Another less than happy result with gelatine
Erm yes. My unhappy affair with gelatine continues on it's unfortunate course* with a chai panna cotta with rosewater cardamon syrup. Guests were sufficiently polite/liquored up to not recoil in horror. Tasty though, I have to say. Will try not to wander off while the ramekins are sitting in hot water and see how I can get the spare one looking.
*see:
run! it's failed conceptual food project
and
unsuccessful anin doufu
posted by Anthony at Saturday, July 30, 2005
13 Comments:
You know, necessity aside, I've had nothing but luck using agar in place of gelatin. I've used it in pastry creams, mousse, and of course, for Jello-like creations. Maybe it'll work for you, too.
7/31/2005 05:56:00 am
spiceblog, you and i had similar ideas for IMBB 17 :-) i see - i was going to go for a chai-flavoured (i.e. cardamom-loaded) english tea cream/mould type thing...only with agar. i secnd stephanie: agar is a better option....
7/31/2005 01:55:00 pm
The photo doesn't do it justice, it really was muc prettier in tghe flesh. And, more importantly, it tased extremely good...
(Jon couldn't stop talking about the Kingfish all day yesterday, either.)
7/31/2005 06:42:00 pm
Hi Steph
I've failed with both but this was just carelessness on my part with letting the moulds sit in hot water to loosen. The sheets of agar are a better look than the gelatine powder which always looks a bit nasty.
Hello and welcome flygirl.
Great minds and all. No? : ) I'll have to get the recipe up and we can compare notes. I've been a bit fond of chai of late.
Kate
I've taken some pics of the spare one and it may be closer to the had a few memories. I'll confess to it being tasty. The kingfish was good wasn't it? No credit on my part, I just sliced it ( and lets hope the sashimi guild doesn't catch up with me for not slicing a piece all the way through,
7/31/2005 08:52:00 pm
Anthony, I actually use powdered agar...I like it a lot better.
8/01/2005 12:40:00 am
Hi Stephanie
Thanks for that. I'll keep an eye out for it, it's probably stuffed behind a tin of soy sausages in the area that pass for a token catering to vegetarians in the supermarket.
8/01/2005 10:10:00 am
anthony,
re: powdered agar (and better veg food) - that's what asian grocers are for :-). anyway you can get little packets in the cake section of your average supermarket if all else fails. gelatin has a much lower melting temperature (30-37C) than most agars (65-85C). that's why putting the mould in hot water melts it. agar can also take a while to melt even at high temperatures. the trade off with using agar is, of course, that the gel is firmer and doesn't melt in your mouth like gelatin.
8/01/2005 10:21:00 am
Flygirl, thank you. You've made it all very clear, though now I've just been sold on gelatine melting in the mouth at body temperature, like butter.
8/01/2005 10:27:00 am
well you can actually get agar that melts at 25C (Super Low Melting, SLM), but as far as I know that is only available for science labs at a helllishly expenseive price (truffles, anyone?)...right, will stop raving about agar now :-). so, like, do you flavour your own chai?
8/01/2005 02:06:00 pm
Hellishy expensive, previously only available for scientists SLM agar. This is just a marketing dream Flygirl. Whatever it costs we could get people to pay twice that. I mean have you seen how much du puy lentils are? Mix it up with a bit of Mad Cow scare and.. do you like your Ferraris yellow or red. I prefer red actually.
You can chat agar any time you like over here.
I'm a new convert to chai and have been cheating with the teabag stuff but a have done a few of my own brews. I'll be explaining my mix very soon,
8/01/2005 02:13:00 pm
i was never a fan of jelly but it didn't help when in my first job out of high school in a lab i dicsovered huge jars of gelatin on the top shelf of chemicals. no pictures of friendly jellies and whipped creams graced the label. underneath it said "from porcine skin" or "from bovine skin" and a gave a chemical analysis. it is mere coincidence that i became a vegetarian soon afterwards. i still work in a lab, though. so slm agar as a luxury product, eh? i love it. the empress of agar is in town...
there are some great chai tea bags (and mixes, of course) to be found in indian groceries, but my favorite is one from the Clipper brand. their ayurvedic lines (snort) also have a really nice chai-like tea with a delicate rose petal aftertaste. anyhoo, i look forward to your post :-)
8/01/2005 02:56:00 pm
It must be sucky to become a vegan and find out there are animal products everywhere. I'm confessing to becoming a vegetarian one night at 16 to the Smith's Meat is Murder. It lasted until the sausages for breakfast - growing boy and all. I'll just have to aspire to humane.
Ayurvedic medicine? I don't know if we have an specifically Indian grocer here but I'll have a look out at the various asian ones for your much appreciated recommendations.
8/01/2005 03:22:00 pm
Good point David and I've been thinking about it since seeing this.
8/03/2005 09:13:00 pm
Post a Comment
<< Home