Let's play to Spherification!

It seems like I was waiting for the stars were aligned so I could play Spherification, and always missing something,  the leaky spoon, or the alginate, is not easy to find this elements in the States, finally .... today was the day, everything is here, thanks to "The Modernist Pantry".

I had a goal, that was important, is the upcoming dinner of The Mediterranean Corner, it will have a spark of molecular cuisine, only a small sample,  I'm not a big fan of molecular cuisine menus crammed.

And "voila", today was born the first Spherification olive in my kitchen, but best of all, is  when you see clearly the chemicals that you have to mix, the game is endless, imagine and imagine more and more, tea spheres, mango caviar spheres, and there is no end, Ferran Adria opened the door to a world that does not end, and once you get in, you want more and more ........thanks boss.

Well, here are the Ferran's olives, and we will gradually playing and  adding in the menu, more spherifications ideas.

Here in Tickets, the olives in jars.

Teaching our gastronomic culture in Southside Christian School

This morning was special, The Mediterranean Corner had a different mission ....
Students in Spanish class of Southside Christian School, wanted to share their class time with me,
to learn a little more about gastronomic culture of our country.

It was very interesting because they were trying some  Mediterranean dishes, but also they learned cultural differences between American and Spanish gastronomic habits.

Some of them were surprised of the fact that people is cooking a lot  for daily meals, also they're amaze that many people go home and take their time eating during lunch in weekly days, and they learned the concept of "tapa", they like it.



They were eating"truites", "xorico", "pa amb tomaquet", and "flams".

They learned about red wines, holidays dishes, like Christmas desserts, and Easter cake, they learned about  sharing talks in the table after meals, the famous "siesta", and they got the opportunity to ask everything they want to know about Spain.

They have been practicing Spanish, and the truth is that I was impressed by their level.

Just thinking about Christmas Menus......

Maybe it was a good season to start this adventure, Christmas is coming and festive dinners are a good opportunity to start with Tapas.

This morning I thought of three tapas to start a menu , they are just small bites to welcome a festive menu.

The first is a nuts tempura , served in paper cones , peanuts , pistachios , sunflower seeds , pumpkin seeds , hazelnuts and cashews , finished with curry,  pimenton de la Vera, four spices, and the last with garriguette.

The second is differents shots like: pina colada, gazpacho, yogurt and cucumber , and finally one of salty "turron" (Spanish Chiristmas dessert) .

At the end to finalize the menu entry, some inflated rice finished with different flavors, some of them similars to the nuts flavors.

This would be the menu entry, which will continue with seafood tapas and meat tapas, at the end, two dessert tapas, everything is still a doubt. What do you think?

Red cross dinner with Cindy Hoffman Sobeck

The Red Cross dinner is coming and we stop working on the paper to start doing it in the kitchen. The dinner menu becomes 12 tapas,  typical, the usual, for us more of the same, for the people here, a discovery not to forget , I hope .....

It starts with a fried Marcona almonds with salt and even thinking if accompanied by a Parmesan lollipops in clear cups.

And also one Idiazabal starter will be marinated with rosemary, thyme, and garlic.

We were wondering if raspberry gazpacho will be served with a frozen dust of Idiazabal cheese, or Manchego cheese foam, recipe courtesy of Albert Franch, ( great pastry, and Grotesk's chef ), and after the test, no color, foam wins. And we end up with a fresh raspberry and call it " Cappuccino " as Albert has proposed .

Also they will taste a Mussels with whiskey sauce , pancetta and sweet onion , is an anecdote but every time we serve them, the people is asking for licking the plate, or by dragging the shells of mussels to finish the last drop of the sauce.

 Jose Andres gave name to his restaurant Jaleo and identify with a tapa that was one of the first and most typical, is also part of our menu, Onions baked with sherry vinaigrette, pine nuts and Roquefort, served at room temperature.

 Well, there are more surprises but I do not tell you more because otherwise you will not wait the pictures, next sunday, promise.

 Only we have to wait for the palates of the dinner party are ready for a new experience.

The Mediterranean Corner......"Better at home".

This is just the beginning of a small adventure that no one knows how it is going to end, maybe it doesn't have a destination, what I am sure of is that it is the beginnig of a new stage in my life. Having adapted to a new country, having to communicate with more or less ease, assuming the door that was closing when I had my accident and my arm was like Nemo, with no regrets. I found out that we can not lose time lamenting a past that will not return, and we have limited time... well, if I don't try, I will be disappointed.

Opening a door to the Mediterranean cuisine in Greenville is not going to be easy, no one said, it was, but I am for sure excited about it. As self-help cheap books say, at least die trying than give up without trying. We will try to make us a place in the American society that is not usually cooking, but has good taste. Many people don't know much about Spanish food and ingredients, but when they try it they love it. The Mediterranean Corner wants to bring to every one's home, the concept of Mediterranean cuisine that is now on the top, the Tapas. We can build a meal of tapas, or we can choose between differents dishes of the Catalan and Spanish cuisine's menu, and just wait for the surprise.

Basically a Tapa's dinner consist of 10-12 tapas with dessert included, obviusly red wines from Spain, which have nothing to envy to other wines from other countries. There is an option of dinner-class, while we are preparing dinner you can "help" or ask, hands on is allowed. Also we will talk about the food, the culture, and together we can travel to Barcelona for a while. If you don't want to do that, then wait with a glass of wine for dinner, hit the table and just smell what is cooking in your kitchen, as if the elves had come.

El Tartar de Fresa con gelatina de vinagre balsamico blanco y menta, con crema de mascarpone.

Hoy me he decidido a crear un postre que siendo la variacion de una receta conocida nada tiene que ver con la original. Despues de probar la gelatina de vinagre balsamico con menta, creo que fue el mejor regalo a mis papilas gustativas este verano.

El nivel de dificultad es medio y el tiempo de preparacion es de 1hora.

INGREDIENTES

500gr de fresas
60 ml de vinagre balsamico blanco
4 ramas de menta
2 hojas de gelatina de menta o 2 sobres de gelatina en polvo (4gr)
100gr de azucar
100gr de almendras laminadas
100gr de azucar moreno

PARA EL MASCARPONE

120gr de mascarpone
100gr de nata montada
1 hoja de gelatina
100gr de xocolate blanco
50gr de chocolate negro


PREPARACION

Vamos a infusionar el vinagre caliente y la menta durante 5min, anyadimos la mitad del azucar, y la gelatina hidratada,y 5cl de agua.Lo colamos. Lo vamos a dejar cuajar en un recipiente que sea mas bien ancho que alto.




Calentamos 50gr de mascarpone con la gelatina hidratada, anyadimos 75gr de chocolate blanco desecho, lo mezclamos y acabamos de anyadir el resto de mascarpone y la nata montada.Lo metemos a la nevera.

Cortamos las fresas a cuadritos de 5mmx5mm, y la gelatina igual. Mezclamos a las fresas la otra mitad del azucar. Lo mezclamos y lo vamos metiendo en un molde de metal para tartar, lo vamos presionando con una cuchara para que quede bien comprimido y a la hora de quitar el molde no se nos desmonte.

Sacamos el molde, lo acabamos con la mezcla de mascarpone, y podemos hacer un crujiente de almendras simplemente calentando tres cucharadas de azucar en una sarten y cuando este desecho esparcirlo de forma muy fina sobre las almendras y esperando que se enfrie y quede una lamina de caramelo que podemos cortar para anyadirla al tartar clavandolo en una esquina.

THE CLASSICALS FROM BARCELONA

Parte de la gracia de estar lejos de tu pais es que cuando tienes la posibilidad de explicar y mostrar al mundo tu cultura y tu forma de ser, parece que revivas esos momentos vividos en tu tierra, tu boca habla desde las vivencias y desde la pureza de tus orígenes, y esto el que escucha lo nota en las palabras que se llenan de anyoranza, y parece que lo que explicas proviene de un mundo ideal.

En Greenville , algunos , pudieron ir a Williams Sonoma Greenville y asistir a una pequenya muestra de platos espanyoles. Escojieron:

-Tapa de chorizo de Cantimpalo
-Tortilla Espanyola
-Gazpacho de Frambuesa
-Coulis de Frambuesa con espuma de yogur Griego.





Fue una buena ocasión para poder mostrar como funciona el IsI de hacer espumas de Ferran Adria. Para mi una de las herramientas imprescindibles en mi cocina, cuanto mas la utilizas mas te gusta es un ciclo de empezar y no acabar, de hacer volar la imaginación en forma de espuma.




El día empezó bien pronto, a las 6 de la manana, me levante para hacer algunas preparaciones que debían estar muy frías en el momento de utilizarlas. La mezcla del yogur griego con la crema de leche , el azúcar y el gas. El gazpacho de frambuesas, pasarlo por el colador chino , y finalmente a las 9am llegue a la puerta de Williams Sonoma donde me encontre una gran pizarra que ponia "LOCAL CHEF'S EVENT", me asuste, solo soy chef de mi casa!





De las 9 am, a las 12pm, que empezó el show, fue como estar de visita en el cielo, buena música, algunos clientes que entraban en la tienda para comprar y preguntaban que era lo que estábamos cocinando, y al oír mi acento evidentemente, preguntaban de donde era, y como era Barcelona.
Lo mejor, utilizar todo lo que tiene WILLIAMS SONOMA para cocinar, reconozco que la sartén doble para hacer tortillas de patata es única.

A las 11am llego Cindy, y empezó un nuevo momento, la tienda tenia a su ángel allí.

Empezó a llegar gente, y a las 12pm, empezaron a probar todos los platos en pequenyas porciones, cocinamos para 30 y falto.




Gracias amiga, esto fue el principio de un nuevo camino por donde empezar a caminar, y siempre es mas fácil ir de la mano con alguien al lado.