The Foodie Files

For me, the answer to the age old question "what are you doing New Years Eve" was a bit unconventional this year.  Before friends and family came over to Just Dance 3 the night away, my mom, dad, brother and I took part in an evening of molecular gastronomy.  What on earth is that, you may ask?  Allow me to explain (and by explain, I mean summarize Wikipedia)...molecular gastronomy is a style of cooking that uses scientific disciplines, enzymes, and various other tools to transform the texture, consistency and general appearance of ingredients.  Since my family is fascinated with food, I got my Dad a molecular gastronomy kit as part of his Christmas present...which meant we got to go on this little adventure in our very own kitchen.  While this arugula spaghetti recipe probably isn't a one you'll be employing anytime soon, I figured it had some entertainment value and wanted to share it anyway.  If you do get a chance to dabble with molecular gastronomy in any capacity, take it!  It's fun and delicious (and really, what could be better than that?).

Ingredients:
2 cups arugula
¾ cup water
2g agar 

tomatoes

mozzarella cheese

Put greens and water into a blender and run until smooth.

Add agar, stir and bring to a boil.

Using a syringe, push arugula through surgical tubing.

Let sit in an ice bath for three minutes.

Use an empty syringe to push "pasta" out of tube.

Top with tomato and mozzarella cheese...we threw a couple balsamic beads into the mix too, but that's another recipe for another time.

Does that look like a good time or what?  Just for kicks, I wanted to show you the rest of our menu.  We had...

Pan Seared Cod with Balsamic Beads and Garlic Foam

Honey Wraps with Fresh Fruit

Goat Cheese "Raviolis" with Prosciutto, Sage, Red Pepper & Truffle Oil

Molecular "Egg" (which isn't an egg at all, by the way...it's mango and vanilla custard)

Since we just can't help ourselves, we even went ahead and made the table as lovely as possible...it really was a terrific evening.

Oh, and one last thing.  My Dad was a bit underwhelmed with the molecular egg, so he went back to the drawing board and made a few changes.  He also made up a recipe of his own (he's amazing that way) and created rum and kaluha bacon strips to accompany the mango egg.  We test kitchened his ideas a few days later and...well...check this out.  Can you believe that's a dessert, not a real egg?!  It's crazy!