down significantly enough to temper chocolate, it was time to return to doing chocolate bars while I could. after rosting the whole soybeans, I soaked the in some water overnight and blended them into a pste. This paste was turned into what was a ganache that revealed the tangents coffee, chocolate and roasted soy shared.

Now that I was using soy, why not use miso for salt? With no cream to make a traditional caramel, I made a butterscotch candy instead, adding the miso and vanilla before leaving it out to set and cool.

The taste of kinako like I said before, had a little nudge of coffee. I've seen chefs use ground coffee beans but they've never really worked for me- it tastes too much like grit in cream. Up until late... when I accidentally landed on just then right coffee grind, with a crunch rather than 'sand'. Mixed with a little palm sugar to not let the bitterness of the coffee be overwhelming for the Indian palette,

Side note: chocolate and coffee are pretty acidic, so I ditched the idea of a galgal pate de fruit. This could be your  cheat day protein bars perhaps...

Kinako Ganache, Miso Vanilla Butterscotch Caramels, Coffee and Palm Sugar

Fry your brekkie

Just that rhubarb foam deserves a dish of its own.

Fried ice cream has been on my list to try since I ate it (so a few years). The first when I heard of it, it felt so against the entire premise of ice cream! Met with my childish concerns of 'how on earth can it not melt' in conjunction with my limited knowledge of food, I was in awe of this creation. Up until very recently, when I learnt that it's only fried for about 10-15 seconds- that too protected by some other dry ingredients like bread crumbs or cake, which helps the ice cream to maintain a decent temperature while creating a stable outer coat for it.

I, though wanted to skip this coat, knew it wasn't possible for one other reason- the tempura would not really cling to the ice cream. It would fry off more or less, exposing the poor ice cream to melt away in sadness. (cc- ice cream and sadness). So, how do you turn a dessert into a not so healthy breakfast? With oats, of course! Which went well with a really nice tempura.

I paired rhubarb with a coffee and toasted rye ice cream, but the idea of the dish stems from the foam. The making of the rhubarb sorbet revealed that perhaps some fruits simple do make better sorbets than others- because of the massive contribution of solids from using the entire fruit, making the mixture more viscous. The rhubarb was stewed till it completely lost shape, blended to get a foam base sufficiently thick. I always season rhubarb with vanilla, without fail; I can't quite describe what it does, but in a way it brings these hidden flavours in the rhubarb in a complementary manner, just like adding a certain amount of sugar to yuzu does. With a texture that great, the siphon seemed a nice idea, though not without hesitation- the siphon can really aerate batters, and at times it can be almost like bubbles, a texture I wasn't after. Honestly, I was surprised with this one. I cannot begin to describe how happy the mouthfeel of the foam made me feel.

I wanted a last go at rhubarb and chocolate with raspberry, but wanted the dish to be very central to the ice cream and the foam. I decided to a nice tuile keeping in line with the thin crunch of the tempura, with some cocoa nibs tossed in raspberry powder and licorice for an extra kick of flavour.

Toasted Rye and Balinese Coffee fried ice cream, Oats, Chocolate Tuile, Rhubarb Foam, Licorice Nibs and Lyo Raspberry

The happiness within