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fake bake
on our last winemaker dinner we served a rhubarb that was poached in its own jam. the final product was not quite what i had in mind so i have been trying to rethink it. long story short it led to today’s micro “baked” banana. blending together a previous dessert (a banana soaked in caramel) and poaching in gels, from the fat duck, brought us to this nice surprise.
the bananas are left to soak, vac packed in a 45 brix caramel syrup, overnight. drain, portion to the desired size and freeze. use the left over syrup to make the gel/glaze. the frozen bananas are placed on a skewer, dipped in the glaze and left to defrost.
the original idea was to serve the banana like this, using the glaze to add a little more caramel flavor and help keep them shiny. then i remembered trying to reheat a gellan gel once before and it did not work as gellan is very resistant to heat. sooo….. why not throw it in the oven and warm it a little. this “worked” but it started to lose its shape where the gel was in contact with the tray. the direct heat of the tray was too much and it melted the botom.
hmmm….. how to get a more even heat transfer. my explanation may not be scientifically perfect but the concept is there. microwaves!! gels are more resitant to microwave heat than the water in a banana, meaning the banana will get hot while the gel stays cold. full power for 10 seconds… too much, turn the microwave to defrost and 10 seconds later, perfect. hot banana on the inside and cool gel on the outside.
This gel uses both gellan lt(soft gels) and gellan f(hard gels). it is very strong and very heat resistant, but a little too strong for my taste. the next step will be to find a better balance between the two gellans.
chocolate.walnut.banana.caramel
walnut financier, glazed with managro creameux, crusted with crystallized walnuts and freeze dried bananas
micro “baked” caramel banana
cocoa ribbons
Tags: banana, gellan, plated dessert
cool, try the vege gel from sosa, it is a carageenan and is sometimes easier to work with than gellan.
Blog is looking good man!