Edited by author 01-28-2006 10:46 PM
In the interests of open-source food hacking, here are the recipes for the dessert we made. First the components:

Nitro Pumpkin Seed Pie Horchata Foam
Almond Armagnac Cardamom Frankincense Foam
Smoked Paprika Agave Caramel Tuile
Pomegranate Seeds
Powdered Orange Blossom Yogurt

Now the instructions- remember, your mileage may vary:

Nitro Pumpkin Seed Pie Horchata Foam

Blend 2 cups raw shelled pumpkin seeds (pepitos), 4 cups water for 20 minutes or until horchata consistency. Strain and chill.

Boil 2 cups water, 1 ceylon cinnamon stick (crushed), 1 vanilla pod, 2 allspice seeds (crushed), 1/2 thumb of grated ginger, 1/4 nutmeg seed (grated) for 20 minutes to infuse flavors. Strain water, add 2 cups sugar and bring to boil again to dissolve sugar. Chill.

Blend horchata and syrup, adjusting flavoring as needed. Add 2 tsp soy lecithin or dried soy milk- disperse well.

Load 1 quart Nitrous Oxide Dispenser (whipped cream cannister, N2O siphon) halfway with horchata and syrup mix. Charge with 3 N2O cannisters (android turds) and chill.

Over a liquid nitrogen bath, dispense some foam into a spoon. Drop the foam into the nitrogen bath and agitate with a spoon to make sure it doesnt stick to the bottom. Remove from the nitrogen bath when it is hard on the outside and plate.

Almond Armagnac Cardamom Frankincense Foam

Blend 2 cups raw almonds, 4 cups water for 20 minutes or until horchata consistency. Strain and chill.

Flavor almond horchata with 1/2 cup agave nectar, 1/2 cup armagnac, 1 Tbsp cardamom. Pour mixture into a blender and add 2 Tbsp Xantham gum. Disperse with the blender- keep blending until foam consistency is reached.

Plate foam, grating frankincense over foam dollop.

Smoked Paprika Agave Caramel Tuile

Disperse 1 tsp La Chinata smoked paprika (spicy) in 1 Tbsp Cazadores tequila.

Boil 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup granulated sugar, 1/4 cup agave nectar. Once the syrup goes clear, keep boiling until it starts during a dark gold.

Remove from heat, disperse the smoked paprika/tequila quickly with a whisk, and pour out onto silicone mat. Squeegee with a palette knife (offset spatula) to a thin layer. Allow to solidify, then remove and store dry for plating.

Pomegranate Seeds

Just get the seeds out and plate them nicely. These provide a nice tangy burst of flavor.

Powdered Orange Blossom Yogurt

Thoroughly mix 1/2 cup of vanilla yogurt and 2 Tbsp of orange blossom water. Add 1 cup of tapioca maltodextrin (or tapioca starch or tapioca flour if you cant find tapioca maltodextrin). Mix with a fork until thoroughly incorporated and a powder consistency is reached. You might need more or less tapioca powder.

Edited by author 01-28-2006 05:08 PM
Here is a great link to get you started on some food hacking:

http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/

Gernot Katzer's Spice Pages- every spice and herb listed alphabetically, indexable by botanical name, descriptions of etymology, classical pairings, origins, essential oil compounds, plant part descriptions, and most of them translated into 20 or more diff. languages.. all in one person's voice with photos! basically like the opposite of wikipedia.

Thanks for the lovely talk and tasty treat.

I'm interested in mixing up some crazy marmalades (citron/ meyer last week, pommelo coming...), and distilling our very own versions of gin. Yay, bring on the rare citrus.

Wanna play food?

rachel ann
quincetart on that gmail thingy

Edited by author 01-27-2006 05:06 AM
Here is a list of cookbooks I brought to this presentation, as well as some other books with my reviews:

http://www.bookswelike.net/marc.powell

I get liquid nitrogen from anonymous benefactors. Look in the yellow pages under Specialty Gases.

Hey Marc, thanks for the great presentation.
Can you post here the list of books you had there ?
Where do you normally get liquid nitrogen ?

Trying to get some more information or contact info on this for a potential article...can someone help me out?

What a fantastic presentation! Could you post the list of books you showed? Thanks so much for the dessert, too. It was great.

full on food hacking salon!

i will bring some dope equipment to demo and some gratuituous food porn pics to deconstruct. we hope to prepare a sample dish using food hacking theories and techniques. if someone brings liquid nitrogen, we can make instant ice cream.

What happens when the world's leading hacker chefs skill up on organic chemistry and buy centrifuges for their kitchens? Is your palate ready for "meat glue", "cooking" with liquid nitrogen, and "liquid noodles"? This talk looks at the growing role of science in fine dining kitchens with examples from the restaurants that are inventing the exciting field of molecular gastronomy.

Molecular gastronomy is a culinary aesthetic of a growing number of chefs worldwide who wish to cross-pollinate their culinary skills with the trade secrets of chemists, physicists, researchers, perfumers and industrial food manufacturers. Typically, only the most high end restaurants have the budgets to stock their kitchens with steam baths, centrifuges, and microscopes. Spurred on by the friendly competition rife in the food industry, these restaurants work to develop new culinary techniques, improve (and disprove) accepted kitchen wisdom, and deploy their food
to the customer in crazy new futuristic ways.

This talk looks at the growing role of science in fine dining kitchens. Examining the history of molecular gastronomy, we will visit some of the latest techniques and predict where the cutting edges might lead. Can we bring food into the future without seriously freaking out the fickle palate of the public? Are you ready for liquid nitrogen-cooled food, steak-flavored cellophane and bacon & egg ice cream?

http://dorkbot.org/dorkbotsf/archive/200601/