Cheese bread with berry and dried fruit muesli

Cheese bread with berry and dried fruit muesli
El Bulli
Chef: Ferran Adrià
Country: España
City: 17480 Roses (Girona)
Address: Cala Montjoi, a 7 km. del centro urbano
(+34) 972150457

Ferran Adrià’s work as an inventor of impossible methods has been so grand and so prolific that to speculate over which is the most transcendent technological formula created in his long career is not unlike trying to identify the sex of an angel. Is it last year’s melon caviar, mango sphere or two-meter spaghetti …, to name only three examples in an endless list of exceptional culinary advances? All of these may have been surpassed by this ice cream, which we take the liberty to proclaim the best in history, and with great fanfare. For the extent of its radical, unexpected shift in consistency and thermic sensation is so great that it constitutes a new kind of ice cream.

Is it better or worse than Adrià’s masterpieces of 2003? For us this is a rhetorical question—there is no adequate response to whether in 2004 the already unbeatable 2003 level was surpassed. We would like to recognize it with just one testimonial, at the request of Ferran himself—in fairness we really should have awarded him three or four Dishes of the Year. This ice cream is the apex.

An ice cream as light as air and extremely fragile, with a Parmesan flavor practically equal to the cheese and an irreverently industrial terrine shape, cool in temperature rather than cold, offers us the most fleeting and temperature-neutral way to experience the ice cream of a thousand flavors, of a thousand fruits confits, the Casatta.

How is it made? A Parmesan liquid is emulsified until fluffy as air, then frozen. This produces an ice cream that falls just short of levitating off the plate, with tiny fruit accents.



The Recipe



Parmesan liquid
Ingredients

  • 1 kg Parmesano Reggiano, grated
  • 900 g water

Method

In a pot, bring the water to a boil, then add the grated Parmesan.
Stir continuously until the Parmesan forms an elastic mixture.
Remove from heat and allow to infuse for 1 hour.
Strain through a wool cloth and refrigerate.

The simple syrup
Ingredients

  • 100 g water
  • 100 g sugar

Method

Mix the two ingredients together in a pot and bring to a boil.
Refrigerate.

Caramelized apple
Ingredients

  • 1 Golden apple, 150g
  • 200g simple syrup (see above)
  • 2g ascorbic acid

Method

Mix the acid with the syrup.
Slice the apple with a mandoline to make 0.1cm-thick slices.
Quickly submerge the apple slices in the syrup acid solution.
Drain the slices one by one and lay out onto a baking sheet with a Silpat.
Bake in the oven at 140ºC for 25 minutes.
The apple should be completely crispy.
Store in an airtight container in a cool dry place.

Toasted walnuts
Ingredients

  • 50 g peeled walnuts

Method

Bake in the oven at 170ºC for 7 minutes.
They should be crunchy.
Gently break them until you have pieces 0.5cm in diameter.

Cheese bread
Ingredients

  • 1000 g Parmesan liquid (see above)
  • 5 g soy lecithin powder

Method

Heat the Parmesan liquid to 45ºC.
Add the lecithin and blend.
With the aid of a Turmix, emulsify the mixture on the surface so that the highest possible quantity of air is incorporated and a foam forms on the surface, which we call “air” because of its texture.
Allow the air to stabilize for 1 minute, pick it up in a large spoon and fill the ice cream terrine mold until the air is overflowing by 3cm. Fill one mold per person.
Cover with a sheet of paper and freeze.

Assembly and Presentation
Ingredients

  • 5 g freeze-dried raspberries
  • 4 ice cream terrine molds with the wrapping paper and 4 El Bulli air adhesives

Method

Serve 4 terrines wrapped in the Bulli air paper.
Serve the terrines with two bowls filled with a mix of caramelized apple, toasted walnuts and chopped freeze dried raspberries.

Tags: