Lesson 1: Module 7 Summary
Private: Lecture Summary 7
Module 7 – Molecular Gastronomy
Topics to Cover:
Spiralizing (Pasta/noodles) (Carrots+Courgettes)
Sauces (Garlic/Tomato/Pesto)
Salad (Large – avocado, tomato, coleslaw, leaves, tempeh, ONIONS, seasoning, oil, seeds, sprouts, kimchi.)
Coleslaw (Cabbage, grated carrot + mayo)
Carpaccio of Beetroot – salt / oil to marinate – Sweet pot
Caviar of Beetroot – salt to marinate – whole turnup
Real Caviar – Spherefication
Foaming with leitchen
Beetroot Jelly Spheres (1g Sodium Alginate in 100 ml beetroot juice, dropped into both of 1000 ml water mixed with 10g calcium lactate)
Low temp smoking – Onion skins
Onions as prebiotic – 12 g daily = 140g of onion = 1 large onion
Salt for sodium – 5 g sodium daily – 1 teaspoon – 20 pinches
Watch chefs table before exam
Molecular Gastronomy – Social – Artistic – Technical
Gelification – Jelly
I like to make herbal jelly. Make herbal tea of choice, add 1 teaspoon of agar agar per 500 ml of water.
Brew for 10 minutes at 80 degrees to activate agar agar, then strain into blender and blend with flavor of choice such as
orange juice / spirulina / goji berry other fruits. Add nuts/seeds or seed or nut butter for a creamer jelly.
Blend and pour into mould then set.
Carpaccio
Beetroot works best for this. Slice as thin as possible using only a mandolin, a knife will not out thin enough. Marinate slices with oil, salt onion and fear overnight. Marinate in a lunchbox, jar or vaccum sealed bag. This will break down the cell wall of the beetroot and infuse with flowers of onion + apples.
Vegetable Tartare
To make the tartare, simply blend all marinated ingredients together just very slightly so not too smooth and wet.
Use sprouts for base of tartare and add blended mixture on top using a chef ring and just dress the plate.
Benefits of sprouts
Sprouts are baby plants in their prime. At this stage of growth they have a greater concentration of proteins, vitamins and minerals,
enzymes, RNA, DNA, bio flavonoids, T cells etc than at any other point in the plants life even when compared to the mature vegetable.
Sprouts are also always grown organically. Because sprouts are baby plants they have very delicate cell wall which release nutrients very easily.
These nutrients are in elemental form and along with the abundance of enzymes they are so easy to digest. Sprouts (baby plants) trap the energy of the sun and convert it to chlorophyll. Eating fresh, live clorophyll rich foods nourishes every cell of our bodies and increases stamina.
Wheatgrass is a variety of grass that is used like a herbal medicine for its therapeutic and nutritional properties. Its most therapeutic roles are blood purification, liver detoxification and colon cleansing. There are 118 elements on the periodic table that have been discovered, 98 of which are naturally accruing and wheatgrass juice contains an INCREDIBLE 96 of the elements from the table. Wheatgrass is also an amazing (complete) protein, providing all the essential amino acids as well as 92 of the possible 102 trace minerals that are recognised to be available in plants. Simply put its liquid gold. Phyto-chemicals are chemical compounds that occur naturally in plants and they have been shown to help prevent and reverse disease and pre mature ageing. Now over the past several decades the scientific community has conducted literally thousands of studies showing how phyto chemicals can destroy every form of cancer virus and bacteria they researched. Wheatgrass juice provides the most complete and concentrated source of theses phyto chemicals. In fact NO FOOD comes even close to the nutritional profile of wheatgrass juice.
“I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey – work of the stars” – Walt Whitman
Wheatgrass is a cornucopia of enzymes and nutrients and There is abundance of minerals, amino acids, chlorophyll and carotenoids
Wheatgrass purifies our blood, kills harmful bacteria viruses, while helping to build healthy cells, provides us with real energy, speeds up detoxification, regenerates the liver, rids our body of toxins including helping to flush away the man made chemicals and drug deposits found buried deep in our tissues, minimises damage caused by radiation, relieves constipation and helps to lower blood pressure and control blood sugar.
Civiche
Fruit or vegetable can be made by marinating or pickling fruit or veg, then chopping very small and seasoning with lemon/lime juice + herbs
like cilantro. A great example of this is using black grapes deseeded + diced small, add diced peppers + onions and season with lime juice + fresh herbs.
Another option is cauliflower ceviche, again it’s best to pickle or marinate first to break down cell wall + infuse flavour.
Recipes:
Gelification- Jelly using agar agar
Spiralising- Pasta using courgettes, garlic, oil and herbs
Vaccum sealing- Carpaccio of beetroot with onion + pear
Emulsification- Foam using soy lecithin
Siphon whipping- Espuma using xanthan gum + siphon whipper
Sous vide- Using vaccum sealer and water bath
Spherification- Using sodium alginate and calcium lactate
Misting- Using rose water
Smoking- Infuse dish with smoke of wood, herb, spice, flower
Carpaccio- Using mandolin and salt
Vegetable porridge- Using blender
Vegetable tartare- Using food processor
For the purpose of this course, we use molecular gastronomy as a term to describe our pursuit as raw vegan chefs to treat our ingredients
in certain ways to achieve incredible flavour, nutrient bio availability. Easy digestibility and food as art; all this without cooking. There are a number of techniques that really help in this pursuit, many helping to break down the cell wall of vegetables and fruits to release amazing flavours – often not achieved by cooking. These techniques not only break down the cell wall but often enhance the ingredient, elevating a humble vegetable into a Michelin star dish. Some of these techniques we have already covered such as blending, juicing, fermenting, pickling, dehydrating and slow cooking.
Other techniques we will now explore are:
Gelification
Spherification
Emulsification
Siphon whipping
Suspension
Powderizing
Spiralising (pasta)
Misting (rose water)
Smoking
(Vaccum sealing Sous vide)
Marination
Water bath
Mandolin (Carpaccio)
Vegetable porridge
Vegetable tartare
Sesame foam/espuma
Courgette pasta (No sauce – just oil, garlic, herbs and seasoning)
Food additives often used in Molecular Gastronomy:
There are around 2500 chemicals that are added to foods for specific purposes such as preserving or processing and enhancing flavour or colour.
These include colouring, stabilisers, acidifiers, preservatives, enzymes and texturing agents. For raw vegan molecular gastronomy purpose we only use a very small number of these which are plant based, natural extracts.
(Aa) Agar agar– is a natural gelling agents extracted from red algae, often used to create solid pearls, gel spaghettis and jellies. Agar agar does need high heat to activate. We use it in a tea based jelly.
(Sl) Soy lecithin– is a natural emulsifier extracted from soy beans, often used to shape watery solution into ???? We use to make fancy foams and espumas. It is also used in recipes where you need to combine fats/oils with water.
(Xg) Xanthan gum– is a natural thickener derived from glucose via fermentation. Ofen used to stabilize emulsions and thicken sauces and drinks.
(Cl) Calcium lactate– is a calcium salt used with sodium alginate in the process of spherification. Calcium lactate is produced by mixing lactic acid with calcium carbonate and can also be used as a calcium supplement,
as a firming agent, thickener, flavour enhancer and leavening agent.
(Sa) Sodium alginate– is a natural gelling agent extracted from brown algae and used with calcium lactate for spherification.
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Sauces, Salad, Sprouts and Molecular gastronomy
Demonstrate use of smoking gun
Demonstrate pickling in vaccum sealed bags
Demonstrate use of water bath
Demonstrate use of mandolin + spiraliser
Mission is how to break down cell wall
Recipes:
Large salad
Coleslaw
Mayonaise
Red sauce
Sprouts
Microgreens
Vegetable carpaccio, porridge, ceviche & tartare