Broken Beet Salad
Beet marinade
115 grams pure
cranberry juice
80 grams Vin
Cotto
50 grams soy
sauce
Blend the
ingredients together and reserve.
Broken Beets
450 grams peeled
red beets
2 liters of
liquid nitrogen
Beet marinade
Pour the liquid
nitrogen into a Styrofoam cooler. Put the beets into the nitrogen and allow
them to freeze solid. When the beets are frozen and beginning to crack apart
from the extremely cold temperature, use a slotted spoon to remove them from
the nitrogen into a large stainless steel bowl. While the beets are still rock
solid, use a meat mallet to break and fragment the beets into chunks ranging in
size from 1-3cm. When the beets are broken, pour the marinade over the beets
and place the entire container in the refrigerator to thaw out. The beets will
thaw and slowly blend their own juices with the marinade. When the beets are
completely thawed, put them and the marinade in a vacuum bag and seal on high
pressure. Place the sealed beets in a water bath set at 83 degrees Celsius. Cook
the beets for one and a half hours. When the beets are cooked, remove them from
the water bath and place the sealed bag into an ice bath to cool the beets.
Once the beets are ice cold, cut open the bag and pour the beets and the
marinade into a shallow pan.
Glazed Beets
250 grams beet
cooking liquid
0.5 grams
xanthan gum
Strain the beets
in a fine mess strainer. Reserve 250 grams of the beet liquid and discard any
extra. Place the beet liquid in a blender and turn it on low. Increase the
speed until a vortex forms in the blender. Sprinkle the xanthan gum into the
vortex in order to evenly disperse it. Once the xanthan gum is dispersed, turn
the blender off and pour the thickened beet liquid into a shallow pan, which
will fit in a chamber vacuum sealer.
To remove the air incorporated by blending the beet liquid, place it in a container so that it comes only one third of the way up the sides. Place the container in the chamber of the vacuum machine and close the lid. The vacuum pulled on the chamber will begin to pull the air bubbles out of the beet liquid. The liquid will begin to climb the sides of the container and when it comes to just below the edge of the rim, shut the machine off. The chamber will then fill with air again and the beet liquid will shrink back down in the dish having dispelled many of its air bubbles. This process should be repeated until the beet liquid loses 95% of its air bubbles and changes from pale purple to an intense concentrated purple-red. Pour the beet liquid back over the broken beets and stir to cover evenly. The thickening of the liquid allows the pieces of beet to be uniformly covered in their own flavorful juices. Reserve the dressed beets in the refrigerator.
Black olive crisp
300 grams oil
cured olives
Place the olives
in a pot and cover them with cold water. Bring the olives and water to a simmer
and turn off the heat. Pour the water off of the olives, and then pat the
olives dry on a paper towel. This process will remove the excess oil coating
the olives, as well as some bitterness and salinity.
285 grams
blanched olives
205 grams
cranberry juice
110 grams
glucose
90 grams isomalt
pan spray
8 pieces of
acetate 5 cm wide and 15 cm long
Place the
ingredients into a pot and bring to a simmer. Cook the mixture until the liquid
reduces to a thick syrup and glazes the olives. Turn the heat off and pour the
hot olives and the residual syrup into a blender. Turn the blender on low and
increase the speed. Puree the olives until they are completely smooth. During
this process use a rubber spatula to scrape the olive puree down the sides of
the blender so that everything is equally pureed. Once the olive puree is
smooth, scrape it out of the blender top and into a fine mesh strainer. Press
the olive puree through the strainer to remove any coarse pieces of olive.
Place the olive puree into a container and reserve in the refrigerator until
cold.
Spray the
acetate sheets with pan release and then use a paper towel to wipe off the
excess spray leaving a fine film. Lay the sheets on a flat counter and then use
an off set spatula to spread a fine layer of the olive puree on the sheet. The
layer should be just under a millimeter in thickness. Once all the sheets are
evenly coated, place them in a dehydrator on medium and let dry until the
surface is completely dry to the touch. When the top of the crisp is dry, peel
the acetate from the back of the olive sheet and place the crisps back in the
dehydrator to dry completely. The olive crisps will be flat, dry and delicate
when they are done. Remove them from the dehydrator and let cool on a counter
top for a minute, then place them in a container with several silica gel packs
to prevent the crisps from getting soggy. Reserve the crisps.
Cashew Yogurt
225 grams raw cashews
400 grams filtered or spring water
375 grams swollen cashews
200 grams spring or filtered water
25 grams of agave nectar
2 grams salt
cheese cloth
In a bowl, cover the raw cashews with the water. Cover the bowl with plastic and place in the refrigerator overnight. The following day, strain the water off of the cashews and rinse the nuts. The swollen cashews should now weigh substantially more having absorbed the water. Place 375 grams of swollen cashews in the blender. Add the water, salt, and agave nectar. Turn the blender on low and slowly increase the speed. Puree the mixture until it is smooth and homogenous. Turn the blender off and pass the mixture through a fine mess strainer. Line another strainer with two layers of dampened cheesecloth and place the cashew puree in cheesecloth. Place the strainer in a bowl so that the cashew mixture in the cheesecloth is suspended and any extra moisture will drain out of the puree. Lightly cover the strainer with plastic wrap and place the cashew into the refrigerator to drain overnight. The following day, remove the thickened cashew yogurt from the cheesecloth and place in a squeeze bottle. Discard any drained liquid.
Cranberry Jelly
150 grams dried cranberries
130 grams dark rum
30 grams dark muscovado sugar
2 grams salt
245 grams cranberry base
150 grams cranberry juice
150 grams water
1.1 grams high acyl gellan
1.1 grams low acyl gellan
Put the dried cranberries, dark rum, muscovado sugar and salt in a pot and bring to a simmer. Tilt the pot to flame the rum and turn off the heat. When the flame subsides, place the mixture in a blender and puree until smooth. Strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer pressing on the solids with a ladle to extract as much cranberry as possible.
Weigh the cranberry base. It should weigh 245 grams. If there is extra base, subtract that amount from the water required in the recipe and if the weight is less than 245 grams add extra cranberry juice to supplement the missing cranberry puree.
Combine the cranberry base, cranberry juice and water in a blender. Turn the blender on low and increase the speed until a vortex forms. Sprinkle both types of gellan into the vortex and let blend for five seconds. Turn off the blender and pour the cranberry mixture into a pot. Cook the cranberry mixture, stirring constantly, until it reaches ninety degrees C. When the mixture reaches ninety degrees C the gellan will be properly hydrated and the mixture may be poured into a 20cm by 20cm square Pyrex pan. Pour the mixture from pot to pan quickly and smoothly because the presence of the gellan in the mixture causes the cranberry jelly to set very quickly. Place the pan in the refrigerator to cool.
When the jelly is cold, remove it from the pan and cut it into 32 rectangles 2cm long and 1.5 cm wide. Reserve these jellies on a tray in the refrigerator. There will be more cranberry jelly than is needed for this dish and extra may be reserved for another use.
To Assemble
Glazed Broken Beets
Cashew Yogurt
Cranberry Jellies
Olive Crisps
40 small purslane sprigs
