Friday Night Food Porn

Shrimp Sautéed with Crispy Pancetta Topped with Essence of Shrimp Foam

In addition to reading a lot about sous vide cooking I've also been checking out stuff on molecular gastronomy. Lots of chefs cringe at the words molecular gastronomy but my view is this: all knowledge is good knowledge, you just have to decide what's good for you. I did a lot of reading about MG and most of it was way too scientific for me, but the idea of a foam made sense to me. Basically, get a flavorful liquid, introduce air into it, and make it stay that way. Making the liquid was easy: I simmered the shells from the shrimp with carrots, onion, and celery, strained and set aside while I cooked the shrimp. Getting air into the liquid was easy too: a stick blender on high. Getting the foam to stay a foam, that was the hard part. Most recipes tell you to use a foam canister with No2 charges, agar agar, or lecithin. I checked my pantry and I had none of those things. Since lecithin is mostly fat (it's found naturally in egg yolks) I figured I could substitute with butter. So, I hit the liquid with my stick blender, tossed in several pats of butter, and the next thing you know I had a foam. See, no chemicals, nothing scary, just the science of food.