Thaw

Thaw
El Bulli
Chef: Ferran Adrià
Country: España
City: 17480 Roses (Girona)
Address: Cala Montjoi, a 7 km. del centro urbano.
(+34) 972150457

If, in comparison to other seasons, 2005 hasn’t been marked by a definitive theme for Ferran Adrià – for example the foams or hot gelatins of the past –, the featured technique of this year has been lyophilization. Once again, the genius of Roses takes his inspiration from the food industry to project the breadth of his imagination: unlimited and unique in culinary history. He does it proposing singular textures, diverse, that expose unprecedented tactile sensations in dry, savory cuisine. In this case, the author plays with the theme of one of his classics, a clean and pure forestal fragrance that he has used since his insolent, provocative era, when he introduced an ingredient hitherto unused in gastronomic circles: the green pinecone.
With this, he demonstrates the diversity of the flavor of the pinecone itself. He alters the intensity of the flavor, its consistency, and temperature. We find ourselves confronted with a palette of subtle tonalities within a single color – and color inspires the name of the dish. The green pinecone, after being submitted to the infusion, is transformed through “scientific” techniques into an ice cream, a frozen powder, a meringue and a dehydrated material. To such a monotone yet orchestral flavor, exciting counterpoints are applied, like coffee and licorice. For nature to continue expressing its splendor, for winter to give way to spring, a garden of micro-vegetables sprouts from the plate, germinating, flowering, insisting on nature and freshness. The dawn of a futuristic forest.



The Recipe



For the infusion of the green pinecone
Ingredients

  • 480 g green pinecone
  • 600 g water
  • 75 g sugar
  • 0.6 g ascorbic acid

Method

1.Place the green pinecones in hot water for 1 minute to clean them.
2.Cut the pinecones in irregular pieces of 2 cm each.
3.Raise the water to a boil with the sugar and add the chopped pinecone.
4.Add the ascorbic acid and refrigerate for 24 hours.
5.Strain and keep in a superbag to refrigerate.
NOTE: The ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is used as an antioxidant.

For the powdered ice cream infusion of the green pinecone
Ingredients

  • 200 g infusion of green pinecone (previously prepared)
  • Paco Jet

Method

1.Place the green pinecone infusion into a Paco Jet container and freeze at -20ºC.
2.Feed the frozen green pinecone infusion into the Paco Jet little by little to obtain a frozen powder similar to snow.
3.Keep the frozen iced infusion at -20ºC.

For the wild pine nut milk
Ingredients

  • 200 g wild pine nuts, peeled
  • 240 g water

Method

1.Grind the pine nuts with the help of a turmix with the water until they are well ground.
2.Let cool in a refrigerator for 12 h.
3.Blend the pine nut and water mix in a blender until obtaining a cream.
4.Move to a superbag, applying as much pressure as possible to recuperate all the liquid in order to obtain a dense, flavorful pine nut milk.
5.Strain and keep in the refrigerator.

For the wild pine nut milk sorbet
Ingredients

  • 250 g wild pine nut milk (previously prepared)1/5 gelatin leaf of 2 g (previously rehydrated in cold water)
  • salt

Method

1.Salt the pine nut milk to taste.
2.Heat ¼ part of the pine nut milk and melt the gelatin leaf. Once dissolved add the rest of the milk and stir.
3.Place the pine nut ice cream base in a Paco Jet container and freeze at -20ºC.
4.5 min before serving run the ice cream through the Paco Jet 2 times and maintain at -8ºC.

For the savory wild pine nut praline
Ingredients

  • 50 g wild pine nuts, toasted
  • 10 g olive oil
  • salt

Method

1.Blend the pine nuts with the olive oil in a blender until obtaining a fine cream without any lumps.
2.Strain and salt to taste.

For the nitropralineed pine nuts
Ingredients

  • 12 wild pine nuts, toasted
  • 50 g salted praline of wild pine nuts (previously prepared)
  • 500 g liquid nitrogen

Method

1.Submerge the whole pine nuts in the pine nut praline and place in the liquid nitrogen for 5 seconds so that the praline freezes and the pine nuts are completely covered in the praline.
2.Remove from the nitrogen and maintain the nitropralineed pine nuts at -10ºC.

For the dry meringue powder of licorice paste
Ingredients

  • 125 g water
  • 125 g pasteurized egg whites
  • 7.5 g powdered egg whites
  • 25 g sugar
  • 35 g licorice paste

Method

1. Mix all the ingredients cold and whip in an electric blender for 5 min.
2.Let stand for 2 min with the blender off.
3.Whip for 10 min more and stretch out to a thickness of 1 cm on an oven tray using Silpat.
4.Dry in the oven at 100ºC for 40 min.
5.Leaving it in the oven, raise the temperature to 120ºC and bake it for 40 min more.
6.When it’s dry, place it in a bag and crush it to obtain the powder.
7.Put aside in a sealed container in a cool, dry area.

For the rocks and powder of the dry meringue green pinecone infusion
Ingredients

  • 125 g infusion of green pinecone (previously prepared)
  • 125 g pasteurized egg whites
  • 7,5 g powdered egg whites
  • 25 g sugar

Method

1.Mix all the ingredients cold and whip in an electric blender for 10 min.
2.Whip for 10 min more and stretch out to a thickness of 1 cm on an oven tray using Silpat.
3.Dry in the oven at 90ºC for 1 h 40 min.
4.Cut the dried meringue into 8 rocks of 1.5 cm a side.
5.Put the remaining meringue in a bag and crush it to obtain the powder.
6.Put aside in a sealed container in a cool, dry area.

For the lyophilized cold gelatin of green pinecone infusion
Ingredients

  • 200 g infusion of green pinecone (previously prepared)
  • 1 gelatin leaf of 2 g (previously rehydrated in cold water)

Method

1.Dissolve the gelatin in ¼ part of the pinecone infusion and mix with the rest.
2.Pour into a container that allows for a height of 1 cm to be obtained and let coagulate in the refrigerator for 2 h.
3.Lyophilize for 72 h.
Once lyophilized, maintain in an enclosed sous-vide bag in a dry, cool place.

For the neutral caramel sheets
Ingredients

  • 100 g fondant
  • 50 g glucose
  • 50 g Isomalt

Method

1.In a saucepan, cook the fondant and glucose. Stir until completely dissolved and add the Isomalt.
2.Cook over medium heat until the thermometer indicates a temperature of 160ºC (the remaining 5ºC will be attained by its own heat).
3.Remove from heat and spread over a sulphurized sheet obtaining a 1 cm thickness.
4.When it cools to a suitable temperature, cut into bars of 5 x 5 cm.
5.Put aside in a sealed container in a cool, dry area.
6.Place one caramel bar between two silpats and bake in the oven until the caramel melts.
7.Remove from oven and quickly spread out with the help of a rolling pin until obtaining a caramel sheet of 0.1 cm in thickness.
8.Put the caramel sheets aside in a sealed container in a cool, dry place.

Others
Ingredients

5 g freshly ground coffee
4 shoots of germinated red shiso
4 shoots of germinated green shiso
4 shoots of fresh basil
4 shoots of germinated borage4 borage flowers
NOTE: Shiso is a type of Asian mint the possesses qualities of basil and mint. There are two kinds, purple (red) and green.

Method
FINISHING AND PRESENTATION

 

1.In the middle of a deep soup plate, place half a tablespoon of pine nut ice cream.
2.Cover the pine nut ice cream with the frozen green pinecone infusion powder, keeping the surface irregular.
3.Make a little sprig with one green shiso shoot, one red shiso shoot, one germinated shoot of borage and a fresh basil shoot, and drive them into a spot where the pine nut ice cream can hold them up vertically.
4.Place a borage flower to the side of the shoots and sprouts.
5.At 11 o’clock on the frozen powder, place a dot of 1 g of ground coffee.
6.At 1 o’clock, a 2 cm piece of the lyophilized green pinecone infusion.
7.At 3 o’clock, drive in a 2 cm piece of the neutral caramel sheet.
8.At 6 o’clock, place 2 meringue rocks of the dried green pinecone infusion and 1/2 tablespoon of coffee and powdered dried green pinecone infusion milk.
9.At 9 o’clock, place 1 teaspoon of the dry meringue powder of licorice.
10.Finish by placing 3 nitropralineed pine nuts on top of the frozen powder.

NOTE:If borage flower is not available cucumber flower may be substituted.

Tº: FROZEN/ENVIRONMENT

Season: May, June

TABLEWARE

Spoon and small “tapas” fork

TASTING METHOD

Begin with a spoonful of powder and then alternate between the distinct elements without mixing them.
It is important not to break the structure of the dish in order to not mix the flavors.