If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ll know that when it comes to cooking with kids, I like to set the bar high. I mean, like, extremely high. The boys are rarely fazed by dishes that may appear difficult (sushi springs to mind) because they don’t have pre-conceived notions about the level of difficulty of a particular dish. John Placko’s last session working molecular magic with the boys was a standout in Term 1 and I was ecstatic that he agreed to come back and work with the boys again.
This week Les Petits Chefs once again got to see the marriage of science and cooking thanks to the generosity of Chef John Placko of the Modern Culinary Academy. Yes, that guy – who has dined at El Bulli in Spain and Noma in Denmark (read his impressive bio here)! Once again, he wowed the boys (and me!) with his magic machines and ingredients.
When I rushed down to the lab at 2.45 on Monday, Chef John had everything all set up for the boys:
John had planned sous-vide caramelized banana with coconut gel and coconut snow for the boys and I knew they would love this. They got right to work immersing the bananas in a sugar-cinnamon syrup…
… and watched, fascinated as John sealed the bananas in food-safe sous-vide bags…
We placed the bananas in a 60˚C water bath for about 30 minutes…
And when they were “cooked” we removed them and cut them in even-sized rounds…
And then…. the “most fun ever” (note that this is an often-used term in cooking club!) – brûléeing the bananas. With a “real” blow torch. So. Much. Fun.
Meanwhile, we’d whisked coconut milk with agar-agar and sugar to make coocnut gel. The boys were intrigued with the agar-agar powder that neither looked nor smelled like seaweed 😉
While that mixture sat in the fridge to set (about 10 minutes), the boys got to work making coconut “snow”. A little bit of coconut oil was warmed and mixed with maltodextrin (malto – what??? It’s derived from tapioca that has been specially designed to have a very low bulk density and is used to stabilize high-fat ingredients which can then be transformed into powders i.e. truffle oil, chocolate, bacon fat, olive oil ). The boys were fascinated with the texture of the maltodextrin – it weighs nothing but then when you mix it up with the coocnut oil, it really did turn into fluffy, snowy flakes!
Meanwhile, a little more brûléeing was happening as the boys got ready to plate up…
Check out the coconut gel on the right below – SO cool 🙂
I think they did an awesome job on the brûléeing (they were very careful to make sure it was evenly caramelized!)…
And then we got to plating up – Chef John had brought in the finishing touch of some freeze-dried pineapple powder to continue with the tropical theme…
Et voilà:
Pretty professional looking, huh? I am SO impressed with this dish – and it was ridiculously delicious. Plus, I loved seeing the boys walking out to be dismissed with their magic ingredients and food – they were so excited and proud!
Chef John – you did it again – thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and your magic with Les Petits Chefs – it’s lessons like these that they will remember for a very long time.
Check out John’s Powder for Texture catalogue of “magic” ingredients and equipment and follow John Placko on Twitter.
Contests and giveaways
* Canadians: Have you entered my Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer and attachment giveaway yet? Closes May 29th 2013 at 6pm.
** Hey Canadians, there are some cool prizes to be won over on the Canadian Lentils Love your Lentils site – a blogger, a home chef, and a voter will all win the chance to join Chef Michael Smith in Saskatchewan on June 23, 2013 for a culinary adventure. I have two recipes in the running!
Red lentil carrot soup with orange and cardamom
Lentil-ricotta gnocchi pan-fried in tumeric butter
Congrats to Jody who won my WORLDWIDE giveaway of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution Cookbook!
Under Chef Placko’s guidance, Les Petits Chefs make molecular cooking so intriguing and fun. Great job everyone.
And easy!!
I love the fact that you aim the bar so high for those boys! Your completely right – if you have no preconcieved ideas of how difficult something is, you just get on with it! Those boys are very lucky to have a teacher like you! 🙂
Thanks so much Alex 🙂 I love working with them!
Coconut snow?
I’m so in!
Holy Marcel Vigneron, Batman! That really looks fun. Very impressive job by the lads and great lesson for all of us about what can be accomplished when you don’t know you shouldn’t be able to do something. Maybe Mardi’s students using molecular gastronomy techniques will replace the bumblebee flying as the standard example of this lesson?
Oh thanks so much – you ARE too kind!
LOVE the look of those bananas!
Aren’t they gorgeous?