Time for a Recipe

This is a nice, easy example of spherification, Why not try it at home  ............ perfect for serving with Baked Salmon !!

I have given a list of websites where some of the ingredients and equipment can be got. A good idea when starting off is to buy the starter kit - you can get basic kits for between €30 and €60.

Most starter kits include syringes, pipettes, silicone tubing, sodium alginate, agar agar, soy lecithin and zanthan gum.

Carrot & Ginger Caviar

Recipe by Erin Wyso and photo by Joe Crocetta

Ingredients: 

2 large carrots, peeled and chopped

One inch-long piece of ginger, peeled and chopped

1/2 -1 cup cold water 

1/2 tsp. sodium alginate

2 cups cold water

1/2 tsp. calcium chloride

Method:

Puree carrots and ginger in a blender. Add enough water to puree, so that the mixture equal 1 cup. Blend a second time and strain out pulp. Place mixture into refrigerator for one hour. Then slowly whisk 1/2 tsp. of sodium alginate into mixture. Pour into squeeze bottle.

Pour 2 cups of water into shallow bowl and add calcium chloride to it. Using the squeeze bottle, let droplets of mixture fall from the bottle, one at a time, into the water. The caviar spheres will form on contact with the water. After you’re done making the caviar, strain the caviar and dry them on paper towels.

The Science Behind It: 

Sodium Alginate and Calcium Chloride (Spherification). 

 When you’re making fruit or veggie caviar that is essentially a sturdy outer membrane that contains completely liquid juice, that’s a process called spherification. And in this recipe for carrot ginger caviar, spherification is achieved by using sodium alginate and calcium chloride.

Sodium alginate, is salt that has been extracted from the walls of brown algae cells. It is a structural component of the algae that allows it to be more flexible. Unlike agar-agar, the gelling that occurs with sodium alginate happens only in cold conditions. As Molecule-R points out, in tandem with calcium chloride, sodium alginate is able to acheive a unique form of gelling that involves forming a a thin membrane around a tiny sphere of liquid, so as to create a type of caviar that bursts with liquid in your mouth as it is consumed.

Calcium chloride is a byproduct of the production of sodium carbonate (washing soda).