Campari Mango and Orange Juice Spheres

160316 Campari Juice-2331
Molecular Cooking has long intrigued me and I have just begun exploring this technique. I’d like to share one of the easiest recipes I have so far come across, almost fail-safe…

It may look like an egg yolk but it is actually a drink inside a thin membrane of jelly. A fun way to serve the pre dinner cocktail!

The technique used is called Frozen Reverse Spherification. This is the equipment I used t create this:

160316 Campari Juice Equipment-2342

For the Spheres:
200 g mango, pureed in a mixer
100 ml orange juice
3 tbsp Campari
4 g of “Gluco” (Calcium Gluconolactate – two types of salt)
Silicone moulds to freeze the semi spheres in.

Bath:
1 liter of water
5 g of algine (sodium alginate – extracted from brown algae)
A slotted spoon to fish out the spheres without any accompanying liquid.

Clean Bath:
1 liter of clean water in a wide bowl.

1. Combine all ingredients for the Campari mix and pour into the silicone moulds. Place overnight in freezer with some cling film on top.
2. Using an immersion blender, thoroughly mix the Bath until the algine is completely dissolved. This will take some time. Pour in a wide bowl and cover with cling film. Set in refrigerator overnight to let the air bubbles in the mix escape.
3. Next day, heat the Bath and the Clean Bath to around 50 C (easiest done in a microwave oven).
4. Drop one Campari Sphere at the time into the Bath, swirl around so it is coated all around (don’t let them float nor sink) and let stay in bath for 4 minutes (if you let them stay in longer the membrane will become thicker). You can do several pieces at the same time as long as they do not touch each other.
5. Using a slotted spoon, fish out the spheres and transfer to Clean Bath to rinse off.
6. Then place on a plate to thaw completely before serving.
7. You should end up with perfect semispheres of Campari and Mango/Orange Juice. They will have a thin layer of jelly around them that will pop in your mouth (they should be eaten whole) with the liquid (the drink) seeping out.
8. Fun and delicious!