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So delicious. It's a shot of intense "barbecue juice," with a couple balls of fresh peach, topped with a snack of puffed barbecue sauce wrapped in smoked peach leather and garnished with a hyssop leaf, barbecue sauce, and a peach puree.
The barbecue juice was a byproduct of making a ton of barbecue for an event I catered a few weeks ago. I took sixty-five pounds of boneless, skinless chicken thighs, rubbed them with a dry rub (recipe below), hot smoked them for about an hour over mesquite charcoal and hickory chips, gave them a bit of char as well, then put them in hotel pans with some chicken stock and a bit of barbecue sauce. After an hour or so, they were falling apart. I pulled them, and made sure to add back in plenty of the braising liquid. Still, I was left with quite a bit of that awesome, smoky, barbecue flavored liquid. So I reduced it down from about 12 quarts to 3 quarts and froze it. That liquid, served hot and adjusted for salt, was this shot.
The diners were instructed to eat the puffed snack first, then sip the shot. The puffed snack was puffed barbecue sauce. However, normal barbecue sauce contains too much sugar to puff adequately. See here for details. So I had to make a mostly sugarless BBQ sauce. Not an easy feat. Here's the recipe I used:
Sugarless BBQ Sauce
70g tomato paste
70g apple cider vinegar
5g smoked salt
20g worcestershire sauce
15g soy sauce
10g Crystal hot sauce
20g molasses
I took that (full recipe) and added 250g tapioca flour to make a dough. After kneading a bit to make the mixture uniform, I roll it out flat, steamed it for about 17 minutes, then let it cool and cut into strips, then dehydrated the strips. Once dehydrated they'll keep indefinitely. To finish, fry them at about 335F. If you fry them at a higher temp (425F or so), they'll puff more, but then they'll burn too quickly before they are fully puffed.
I wrapped the puffs in peach leather:
Peach Leather
850g peach puree
175g sugar
5g yellow pectin
2g citric acid
Follow the usual method to incorporate and hydrate the pectin. Spread out the warm puree on acetate, then dehydrate only until flattened but still pliable. Apply some smoke, off the heat, then peel off acetate and roll up in parchment paper like a fruit roll-up.
Hyssop is a very medicinal herb up front but with a minty aftertaste. I knew it would work well with the BBQ flavors, so I asked Joseph from White Crane Springs Ranch if he had any. He did, so he clipped some and brought it for me the following week to the market. Indeed, it worked well, though I suppose it probably wasn't worth the extra hassle.
Posted by Barzelay on 2010/07/21 @ 4:10 | Comments (7) | Lazy Bear, Meat
Comments
I love creative uses for by-products that otherwise might be discarded. Did you contemplate maybe claryfying the juice with gelatin to make it more elegant?
and I will be stealing your fruit leather recipe to see if my 6 year old will enjoy it as a fruit roll-up substitute. Those damn things are pretty much impossible to get off their package in bigger than 1/2 inch pieces. I hate them...
Posted by: E. Nassar at July 21, 2010 11:34 AM
Hi Elie, I definitely thought about clarifying the barbecue juice, but I decided that I liked it better straight. I strained it through a chinois to get rid of the larger particles, but that's it. The mouthfeel was best with a bunch of tiny particles, and with all the fat and gelatin.
The peach leather recipe worked, but I haven't perfected it. I'd say it needed more sugar to retain moisture. It got kinda crispy when fully dehydrated, so I had to brush it with some water and let it sit to get pliable again. Double the sugar in the recipe and that probably wouldn't happen.
Posted by: Barzelay at July 21, 2010 11:59 AM
Very creative dish and looks to be time intensive. I just can't get past the idea of taking a shot of BBQ sauce since it's such a strong flavor. I also would not take a shot of ranch, soy sauce, or Caesar dressing for that matter.
Posted by: sygyzy at July 21, 2010 1:39 PM
It's not a shot of barbecue sauce. There is only a tiny bit of barbecue sauce in it. It is primarily heavily reduced, smoky chicken stock made from smoked and grilled and spiced chicken. It tastes like the essence of barbecue, of which barbecue sauce is only a small part. The meatiness and smokiness are primary. The sauce is secondary.
Posted by: Barzelay at July 21, 2010 1:45 PM
you sir are a genius :)
Posted by: Chicken Fried Gourmet at July 21, 2010 6:27 PM
Very cool! I actually just did a BBQ sauce consomme with a pork belly dish, but I haven't nailed a BBQ sauce base I'm happy with yet. Not enough umami. Is there any chance you'd share your juice recipe?
Posted by: Andy Matuschak at August 14, 2010 2:42 PM
If I had one, I'd be happy to. I've already shared all of the info I have about how I made the juice. It was just a byproduct of the process of making tons and tons of barbecued chicken for a big event I catered. Basically, the process is:
1. Make a lot of barbecue in a smoker with a nice dry rub.
2. Put the meat in pans, add stock and some barbecue sauce and cover tightly. Braise/steam until fully tender.
3. Shred meat, then add the braising juices back into the meat until the meat is saturated. Save the remaining juices.
4. Reduce the reserved juices until the salinity is appropriate for a soup.
5. Serve.
Posted by: Barzelay at August 16, 2010 3:22 AM