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iSi Whip

Discussion in 'Food and Drink' started by mr drinky, Jul 26, 2014.

  1. daveb

    daveb Founding Member

    The grocery store had some pretty blackberries, I had some balsamic vin, and too much time this afternoon. Ran a handful of berries thru the Vmix then did balsamic reduction with juice. Back into the Vmix with more blackberries, approx 3 to 1 blackberries by weight, then cut in some xanthian. Into the 1/2L whip charged w nox and kept in warm water bath. Rest of the blackberries into the 1 Liter whip and c02 charged as Mr. Drinky described. Couple hours later it came together.

    Carbonated blackberries, garnished with warm balsamic/blackberry foam.

    Did not suck.

    2014-09-08 21.03.14.jpg
     
  2. mr drinky

    mr drinky Founding Member Gold Contributor

    That looks/sounds awesome daveb! I just bought some blackberries yesterday to make another batch. I have to admit that I am a little in the dark still about how much C/NO2 to use with different sizes of whips. I see you used the litre whip for the blackberries. Did you use two charges, and did you think they were fizzy enough?

    Last night I toyed with infusing celery sticks with bloody mary ingredients. They tasted good, but I don't think I let them sit long enough, and I will play with the bloody mary base to give it some stronger flavors and run another batch today. If I owned a bar, I would make those celery sticks a bar snack. It is hard to argue with alcoholic celery.

    k.
     
  3. daveb

    daveb Founding Member

    This may be a case of the blind leading the blind (not a first) but I was following your guidance and what I've read elsewhere. 1 charge for the pint, 2 for the qt. For carbonating I used the first co2 charge to pressurize whip then vented it - evacuating most of the air. 2nd charge to carbonate, this one I left in until serving and in the interim put the whip in fridge for couple hours. For the foam I let the mixture sit in a warm bath until serving then charged and dispensed it. Was playing with the different size blobs I could get.

    This was my first venture that was not a whipped cream variant. Fun. Different. If Knerd will put out some detail on a foam he described once to use on tuna then I'm going fishing!
     
  4. mr drinky

    mr drinky Founding Member Gold Contributor

    After a trip to Morocco, two kids getting sick, and myself coming down with the grip, I am finally feeling better and relaxed.

    So last night I took those really small sweet green grapes and charged them with CO2. I had heard that you should slice grapes in half because they will burst with the CO2, and that is true: about 20% did burst, but I would recommend not cutting them in half unless they are really big. Those small grapes don't need it, and it is better to leave them on the stem. I just cut little bunches of grapes and dropped them in the whip, charged it with 2x CO2 chargers and let them sit for about 4 hours. (I used the pint whip btw.)

    The color of the grapes was a bit off (more white in color) and some were split, but they tasted great. My wife even was excited to get something interesting out of the whip she saw lying in the fridge. I think this was almost as successful as the blackberries. But one thing I will warn people about carbonating fruit: if you eat a lot you will feel it. I was experimenting one day and after 2 batches of carbonated blackberries, my belly felt it. That gas has to go somewhere. Eat in moderation :)

    k.
     

    Attached Files:

  5. zwiefel

    zwiefel Rest in peace brother

    Awesome. Was just getting ready to bump this thread and see what's been going on.

    Sorry to hear there have been some challenges, but great to see you back K.
     
  6. mr drinky

    mr drinky Founding Member Gold Contributor

    This weekend, I might try out the tempura batter I was planning on doing a while back. I hope I can still get good green beans at the farmers' market.

    k.
     
  7. zwiefel

    zwiefel Rest in peace brother

    Hmmmmm.....interested to see that. Not sure how it would work.
     
  8. apicius9

    apicius9 Founding Member

    You guys are doing the darndest things... I have a feeling this would become one of the little-used toys after a while, so for now I am living vicariously through your experiments.

    Stefan
     
  9. daveb

    daveb Founding Member

    I'll preface this by saying there are no pictures.

    I just assisted a cooking demo where a cold cucumber soup was served, kind of average but good cuke flavor. I took home a couple qts and put it in fridge.

    Couple days later I was trying 104 degree salmon and wanted something to serve with, speciafically a cuke foam from the soup. After brief consult with Knerd, put some soup in Vmix, adjusted seasonings, addded some x gum and gave it a whiz. After a couple tries went with 1/2 t gum (my scale is not precise enough for .1 %) in 1000g of soup. Foam had nice flavor, pretty light green contrasted well, and structure was firm enough support salmon. Will do this one again.

    At Knerds advice have since added Versawhip to my chemistry set. Now we all have spice racks, with dried herbs, spices, pepper and pepper blends, various salts, etc. What does one call the chemistry set?
     
  10. mr drinky

    mr drinky Founding Member Gold Contributor

    Daveb, interesting stuff. I think this is one thing about the whip that I really like, is that it has taught me that anything I have in the fridge can possibly be altered into something interesting and tasty. I could have a bit of soup left, strain it, and try something cool. And thanks for adding Versawhip to my shopping list (via Knyfe). I've already had two orders from ModernistPantry, and this will be in the next one.

    As for me, I did get a bunch of green beans for my tempura experiment, but I am now thinking of making a test of it and trying out 2 or 3 different methods. I found enough forum chatter on using a siphon for the batter, that I wanted to change some things up from the ChefSteps video, so I am thinking of two siphon methods and one traditional method.

    Frankly, the comparison photos at the end of the ChefSteps video didn't seem that convincing. See for yourself. Unless there is a concrete advantage, I'll probably side with what is easiest.



    And I then I went onto eGullet and searched around, and I thought this sounded like some good input.

    "I use a mixture of cornflour, regular flour, baking powder and trisol for the dry ingredients and water with vodka for the wet ingredients. I run this through a syphon but using nitrous rather than CO2. syphon it into a bowl in small quantities to keep it fresh when dunking the vegies in. Comes out wonderfully crispy and light."

    I will still go with rice flour, as I bought it for this purpose, but thanks to Andre up thread, I now have Trisol in my pantry to play with. I just need to figure out the ratio. And as for vodka, well f*ck, I just love vodka so why not.

    I also saw on the chef steps site that if you are frying raw veggies that need more time to fry, to omit the baking soda. I can't imagine that would apply to green beens, onion rings or other thin veggies, but I might try that as an option too.

    k.
     
  11. mr drinky

    mr drinky Founding Member Gold Contributor

    So the tempura batter was a moderate+ failure. The chef steps video said nothing about sending the batter through a strainer while a couple of other recipes did. I chose to skip that step -- big mistake. Both siphons jammed up with residue and it was a PITA to release the batter. Since it took longer to get the batter out of those little pressurized, stainless vaults, the oil temp got too high and the first batches burned.

    Also, the Trisol batter completely failed. The batter just flew off of the beans and pickles. I don't know what I did, but I surely f**ked it up somehow. Maybe it was the ratio. I used a 1/3 trisol to rice flower and skipped the cornstarch and baking powder. One of those things messed it up. I'll have to figure that out later…

    With that said, once I got the batter out, the temp under control, and then fried some test pieces, it seemed to work pretty well, and I liked the results. Just one picture of food as there wasn't a lot of end result (read: edible product) after all the mistakes. I just ran out of batter since the trisol batter didn't work out.

    Oh yeah, and the kitchen was a complete failure. It was a disaster zone of grease, eggs, fried batter, uncooked batter, rice flower, and random isi whip ejaculate.

    k.
     

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  12. Way too much Trisol Karring! Don't skimp on the cornstarch either!
     
  13. mr drinky

    mr drinky Founding Member Gold Contributor

    I thought that was probably the case. I read one person who said it could be substituted for the flour, and that didn't seem right to me, so I cut it back from there, thinking I would be safe. I guess not. Next time I will look into the ratios more. I also used half vodka and half water for the wet ingredient and a blended egg. I see other recipes use just egg whites.

    Next time I think I might pickle some green beans and try those. For the pickles this time I used those baby jalapeño pickles and sliced them in half. The wife liked those dipped in some japanese mayo/Moroccan mustard mixture.

    k.
     
  14. daveb

    daveb Founding Member

    Ha! Been there. Whoever compiles the "fool-proof" recipes at Chefsteps has never met this fool...

    The funnel and mesh strainer accessory from ISI is absurdly overpriced, but it works. After my first clogging experience I use it for everything that has or had chunks in it.
     
  15. mr drinky

    mr drinky Founding Member Gold Contributor

    I had some extra ground cherries (Cape Gooseberries for those on the Easterly Coast), so I threw them in the whip, topped it off with limoncello and charged with CO2. They were good, but not better than the black berries and those tiny grapes. The hint of sweet alcohol was nice, but it didn't really infuse the ground cherries -- NO2 is better for that. And I only let them sit for a few 5 hours.

    k.
     

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  16. Jeffery Hunter

    Jeffery Hunter Founding Member

    Been following along here, I like to play in the kitchen as much as time allows. I recently put some watermelon, mint, and lime juice in mine that turned out quite tasty. Also did a wasabi cream for a sushi night once. So many things to try!
     

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