Tag Archives: foam

Marinated Carrots with Fennel Foam

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A healthy, tasty and colourful starter! Sometimes, I add a few drops of brandy to the foam (a little goes a very long way) which adds a rounder flavour. Possible a drop of vinegar would have the same effect?

2 large carrots, thinly sliced (best to use a mandolin slicer)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
Sea salt

Some fresh spinach leaves on the plate to serve on.

1. Heat oven on high grill setting
2. Toss the carrot slices with juice, oil and salt. Leave for 30 minutes.
3. Place the carrot slices on an oven sheet
4. Roast under the grill for about 10 minutes, until slightly charred and caramelized

Fennel Foam:
1 fennel bulb, tips and “grassy tops” only
Water
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A few drops agave syrup
Dash of salt
½ tsp olive oil

½ tsp lecithin

1. Cut off the tops (including the grassy parts) from the fennel bulb. The bulb can be saved for use another time.
2. Bring some water to boil and blanch the tops for 30 seconds.
3. Remove the tops from the boiling water and put in an ice bath (to secure the green colour).
4. When cool, place in blender with a 2 table spoons of water. Add some more water if needed. You want a smooth, thick mix but do not over blend.
5. Add the syrup, salt and oil. Blend briefly to mix.
6. Set aside until you are ready to make the foam (may be prepared and kept in the fridge until the following day)
7. Mix in the lecithin.
8. Pour the mix into a large shallow container. Using a handheld blender, incorporate air into the mix, thus creating a foam. Might take a few minutes! Spoon off the foam into a separate bowl and repeat until you have a bowl of foam.

Serve the carrots with the foam on top.

Alternative to the foam:
If you’d rather make a fennel cream to go with the carrots, you can either mix in a couple of tablespoons of coconut cream or some double cream. No lecithin. By choosing the coconut cream you will have less of the fennel taste and, instead, some coconut flavour which goes wonderfully with the carrots.

(On this photo I have sprinkled some black, Hawaiian salt on top.)

Parmesan Foam, Parmesan Risotto, Parmesan Spinach Noodles

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Risotto w SpinachParmesan Noodles-3933

Parmesan Parmesan Parmesan

Do you love parmesan? Then this recipe is for you!

Parmesan foam, parmesan risotto and parmesan/spinach noodles – yum!
Also, why not play with some agar liquid parmesan/spinach (or cranberry) shapes for the decorations?

Serves 4

Start by making the noodles. They are quite easy.

The Parmesan Noodles:
300 ml water
150 g frozen chopped spinach
300 ml water
400 ml parmesan cheese, finely grated
1,5 tsp agar agar

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1. Bring the water and spinach to a boil. Using a handheld immersion blender, mix into a “spinach water”.
2. In a separate pan, bring the water and parmesan cheese to a boil. Take off heat and let sit for 10 minutes. The cheese will sink to the bottom and you can slowly pour the “parmesan-water” into the spinach water. Throw away the cheesy remains at the bottom of the pan.
3. Add the agar agar
4. Simmer a few minutes.
5. Pour onto a flat tray and refrigerate.
6. When you have a solid “pasta sheet” on your tray, cut the sheet into thin tagliatelle strips.

As always with agar agar, if you don’t have a solid anough outcome you can always reheat the mix on the stove and add some more agar agar.

You can also play with other shapes and liquids for decoration.

For the serving, if you want, you can heat the noodles slightly by placing them in a colander and pouring some warm (not hot) water over them.

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The Parmesan Risotto:

1 leek, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
Butter
500 ml mushrooms of your choice, sliced
300 ml risotto rice
4-500 ml vegetable broth
200 ml white wine
200 ml grated parmesan
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Sautee the leek and garlic in butter over low heat in a thick bottom pan.
2. Add the mushrooms and fry until most of the water is gone.
3. Add the risotto rice and gently sauté while stirring. You don’t want to burn the kernels.
4. Warm the wine and broth mix.
5. Slowly add, a bit at the time, the warm liquid, to the risotto rice. As soon as the rice have gone dry you can add some more liquid. Keep simmering until most of the liquid is used up. Taste the rice to make sure that the kernels are a little bit “al dente”, not too mushy, but creamy.
6. Remove from heat and add the grated parmesan, stir until melted and incorporated into your risotto.
7. Add some pepper (but probably no salt) to taste.

The Parmesan Foam (I found this recipe at instructables.com):
300 ml water
400 ml parmesan cheese
2 g soy lecithin

1. In a saucepan, bring the parmesan and the water to a boil, use an immersion blender to make sure that it is well blended.
2. Let boil for a few minutes.
3. Take off heat and let the cheese solids sink to the bottom.
4. Carefully pour the parmesan water into a shallow container.
5. Tilt the container slightly as you whisk air into the mix with an immersion blender.
6. A thick foam will appear. Spoon it off into a separate bowl and continue to create some more foam.
7. The foam will only stay stable for about 20 minutes so it is best to make the foam as the last of your dinner preparation.

Tricolore Ice Cream with Frozen Choco Air

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This dessert is more on presentation than actually cooking. On the web, I found some beautiful photos of this ice cream which formed the inspiration to this dish.
The ice cream is wonderful on its own but the addition of the frozen chocolate air adds a lot to the presentation.
Normally, foams/airs should be strong in flavour as it has a lot of air in them (with no flavour). But for the frozen air, don’t use any stronger chocolate than 70%.

Ingredients:
2 kinds of ice-cream (or sorbets), slightly thawed. As per the original recipe, I used mango and vanilla flavours.

The berry sauce:
250 g blackberries (frozen berries work well too).
75 ml concentrated black current juice
3 tbsp gin

Frozen Choco Air:
100 g dark chocolate, chopped
250 ml water
½ tsp soy lecithin

1. Process the ingredients for the berry sauce in a blender until smooth. For a completely smooth sauce, pour the sauce through a strainer/cheese cloth. Reserve some of the sauce for decoration.
2. Line a shallow casserole dish with baking parchment. Alternate spoonfuls of the two ice creams at the bottom of the dish, add the berry sauce in the gaps between the spoonfuls. Make two layers. You want to avoid any air bubbles. Place in freezer for 2-3 hours.
3. Bring the water for the Frozen Choco Air to a boil. Add the chopped chocolate. Remove from heat and stir until melted. Cool.
4. In a shallow dish, add the soy lecithin to the chocolate mixture and using an immersion blender, incorporate as much air as possible into the foam. The best way of doing this is to tilt the dish slightly and keep half of the blender outside the mixture while blending. There will be splatter so keep the bowl partially covered with cling film.
5. After 4-5 minutes you should have some foam. Spoon the foam (no liquid, just foam) onto a tray covered with baking parchment. Form little piles. Continue blending to make some more foam and then spoon that foam as well onto the tray.
6. When done, place in freezer for 1-2 hours.
7. Serving: Cut the ice cream into squares. Using a spatula, take some spoon and place on top of ice cream. Do not touch the foam with your hands as it will instantly melt. Placing it on top of the frozen ice cream allows the foam to stay in shape for a longer time. Decorate with the reserved sauce.
8. Serve immediately. If you decide to omit the foam, please find below some alternative plating ideas.

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Crusted Haddock with Chorizo Foam

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Serves 4

Tomato Salad:
300 g cherry tomatoes, quartered
150 g snow pea pods, sliced
1 red onion, finely chopped

Dressing:
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt
(a few drops of Agave syrup to create a balanced dressing and bring out the flavours, optional)

Crust:
150 g blanched almonds, chopped
100 g sesame seeds
Salt and pepper

500 g haddock, fillets (or cod, if preferred)
2-3 tbsp olive oil

Foam:
200 g chorizo, cut into pieces
250 ml heavy cream
200 ml milk

1. Prepare the salad. Combine the dressing and pour on top. Set aside.
2. Toast the chopped almond in the oven for 5-6 minutes on 200C. Add the sesame seeds and toast another 2-3 minutes.
3. Cover the fish in olive oil, dip into crusted mixture. Fry in a pan for 1-2 minute on each side. Then place on baking sheet (if the crumbs fall off, add a few more). Bake in oven for 5 minutes, or until done.
4. Fry the chorizo in a pan until a lot of the flavoursome oil has seeped out. Add the cream and simmer for 6-7 minutes. Add the milk, bring to a boil and then remove from heat. Remove the chorizo pieces (and discard them) by straining the mixture into a deep pan. Let cool for a few minutes.
5. To create the foam, use a hand held immersion blender, tilt the pan a bit on its side so that half the blender is in the liquid and the other half is not. When you run the blender on maximum speed a foam will be created. You need to have a lot of air flowing in thus the tilting of the pan is important. Mix for a few minutes until a thick foam is created.
6. Place the tomato salad and the fish on individual plates, spoon over the foam and serve immediately.

Leftover salad and crust:
For a delicious leftover lunch, use the salad, add some protein (halloumi, tuna, chicken…) and drizzle the crust (sesame and almond mix) on top.

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Asian Octopus Foam Starter

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1606 Asian Octopus Soup -1710
I was served this amazing soup in a Spanish tapas bar and loved the lemon grass flavour together with the octopus. The recipe below is a recreation of that dish.
Unfortunatly, when recreating this, I did not have my ISI Whipper nearby but if you have one, then just strain the soup, pour it into the canister, charge with 1 cream charger and discharge into the soup bowl. Add the octopus and chopped chili. Creating a foam of the soup gives another, very interesting, texture to this soup.

Serves 2 as a main course

½ medium sized potato
300 ml water
2 kaffir lime leaves, shredded
½ stalk of lemon grass, chopped
½ small chili, chopped, seeds removed
Salt and pepper
3 tbsp lime juice
100 ml whipping cream/double cream.
Red and/or green chili, finely chopped for decoration
200 g octopus, finely sliced or in bite size pieces

1. Boil the potato with the kaffir lime, chili and the lemon grass in the water.
2. Puree using an immersion blender.
3. Add the salt and pepper, lime juice and cream.
4. Heat and then whisk to create a bit of a foam.
5. Heat the octopus in the soup or in a separate pan (depending if it is pre-cooked or raw).
6. Place in serving bowls and decorate with the chopped chili.