“Aero”, Aerated Chocolate at Home

Who doesn’t love an Aero Bar, am I right? I’m not sure who came up with this technique… I first learned about it from John Placko many years ago when I was helping out with one of his modernist technique workshops. It’s a pretty easy technique: melt chocolate, thin it out, put it in an ISI, add nitrous oxide, dispense, and vacuum. But in order for you to do all those things, you need some equipment…

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Yogurt at Home: 2 ways

We’ve been making our own yogurt at home for the last year or so. It’s really been more for fun than anything else. I have a hunch that it’s not exactly more economical (more on that at the end). But there is something that I find so exciting about the magic transformation that takes place. Another bonus is that we’re eliminating a lot of the waste that goes along with buying and eating yogurt on a regular basis (I mean, realistically one can only find so many uses for all of those plastic tubs).

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Kombucha at Home

Probiotics! I started buying kombucha many moons ago while browsing the aisles of Whole Foods Square One when it first opened. With an array of supposed health benefits such as improved digestion and absorption of nutrients, strengthening immunity, to name a few, I was curious enough to try it and soon developed a taste for it. It was sweet, but not too sweet, and naturally fizzy – a healthy alternative to some of the sugary drinks that I crave now and then. Unfortunately, it always seemed too expensive to drink regularly, especially since kombucha is just basically sugar-sweetened tea, fermented with bacteria and yeasts. Megan and I used to make it, but not consistently. Now, with a new shared goal of trying to make everything ourselves, we have started brewing new batches every 8-12 days.

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Cloud 9

This dessert started with the idea to create a “floating cloud” look on a plate. It’s composed of an upside-down pavlova, topped with chantilly and pismaniye (halva floss). Hidden inside are fresh raspberries filled with a blended pate de fruit, macarons, toasted pistachios, and rose petals. Finished with a chocolate number “9” because…it’s not just any cloud, it’s Cloud 9.

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