This dish was a beautiful tragedy. It looks great (to me, anyway) but was not very good to eat. Here's what's on the plate:

• Sea urchin gonads (for info on how to break down a sea urchin, see this previous post
  
• Squid Ink Ravioli (dough recipe below) filled with 45g sliced fennel stalks, 35g minced whole Meyer lemon, seeds removed, 35g diced bacon, fat mostly rendered, and crispy. Briefly sautee the three components together, to meld flavors, soften the fennel, and soften the sharpness of the lemon.
  
• Fennel stalks, sous vide 4 minutes in boiling water with butter, a bit of sugar, and black peppercorns
  
• Whipped fennel cream. Cream heated up and steeped with fennel, then loaded into a 1/2 liter whipper, then charged with two N2O chargers.
  
• Meyer lemon fluid gel (below)
  
• Fennel powder (stalks and fronds, blanched, shocked, dehydrated, ground, along with some chlorophyll, passed through a sieve)
  
• Meyer lemon zest
  
• Fennel frond

The first reason it was not good to eat is that it took so long to plate and then photograph that the hot components were completely cold by the time I tried to eat it. The second reason is that I didn't want to eat it then, anyway. I was already stuffed from dinner, but had to use the sea urchins before they went bad. They were recently dead when I bought them on Saturday, so Monday night it was either use them or sacrifice them to Gods of busy law firm jobs. So I used them, and plated up the dish. I already had most of the components made, I just had to break down the urchins, make ravioli with the filling I'd previously made, cook the ravioli, and plate the dish.

The third reason it wasn't very good--the one I have to be honest about--is that it was not a well-conceived dish. The flavors did not go well together. I included some bacon in with fennel and Meyer lemon in the ravioli. Bacon seems like it might not go with uni, but I think it does. The flavors of the two things occupy such different spectrums that they really don't butt heads very much. They each stand on their own, with the bacon boosting the savory, fatty qualities of the urchin, and the urchin providing floral, interesting flavors to the bacon. I was worried about the combo, but it worked. What didn't work was the Meyer lemon. I was sure that lemon would go well with uni. It just makes sense. Lemon goes with all things from the sea, right? But uni has a particularly floral scent. In addition to the briny sea flavor, it also has a certain flower-like smell that can be so nice. The lemon both brings out that floral quality, and then completely clashes with it. So, the flavor pairing just didn't work out. It's a shame, because, all told, I spent a lot of time on this dish. Sometimes the tough parts just work, while the easy parts fail miserably. This was one of those cases. I will not be trying this again. The fennel and bacon (especially the fennel) are still quite viable pairings with uni.

The fourth, and final reason it wasn't very good is that I have not had success with Thomas Keller's pasta dough recipe. He incorporates at least twice as many egg yolks as pasta dough normally has, in order to make the dough more rich. Based on my two tries with it, it's just too sticky and difficult to roll out. As a result, I couldn't get it as thin as I wanted it for the ravioli. Here's his recipe (with my addition of squid ink), but I recommend you don't use it. If you're so inclined, use the normal pasta method, just be prepared to add a lot of flour during the rolling.

Thomas Keller's Super Rich Pasta Dough That Is Impossible To Roll

• 8 oz AP flour
  
• 1 whole egg
  
• 6 egg yolks (I recommend two)
  
• 1/2 tsp olive oil
  
• 1.5 tbsp milk
  
• 1 tbsp squid ink

The Meyer lemon fluid gel was great. I use gellan for my fluid gels now, as it doesn't impart that terrible seaweed flavor agar does.

Meyer Lemon Gel

• 120g Meyer lemon juice
  
• 30g orange juice
  
• 30g agave nectar
  
• 60g water
  
• 1.5g gellan "F" (.6%)

Combine water, agave nectar, and OJ, then shear in gellan with a blender (immersion blender is fine for gellan that's going to be heated and set). Bring it up to a boil, then let it cool for minute or two. Then combine with room temperature Meyer lemon juice and pour into a mold. I vacuum seal a small baking dish to use as a mold. Then let it set for an hour or so in the fridge, cut it into cubes, then puree them in a blender, agitating it a ton until it's all nice and fluid gel-like. Then pass it through a sieve and into a squeeze bottle. I'm guessing that it'll keep for at least a couple weeks in the refrigerator, thanks to the acidity of the lemon juice, but I could be wrong.

Posted by Barzelay on 2009/02/04 @ 0:20 | Comments (0) | Food Additives, Sauces, Condiments, Seafood, Veggies, Fruit, Grain, Cheese