ADVENTURES IN MOLECULAR GASTRONOMY

Hi, sorry that I couldn't blog sooner.  I want to blog to you about the dinner I did on my birthday.  It was Molecular Gastronomy.  For those who don't know what that is, it's chemistry with food.  We had some successes and some failures but overall it was super fun and we ate some good food!

FRUIT NOODLES
The fruit noodles were one of the things that turned out ok.  We took my three favorite fruits: blueberries, kiwis and pineapple.  We blended them up individually and then boiled them in a pan with Agar Agar packets.  The Agar Agar makes it turn gelatin like.  Then we put injected the mixture of fruits into tubes, left them in water for 3 minutes and then squirted them out of the tubes.

But when we tried to pick them up they ended up breaking.  They were also way to slippery to hold.  But then my Mom came up with an idea to make ones that looked better.  She spread out the pineapple mixture  in a baking tray and then froze it for 20 minutes.  She cut them into long strips, we called fruit linguini.  And then Dad came up with the idea to dribble the blueberry onto the pineapple linguine and it looked this.

They tasted really fruitty!

SURPRISE BUBBLES
The Surprise Bubbles were supposed to come out as gelatin on the outside and liquid lemon on the inside.  But here's how ours turned out.  They weren't exactly a fail but they weren't a success either.

First we had to freeze the freshly squeezed lemon juice mixed with Calcium Lactate.  This took awhile and the cubes never fully formed.  So we ended up taking our semi-frozen lemon cubes and added them to a bath of Sodium Algonite.  Once in the bath they kind of formed a gelatin shell around the outer part and then we carefully spooned them out and put them in regular water.  The texture was kind of slimy and gooey on the outside and some of them were icy on the inside.  Think of jellyfish!




They tasted really lemony.  Some of them tasted sweet and lemony.  You'll know what I mean by lemony when you see this picture.

CHOCOLATE WIND
The thing I had as the biggest success was the chocolate wind.  It came out just the way is was supposed to.  I didn't like it because we used dark chocolate but my Mom, my Dad and my brother loved it.  We put it on ice cream with Raspberries.

NOT SO GOOD

The molecular burger was not such a success.  The recipe called for cold vegetable oil and we didn't have any so my Dad decided to we should just try and wing it.  But it didn't work.  The mustard and ketchup pearls ended up falling apart.  We decided that we'd just have the burger and it was still really good.

Here's what the pearls looked like before they ended up getting squished.

So, anyway it turned out good.  If you're interested the place that makes it is called, http://www.molecule-r.com. 

We have new found respect for chefs that work with these techniques because it looks easy but it's really hard.

I think this if 'bye until the next blog...and good eatin'!

Zev's Favorite Chips

Tonight we are featuring a guest blog by a very special person known as, my brother, Zev.  He will show you and tell you about his recipe for his favorite kind of chips.  And these aren't potato, sun or any other kind of chips.  These are Kale Chips!

ZEV'S FAVORITE CHIPS

Ingredients

• 1 - Head of Kale
• Olive Oil
• Salt

Hi, my name is Zev and I'm seven and my favorite food is Kale Chips!  I like Kale Chips because they're crispy, they are very salty and the most reason why I like them crispy is because my Dad forgets they're in the oven!

Here's how he does it:

1. First we preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Next we chop up a head of Kale and place it in a big pan.
3. Drizzle the Kale with Olive Oil and season with Sea Salt...it has to be sea salt.
4. Put them in the oven and then forget they're in there (or for about 35 minutes)
5. Stir the Kale Chips and then put them back in the oven for another 5 minutes or until super crispy.

Enjoy the Kale!

On my next guest food blog I'll do my favorite foods.  Until then




Chipper Bye and good eatin'!

Whoopie Pie Review - Part 1

One of my favorite parts of summer is Whoopie Pies.  I love the taste.  Me and my family are Whoopie Pie fanatics.  I want to tell you about our Whoopie Pie adventure in Maine.

We go to Acadia National Park every summer and there are tons of places to get Whoopie Pies all around there.  Here's a list of some of my favorites:

1. Gott's Gas Station
I know, that's so weird but it's true.  It's  a gas station but it has the best peanut butter filling for its Whoopie Pies.  They're huge.  So huge that we split them in quarters and that's enough.  The cake is really chocolaty but not too sweet.  And my mom can eat the filling because its fluff based so there's no dairy.  (she can't eat dairy.)





2. Little Notch Bakery

If you're a butter cream person, Little Notch is the way to go!  They're small but delicious.  We go to the one in Southwest Harbor.

3.  Two Fat Cats
This one is in Portland, Maine.  The Whoopie Pies are almost always sold out so get there early but they sometimes have "day olds" that taste just the same.  There's also a really great restaurant across the street called Duck Fat.  Best milkshakes on earth...but that's another post!







MYSTERY WHOOPIE PIE
Every year on our way to Acadia we try to stop and get Whoopie Pies at the Friar's Bakery in Bangor but they're never open.  We hear their the best.  If you have them please let us know!

whoopie bye and good eatin'!

A New Year. A New Blog.

Hi.  My name is Ami.  I like to eat and cook.  I like food!

Today is Rosh Hashonah and with the New Year there comes a new blog.  I wanted to make this blog because I've eaten a lot of stuff and I wanted to share with the world some of these things, some good places to eat and some foods that I've tried to cook.  Helping me are my parents and my little brother Zev.  His favorite foods are healthy (like Kale chips), which is a major benefit for him.  My favorite foods are Mac&Cheese, Pizza, Whoopie Pies and Ice Cream.  I'll be telling you about them in entries to come.

Tonight I wanted to share a meal with you that we had at our friends, the Litten's.  For Rosh Hoshanah we had brisket and it was good!  The homemade Challah was also great.  Thanks Littens!

my dinner plate (missing the apples and honey)

Happy New Year to all you readers out there and look for our next post where we'll talk about my birthday dinner and our experiments with Molecular Gastronomy.  (no joke!)

See you soon and good eatin'!