We received a shipment of old and new spices from Terra Spice as well as an assortment of freeze dried fruits. When eating freeze dried fruits the first thought that comes to mind is the freeze dried ice cream of yore. I actually never ate the stuff, but I remember the packaging and hearing about the lovers and haters of the product.
Once we opened the parcels we began tasting the ingredients: pineapple, coconut, strawberry, banana, apricot, blueberry, corn. As we were eating tastes and textures mingled and we began to see the incredible possibilities of these products. I put together a playful bite in a spoon--coconut powder, pineapple and strawberry. It was a crunchy strawberry daiquiri. The flavors of these freeze dried fruits is intense and pointing. Ideal for directing and coaxing the flavors in dishes.
This morning we assembled a dish inspired by the Hawaiian Poke. Well, we used tuna cubes. The dish consisted of tuna cubes, melon cubes, celery relish, chives, tequila vinegar and sake cured roe. To the side of this mixture we made a dry crumble of freeze dried pineapple and coconut accented with smoked peppercorns. The dry seasonings are the crunchy seasonings added by the diner bite by bite.
