I tried a foam today that has no fat or thickening agent (except for maybe pectin). It was so good, I had to think about how to use it. It was so easy, I’m going to try it with every fruit – and, hmmmmn, maybe vegetables… What about potato? With lots of butter?
What I was really focused on today is how much skin or semi-solid materials can you have in the foaming liquid before its gets awful? The answer today is, more than I thought. Yes, I was prepared to toss this whole experiment. Instead I was delighted. I had 3 ripe peaches – so ripe that I had to store them in the fridge. So ripe that one had a brown spot the size of New Jersey. So ripe that one had shrunk to the size of a sugar plum and was as dense as dried fruit.
That fruit got cut up, peel and all, and dumped in a thin tall container for my immersion blender. In went some lime juice (they were, ahem, ripe too) and I made a simple syrup of sugar and boiling water that when in the mix. I blended the heck out of it until it was like flecked soup then in it went to the foamer. Look at this, would ya:
It was light. It tasted like peaches – I mean, you tasted peaches, not air. But Don Ho and the song Tiny Bubbles did come to mind.
So what do you do with such a confection? A wisp of fruit and sweetness, with a deep back-of-the-throat smaste (combination of smell and taste)? Alcohol comes to mind. Bellini. Of course. Modified. Of course.
Peach Espuma (and a suggestion for using it)
3 very ripe peaches
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup boiling water
1 tablespoon lime juice
- Remove peach pits, dice the fruit and put it in a blender bowl. Put sugar in a pyrex mixing cup, add boiling water and stir until dissolved; add to fruit. Add lime juice. Puree with an immersion blender until it is like soup, then blend some more.
- Put the mix into a foam whipper. Cap it, charge it, shake it, use it.
Suggestions for use
The first thing I did was to make a rose spritzer (it is Friday afternoon). Pour 4 oz rose wine into a glass, add 4 oz seltzer. Spray the foam into a bowl and then using a soupspoon pour a few tablespoons over the spritz mix. TGIF.
The non-alchoholic version was 8 oz seltzer water to which a few tablespoons espuma was spooned over. It was also delicious.
I did learn why its better to spoon over rather than espume into the glass – have you ever made a root beer float? When the sugary ice cream hits the root beer it sinks then the soda foams, often over the edge of the glass. When I espumed directly into the seltzer it also foamed, a lot. I much preferred the less foamy version.
Another round of whipped chocolate tomorrow. I’m playing around with an asian flare – ginger and black pepper maybe?
Cheers