WTF? Hors d'oeuvres

     A fellow chef is currently working on a five course wine dinner for a Napa winery. The dinner is Wednesday, August 24. We were sitting discussing refinement details on Sunday, August 21 when we were informed that we also needed to provide three passed hors d'oeuvres (HD) for the 120 person reception. Nice timing... Apparently everybody knew this detail, except for the chef planning the event. As a joke, I said I would pick one of the items up. I joked that we should do peanut butter and celery, then pushed the joke further with the addition of raisins. "Ants-on-a-log, who doesn't like that? It'll be huge!" I bemused.
     Needless to say, I committed to the HD so I must deliver. I asked the the deliverer of our surprise if agar-agar was available. He replied yes. So I carried on with a plan to deliver said ants-on-a-log, moleculargastronified.

     I have done fluid gels in the past with decent success, so I conceived the concept:
     For the celery... Celery fluid gel would be easy, but what to do with the peanut butter component? I considered peanut mousse. Then I contemplated creating a mock-mousse with another gel. This gel however would need to be aerated to mimic the mousse.

     Normally to create a clear fluid gel you need to vacuum the air from it then shear (blend) it carefully to avoid the introduction of air to your mixture. I have had rare success in creating an airless fluid gel. The correct equipment is key, the Luddite approach does not make for airless gels.


     After the two main ingredient concepts were tackled, I needed a vessel to hold it. I thought of the obligatory Chinese soup spoon, no. I considered making a cracker, meh. I finally settled on a cookie. Shortbread would be the charger for the gels. I was apprehensive about the vessel, but went forward.
     Now, the raisins... No, raisins or currents will not do. How about currant caviar? Damn, no alginate and gelatin spheres would dissolve too quickly at room temp during the passing. I want something that looks like ants and compliments the flavor of peanut. I settled on Black Sesame.
  Concept complete, now for execution:

Celery Gel (we will not call it fluid gel because of the air content)

      Our first step is to pulverize the celery. I used a VitaMix variable speed blender. Wash and trim ends off of four heads of celery. Make some pulpy celery juice. If you have a vegetable juicer, hot damn! Go for it, I wish I did, you will easily knock away a big chunk of production. If you don't, continue with me for next few steps:
     Place a fine sieve over a fine chinois, add your pulpy celery juice to the sieve. Work the product until all you have remaining is pulp.

pulpy celery juice

Juice!

Pulp!

Now grab some cheesecloth and squeeze the remaining juice from the pulp.

Pulpy nugget!

Juice!

Now it's time to get cooking. But, oh shit! Guess what? Apparently the agar-agar that was in the building ready for me to use comes conveniently flavored with almond extract and sugar. The sole use for that flavored agar is the Almond Tofu dessert served in the Chinese concept down the way from our kitchen. I can't order what I need, it wouldn't come for seven days. I can't run down to the nearest Asian flavored market, the nearest one is 45 minutes away. I guess I will have to go with gelatin. However, gelatin will not be as stable at room temperature as agar agar would have been. Against my better judgement I decide to add a modified food starch to my mixture to extend its life against the ravages of room temperature. In hindsight, I would have avoided this step and just went with copious amounts of gelatin and hoped for the best.

     The starch was incorporated slowly until the fluid became heavily viscous. Then 25 sheets of gelatin were added to the mixture. The mixture was passed through a fine chinois and poured into a full-size sheet pan lined with plastic wrap. 

Viscous!

If you have a vacuum sealer, this is the time to remove air. I did not.

fancy plastic lining

After the mixture has cooled you may begin the process of making a gel. Cube it up and blend. I used my blender at 20% power to avoid too much air incorporation.

jello gello!

Gello jigglers. Hey kids, wanna snack?

If this had been a true fluid gel, it would have been transparent. The addition of starch and air saw to it that no transparency would survive this process. So, we have a simple gel. If I had hair, I might be tempted to use it for styling. I can see it now, Cel Gel.

processed gel

 Peanut Mousse Gel (chunky style)
     What the hell am I thinking? I really don't know, but on with the show.
     I began with one gallon of heavy cream and six egg yolks. I add four cups of raw peanuts to the mixture and blend. I went with raw peanuts after contemplating whether or not a strong peanut taste would overwhelm the delicate celery. The green flavor of raw peanut would compliment the green in the celery, or so I thought. Hindsight, toasted is always best. To the blending mixture a small amount of sugar and salt was added. The peanut flavor was greatly underwhelming, so I added some peanut butter -- about one cup. Sigh, this one was getting away from me, a slow march away from the original conceptual flavor. Still not enough kick. The fat is murdering any trace of flavor. I reach for the dreaded bottle of sesame oil. Glug. Taste... Think... Glug... Taste. Finally we have semblance of peanut! Now, in for the kill. Toss in the modified food starch and gelatin. Pow. Chill. After the chill, process into gel taking care to incorporate as much air as you want. Although, be careful not to make butter.

and we're mixing

pour, unfiltered into mould

Plastic liner!

Look at that airy, chunky texture!

Cubes!

Peanut Mousse Gel!

Le Car Machine!

The Vessel (shortbread with celery seed)
     I used my standard shortbread recipe; flour, butter, salt, powdered sugar, and white sugar. To bump up the celery flavor in the gel I decided to sprinkle the shortbread with ground celery seed. It was strange, but it oddly worked. The shortbread was also shaped into a corrugated sheet and scored with the tines of a fork to mimic the stalks of celery. Before the shortbread completely cooled, it was cut into portions. After the shortbread cooled completely, I began assembly.

corrugated shortbread  (wooden dowels)

portioned product

add some celery gel

add some of that peanut concoction

top with the black sesame and voila!

     This was a fun experiment. I have ways to make it better now. At least people will remember it, like or dislike. That is always one of my goals, keep 'em talking.