We have been chasing the idea of aerated for a long time. My first hopes were for aero foie, which we worked on for the dinner with Sean, and just could not get it right. Our caramelized white chocolate and foie was initially planned as an aerated preparation. Once again, failure. In that time we saw aero foie executed brilliantly at wd-50. We let the idea rest and percolate and finally it dawned on me. We needed a means to capture the aerated foie or chocolate or lemon curd in full aeration and keep the vacuum drawn so that we could cool the product and preserve the bubbles. This was not an easy task. Actually, it is much easier than we imagined. What we needed was a micro vacuum chamber. Something which would hold a vacuum even after the vacuum in our chamber machine was filled with air. Whatever could we use? Duh, mason jars. They are designed for preservation and holding a vacuum. They have been around for years and successfully done their job, just not in the actual capacity we were planning.
Today I had the opportunity to run our ideas through to execution. I spent the day doing a workshop with Shola and guess what, he had a full pantry of mason jars. With them in hand, we ran two full tests one using grapefruit juice, versa whip and xanthan gum, the other, chocolate set with agar and gelatin, (our LBG is still in storage). Both preparations were frozen and then plated and they not only showed promise, they proved absolutely serviceable, delicious, and spot on. The grapefruit aero-snow is to be paired with mozzarella soup and pistachio smoked shrimp. The chocolate, well I'm not quite sure what to pair it with, though the formulation will work quite well when we revisit foie gras and chicken liver preparations. The texture of the aerated chocolate is light and delicate with the first texture of mousse melting into the mouth-feel of pudding.
*thanks to Shola for the picture of the aero chocolate
