Spherification, Attempt 1 (12/22/08)

On the Spanish Costa Brava, about 100 miles north of Barcelona, Chef Ferran Adrià Acosta has been redefining the art of "cooking" at El Bulli for over 20 years. He is the father of the modern culinary movement dubbed "molecular gastronomy," blurring the lines between science and cooking through the incorporation of innovative and dramatic new techniques. For many years, Chef Acosta kept secret the processes by which he was able to create some of the world's most interesting food. But in the late 1990s, he began publishing cookbooks and giving classes on some of his more outrageous techniques.

In this country, no chef has been a greater ambassador for molecular gastronomy than Chef Jose Andres. Chef Andres trained under Chef Acosta and has brought the style to his own restaurant, Minibar, located within his white-cloth restaurant, Cafe Atlantico. And it was at Minibar, between the cotton-candied eel and the dragon's breath (curried kettle corn frozen in liquid nitrogen), that I had my first "sphere." When the chef placed in front of me what he called a mojito but what looked like a grape, I was a bit confused. Once I tasted it, my confusion only increased. Somehow, the chef was able to trap a mojito in a very thin, clear, tasteless skin which dissolved on the tongue, releasing the burst of liquid mojito.

A few weeks ago, the curtain was pulled back on this technique (known as "spherification") when a contender on this season's Top Chef made spherical kalamata olives. Knowing that they post all of the Top Chef recipes on the Bravo website, I immediately logged on and found no-so-great instructions on how I could make my own. It turns out that spherification involves the creation of a chemical reaction between calcium and sodium alginate. When these two chemicals meet, they create a tasteless substance like gelatin. By infusing the calcium into a liquid or puree and then immersing that substance in water infused with the alginate (or vice versa), you can, supposedly, create a skin around almost anything - as long as you can figure out how much of each ingredient to use.

There aren't a ton of recipes out there for spheres, and I don't think that very many casual cooks have experimented with the process. But I really, really like a challenge, and I decided to walk the lonely road. The first hurdle was just locating all the requisite ingredients. The "standard" sphere requires the cook to include calcic acid, xanthum gum, sodium alginate and citras - none of which will you find at your local grocery store. I ordered them all online, turning mainly to mondofood.com as it seems like they have the best prices. The stuff is not cheap. In fact, it's annoyingly expensive. Each of the ingredients (with the exception of the xanthum) cost over $20 (including shipping). Plus, I needed to get a digital scale that would be able to measure to the tenth of a gram.

Once I amassed all of the necessary pieces, I decided that my first attempt should be the "classic" - spherical olives. The recipe I most trusted was the one used by Jose Andres himself and is included at the bottom of this post. It is best, they say, to use the absolute finest olives you can buy. Unfortunately, all I had were Spanish olives from a bottle, but I figured that was fine for my first attempt.

I started by pureeing olives and their brine with my immersion blender until they became a thick, soupy mass. I then strained the liquid through a very fine mesh sieve, sifting out a very smooth liquid with a pretty color. "Tastes like olives," I thought, after testing a little dab. After measuring out appropriate amounts of the olive puree, I mixed in the required calcic acid and xanthum gum, pureed for 2 minutes and then placed the whole thing in the fridge to de-bubble over night. In a separate container, I measured out the water and infused it with the sodium alginate and the citras, blending for about 2 minutes before assigning it the same fate as the olive mixture.

This morning, I couldn't wait to jump out of bed to make my spheres. I put together my little set up - olive puree, teaspoon, alginate bath, slotted spoon for removal, clean water (to rinse), and olive oil for storage. There is definitely a technique, but I was amazed at how easy it was to pick up. I simply poured a teaspoon of the mixture into the alginate, then used my finger to coax the mass into a sphere. Figuring out the right length of time to let the spheres sit was also pretty easy. If you leave them in too long, the entire thing will supposedly turn to gelatin. But I left them in for about two minutes before moving them to the clean water and then to the oil.

Tasting the olive felt a little scary. First of all, I had used a whole bunch of chemicals which I've never used before. Though every source had told me they are safe, it is still a little weird to eat something into which you've mixed fine white powders. Second, I had spent so much time, energy and money to get to this point in the process that, if it did not work, I was going to be very disappointed. But when I slid the olive onto my tongue and felt the familiar splash of flavor, I was nothing but excited. The olives I used were not great, but the texture and the presentation were perfect.

Now that I've got the technique, I'm looking forward to making some really interesting things. If anyone has any ideas or recipes, I'd love to hear them. Until next time, I leave you with Jose Andres' recipe for spherical olives:

SPHERICAL OLIVES (by Chef Jose Andres)

Yield: 8 Servings

Ingredients:

1.25 grams calcium chloride

200 grams green olive juice, strained well

0.75 grams xantham gum

2.5 grams alginate

500 grams water

1 gram sodium citrate

Method: Blend the calcium chloride into the olive juice and allow it to sit for two minutes. Next add the xantham gum to the mixture and blend for 1 minute. Allow the liquid to sit in the refrigerator overnight or use a vacuum machine to extract all of the air bubbles.

Meanwhile, blend the alginate into the water, then add the sodium citrate to the mixture and blend for an additional minute. Allow this water mixture to rest in the refrigerator overnight or use a vacuum machine to extract all the air bubbles.

With a deep, rounded tablespoon, scoop a spoonful of the olive juice and carefully drop the liquid into the alginate water. Slightly agitate the submerged olive to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the container. Allow the olive to sit in the alginate water for two minutes before removing it and rinsing it in plain water. Once rinsed, the olive may be stored in extra virgin olive oil. The holding oil may be flavored to your preference.