EPTSalmon tartar encased in basil, with tomato froth, daikon, and powdered olive oil.
![[image loading]](http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/4756/0709091718.jpg)
Sorry for a bit of high contrast on this one, but i think you can see everything ok. The green ball is salmon tartar that has been dipped into basil water that has had gellen gum added to it so that it will form a gell completely around the tartar. Here's the full recipe (disclaimer: i made up all the values except the hydrocolloids pretty much afterwards, as i make it based on sight and feel at work):
salmon tatar with basil:
a couple hundred grams of salmon belly (basically the timings of a fillet, the high fat content works well here)
1 shallot minced
a couple generous handfuls of fresh basil
1 pot boiling salted water
icebath
toothpicks
1 daikon radish
100 grams extra virgin olive oil
300 grams tapioca maltodextrin
.5 grams gellan gum per 100 grams of basil water that you end up with (explained later)
2 vine ripe tomatoes
1.2 grams soy lecitin (assuming you will get 250-300 grams pureed juice from said tomatoes)
salt to taste
method:
Blanch the basil leaves for 5 seconds in the boiling water then transfer to the ice bath to cool, Blend the leaves with a little cold water till you get a nice green puree. you will need more basil then you think for this part. it should look like a light fruit smoothie in texture, strain through a fine mesh strainer (a chinois would be best). you should have about 400-500g of basil water from this or enough to fill a small sauce pot and dip a small ball into it fully. reserve this liquid.
mince the salmon belly and shallots and 1 basil leaf together until fine and then season liberally with salt (so many people are afraid of seasoning their food, don't be that guy), you then need to shape these into small round balls (think meatballs but smaller), then stick one tooth pick in each, place on a plate or sheet tray cover lightly and stick them in the freezer to firm up.
Once the salmon has firmed up (but not completely rock solid please) put the reserved basil water into a small sauce pot along with the gellan gum at .5% solution whisking well. bring to a bare boil (to activate the gellan so to speak) then allow to cool slightly, then while this is still warm dip each salmon ball into the basil water and coat, then once all of the balls have 1 coat on them go back and put another coat of basil water on till it is nice and green and shiny like the pic (3-4 coats in all). remove toothpicks (if you do it quick the hole left will sort of close on it's own) and refrigerate till service.
For the tomato froth. simply core and blend the two tomatoes
then strain through a chinois and add the lecithin, wait for it to dissolve and then use a small hand held stick blender or better yet an aerolatte to make the mixture froth up, wait 1 min for the bubbles to stabilize then collect the froth with a spoon and put it on the plate.
for the daikon simply peel and slice the daikon thinly on a mandolin and cut into squares, rub with olive oil and sea salt to season.
for the olive oil powder combine the olive oil and the maltodextrin with a whisk till the mass becomes a fine textured powder. (this will stay a powder until you eat it where it melts in your mouth).
then simply put all the elements like i did in the picture or better yet make your own plating of it.
wow....that was much longer then i thought it would be. ok maybe just one more for today, one for all the vegetarians out there, not an amuse but a full blown 1st course:
confit fennel with salsify and orange
![[image loading]](http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/726/fennalpart1.jpg)
the fennel is cooked sous vide here in olive oil and herbs which really makes it super tender and savory, the sauce is merely the pureed outer leaves also confited.
1 bulb fennel per diner
olive oil
rosemary
thyme
salt
1 orange cut into supremes
1 salsafiy peeled cut on the bias and blanced (just like we did the basil but blanced for about 3-4 mins)
cream
method, cut the tops off the fennel leaving the bulbs, cut away the root end and peel off the first few outer leaves and set aside. cut each heart into 4 wedges and place into a sous vide bag, add oil to cover and add a few sprigs of the herbs. do likewise to the outer leaves in a separate bag. seal both in a chamber vacuum sealer and place in a 185 degree water bath (Fahrenheit obviously), or if you don't have a immersion circulator then a pot of water just below a simmer works. cook for 1 hour. cool the fennel if you aren't going to be using it immediately afterward.
take the outer leaves and discard the oil and herbs, blend the leaves with just enough cream to make a thick puree, heat and use this as the sauce.
heat a film of clarified butter or olive oil in a saute pan and cook the hearts and salasify pieces over medium heat until caramelized.
pick a few of the fennel fronds for garnish. and plate up with the oranges as shown.
Well sorry for the small wall of text, in all honesty i am not sure anyone actually cares to know the in depth recipe, so i may shorten future entries into a short of tl:dr version with just pictures and descriptions, idk. if you guys have any questions on the recipes though let me know, it's sometimes hard to remember that stuff i take for granted isn't common knowledge to non culinary pros.
