Tapas: 1374 Dashi jelly with miso caviar 2007

For my first attempt at an elBulli tapa I decided to make "Dashi jelly with miso caviar" because it incorporates several signature elBulli techniques. First, it uses the original spherification method in which the flavoring ingredients are dissolved in the sodium alginate solution rather than the (now) more common technique of dropping a calcium rich flavor solution into an alginate bath. Second, it transforms normal hot dashi broth into a cold jelly. Finally, it creates surprise by incorporating a well known flavor, squid ink, into a form that resembles a different food: caviar.

The day before serving the dish I whizzed up the 0.5% alginate solution using distilled water and set it in the fridge overnight to allow the incorporated air bubbles to escape. If you happen to have a chamber vacuum you can use it to de-gas solutions like this instantly.

Hydrating Gelatine, Kombu, Katsuobushi, Water

The next day I made a perfectly normal dashi with distilled water, kombu, and katsuobushi, strained it through a super bag and dissolved a sheet of re-hydrated gelatine into it.

I poured the dashi jelly onto serving plates, covered them with plastic wrap and popped them into the 'fridge.

Next up, the flavored alginate base. I dissolved one sachet of squid ink in an equal quantity of water, then mixed that with the alginate base.

The recipe mentions a capsule filling machine and EVOO but says nothing about what to do with them. Fortunately, the internet came through.

At this point the book what seems to be an obvious typo: it specifies forming 15 mm caviar. And here's the puzzle: the picture linked above shows what could very easily be 15 mm (that's more than half an inch)"capsules". But the pictures in the book show tiny "normal size" caviar. My suspicion is that like many dishes at elBulli, this one went through several iterations. So I have a feeling that at various times elBulli made both versions of the dish: one with "regular" squid ink caviar (as I did) and another using the cool but unreliable machine linked above.

So I omitted the olive oil since I don't have the machine and...

Fill caviar maker tray

I prepared the calcium chloride bath with more distilled water and loaded my caviar maker with the alginate flavor base.

I dripped it into the calcium bath to create the squid ink caviar.

Salt and Drain

After forming the caviar I strained it out, gave it a quick rinse, added a little salt, and let it drain in a sieve for a couple hours.

Finally I mixed in some dark (red - nobody around here sells "black") miso paste and packed the caviar into a little ramekin for serving.

Finally! A spoonful of the caviar on the previously plated miso jelly and we're ready to eat.

How it tastes: Pretty good. The dashi jelly could have been more flavorful. Part of that is probably because it was cold. The squid ink caviar was nicely salty. I'll have to try harder to source black miso next time I make this.

Equipment and Ingredients

The Books: El Bulli 2005-2011 - Yes, freakin' expensive. Check with your local library - they may well be "in the system" and available to be reserved.


Kombu
Katsuobushi
Sodium Alginate
Calcium Chloride
Squid ink
Gelatine Sheets

Immersion blender
Caviar Maker
Caviar Syringe
Super bag
A scale that measures in grams