Buying an inexpensive dehydrator has added quite a few items to my list of makeable elBulli recipes. Since I happen to love pineapple these Pineapple Cat's Tongues floated to the top of my list.
The recipe mentions Silpats for the dehydrator. Mine came with what is called a "fruit roll-up sheet" so I used that as a template to cut out a couple pieces of parchment paper.
Since I don't own a juicer I started with commercial pineapple juice. I passed it through a 75 micron superbag to strain out the pulp. Then chilled it to 3° C. That took about half an hour in the freezer.
Soy protein, xanthan, and egg white powder get whizzed in.
And the whole thing gets whipped in the Kitchen Aid until it forms "a stable meringue".
Then into a piping bag with a 1 cm tip.
And onto the dehydrator trays.
Where it dries for 7 hours.
How It Tastes: Delicious. Very sharply pineapple-y. A little too sweet to really be a bar snack like the nuts and seeds I've done previously. Possibly natural pineapple juice would have been less sweet.
What I Learned: How to pipe meringue (sort of). I did get (a little) better as I made 'em. I should have whipped the meringue longer. The Cat's Tongues spread a little while drying. You can make these with just about any fruit juice. I'll buy a couple cheap Silpat knockoffs and cut them to fit my dehydrator. The finished Cat's Tongues were pretty well stuck to the parchment paper.
This is so easy to make I'll probably do another batch with some other juice - maybe pomegranate.
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.
Soy Protein Powder
Egg White Powder
Xanthan Gum
Immersion blender
Dehydrator with good temperature control
A scale that measures in grams
Hey William, I too have started down cooking this epic publication. I made these yesterday and they failed miserably. I then started to think about the ratios given and Versa Whip 600K came to mind so I sub it in for the soy protein powder and they piped out beautifully. They are now in the dehydrator and we shall see after 7 hours. I too used canned pineapple juice.
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I think you're right abut Versa Whip - I've noticed that elBulli had a tendency to use what the chefs were already familiar with and then add stuff in. Even with their reputation as "molecular" they weren't really dialed in to what was happening with commercial additives - I'll email Kerry Group and ask when they introduced Versa Whip - I'll bet it was well before 2006.
DeleteI just got a replay from Kerry Group:
Delete"Versawhip 600 was a product of a company that we inquired in 2004. I do not have a definite answer as to when that company released the product onto the market but I can definitely tell you it was at least 2004."
It occurs to me that the summary volume has some information on when they introduced new products - if I can manage to not get distracted tonight I'll see if Versa Whip is mentioned.
Thanks for posting...most helpful.
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