This summer, I have become obsessed with the Cape gooseberry. We have great success with our gooseberry/champagne pan sauce for the scallop dish. The blue corn grits from Covered Bridge Gardens and the Niman Ranch pork belly confit really round out the dish.
Recently, however, we decided to infuse vodka with Cape gooseberries for a summer cocktail. As has been my experience with most infused alcohols, I don't ever seem to have the patience. After 2 weeks, it seemed like the flavor just wasn't being imparted into the vodka.
Some of the other chefs and I read a lot of blogs. One of my favorites, Ideas in Food, recently posted about clarification of liquids using a cryovac machine and agar agar. This sounded like the way to go. So we pureed gooseberries with vodka and heated up a little bit to "bloom" our agar. The agar mixture was then combined with the other mixture and allowed to set in the cooler.
The mixture didn't set all the way(probably due to the proof of the vodka). We then vacuum sealed under the highest pressure that we could muster. The mixture was then strained through a coffee filter and the result is one tasty product.
We can now start thinking about other alcohols to infuse with whatever we want. The possibilities are endless!
3 comments:
cape gooseberries are a seasonal obsession of mine too. chocolate covered, in a pie, etc. Are you guys serving this cape gooseberry influsion or is it just for your own consumption? I would love to try it.
we are definitely serving this in a cocktail with champagne and elderflower soda....yum.
Hey Chef,
This is exactly how cutting edge mixologists are infusing flavors. I saw Lee Ann Wong do this at a chefs' summit last summer. Leave the cryo on at zero atmosphere for as long an hour. One of her tricks was to run it a second time, after the initial infusion. She found that more flavor was extracted this way. Then, of course, continue with the freeze and thaw for clarification. (Or is the method different with agar agar?)
Post a Comment