Shrimp curry molecular gastronomy

Feb 21st, 2010 by ++Mira++ | Scroll down for comments

I recently ordered some chemicals from l’epicerie. I wanted to play around and decided to do a deconstructed pineapple shrimp curry. Now this dish is still in its early phases (hence why it is under “experimental”), but i wanted to share and maybe get some thoughts on improvement. Some parts were a success and some were duds.

Anyways, I started off by making ginger pineapple sheets.

I took some fresh ginger, and grated it. Measured out  60grams.

Added it to around a cup of water and let it steep in hot water.

After, i strained it.

Then, I mixed:

• 100g ginger liquid
• 100g pineapple liquid
• 0.6g agar agar

I brought the mixture to a boil, while stirring.

Pour the agar ginger-pineapple liquid into a pan or whatever, in the thickness you want the film to be.

After, I measured out

• 500g water (purified/bottled)
• 2g sodium alginate
• 2.5g calcium chloride
• 250 g curry mix (curry powder and paste with some coconut milk)

i added the sodium alginate to the curry mix and found it just clumped up! which i hadn’t read anywhere.

So i tested it on some water alone first, and found that even when it clumps up, if you keep on whisking (whisk or immersion blender), it will blend through. Below is what it looks like when it clumps up. Also, sodium alginate is a natural gelling agent, and the liquid became viscous. I think i should also use less sodium alg next time.

So, this is what the curry mix looked after some extensive whisking

Next, i added the calcium chloride to the water, and it dissolved with some whisking much easier than the sodium alginate. I also put some more purified water in another bowl, to rinse off the spheres when created. I didn’t want to go fishing for my spheres so i just put a big strainer in the bowl so that i can lift them out directly after, and dip them in the water for washing.

I put my curry mix in a squirt bottle. I didn’t have a syringe on hand. This worked good, just wish i had one with bigger nozzle width for bigger spheres.

Started squirting the curry mix into the calcium chloride bath.

Then washed them with the pure water bath, and patted the bottom of the sieve with a towel to dry the spheres off.

I loved how the specks of the red curry paste showed in the yellow curry powder.

Since i was playing around, i made a big sphere with a spoon. I grabbed it.

put it in my palm…

pushed and prodded…

pushed harder…

and kaboom! it gushed out

Back to the plate, this is the translucent agar agar after i pulled it out from the fridge.

I already had my white rice ready.

I wanted to create a “horizon” with the shrimp jumping like dolphins. Hilarious i know, but you can be the judge if i succeeded or not:) I took a bit of curry powder, put it on a kitchen napkin and wet it a bit and streaked it across the plate.

I cut out strips of the agar mix.

And started plating with the rice and agar.

My little dolphin shrimp were next.

Then came the curry caviar.

Oh, i had also put some agar liquid to set in these mini bowls i have.

I flipped it over to create the “sun” in my “horizon” plating.lol. (btw there are many layers of dysfunctional in me)

It needed some acid so i used a pomegranate molasses which is thick, sweet and sour at the same time. I love it in salads usually. And you only need a little because its quite strong.

A close up of the perfect bite: Shrimp, curry caviar, rice, and ginger-pineapple agar gel.

This is what the final dish looked like:

• Taste: I still felt like it was missing something. Not sure what. It obviously needed some greens, but i didn’t have any on hand. Also, the caviar needed to have a stronger taste.I really liked the flavor of the ginger-pineapple flim: sweet with sharp aftertaste.
• Texture: I wasn’t in love with the liquid of the curry caviar. It was too thick.  I may have used to much sodium alginate. Iwould make the agar film thinner next time. Also, the rice needed to be different, maybe crispy rice chips?
• Plating:  It did kinda look like dolphins jumping in the ocean with the sun setting, lol, right? or am i stretching?
• Fail: In the beginning I tried to make coconut powder with maltodextrin, but there was too much water in the coconut butter, so it clumped up on me, so I scratched that.
• Success: It would have to be the taste of the ginger pineapple film. That was on point.

Let me know what you think, positives, critiques etc… Also, please rate this post/concept with the star system below.Thanks a bundle!

++MIRA++

++Mira++ posted this article under experimental, molecular gastronomy on Sunday, February 21st, 2010 at 2:23 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment or trackback from your own site. View Technorati Linkbacks.