Friday, February 25, 2011

Pomegranate Tuile


The picture above is the tuile I used for my new dessert. It is made by taking pomegranate juice, and lemon juice and thickening them with a modified food starch called ultra tex. Ultra tex is derived from tapioca. It exhibits a lot of the same characteristics from that of a modified cooked starch. The interesting thing about ultra tex is that it is cold water soluble, meaning that you do not need to heat the liquid being thickened. The way I hydrate the ultra tex into my pomegranate lemon juice mixture is by using a vitaprep. The ratio of ultra tex I used for this particular application is 5%, meaning if I were to use 500g of liquid I would use 25g of ultratex. It seems like a lot but ultra tex does not exhibit a lot of flavor. When I am done sheering in my ultratex I pass the mix through a fine chinoise. I leave the mix to fully hydrate overnight. The next day I take a piece of actetate and spray it with cooking spray and then wipe off the excess. I spread the pomegranate tuile mix as thin as possible onto the actetate and then place into a dehydrator until crisp. (usually about 24-36 hours) What I think is unique about this tuile is the fact that it spiderwebs. (which was actually a mistake that I took advantage of) Also I really like the clarity of the tuile, it is basically like red glass. I think the tuile itself looks very interesting kind of like a dreamcatcher. You can break the tuile apart into shards and you will still get the same effect on the plate. (See below New Dessert)

3 comments:

  1. Ultra tex seems to be similar to xathan gum?

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  2. Yes similar in functionality, but xanthan gum is a carbohydrate derived from fermenting glucose with a certain bacteria, usually found in corn and or cabbage. On the other hand Ultra Tex is a modified food starch.

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  3. Hi There
    I recently found your blog, really nice presentations overall. Might you be willing to post your ratios / method on the flexable ganache. I have made a few in the past with mixed results.

    Thanks !

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