Soy Lechitin Application?
A couple of years ago, I had a dish prepared by Chef John Shields that I will remember for the rest of my life. The ingredients were diced squid, olive oil, salt, the squid's natural juices, and an emulisifier. The resulting dish looked like risotto and was fabulous. Any ideas on the emulsifier and technique?
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So I've been trying to picture this dish and how I would execute it. I would think you would get your squid into risotto size pieces (or a little larger since they might render slightly in cooking) and then reserve your scraps to make a sort of stock which you would reserve for your squid 'risotto'. Take your scraps and do a slight quick sautee on them just to get a little bit of a sear to bring out some of those wonderfully carcinogenic Maillard-redox notes (this may not be how it was done but I didn't have the dish so I'll have to defer to you in terms of what sort of texture it had) and then just slowly adding some of the squid juice stock in two or maybe three additions--defintely want to avoid rubberiness obviously. But then, you're throwing in the emulsifier as an ingredient which has me a little bit puzzled. Inherently, with an emulsion, you are thickening something. In this case, it would be the EVOO thickening the stock. You might only be reaching a viscosity of say a vinaigrette as opposed to an aioli, but somehow, one way or another, they're thicker. Obviously, with a risotto, you don't thick of rice with some sort of thick sauce so I'm guessing that it's simply that the squid was cooked with the 'risotto' method in a vinaigrette-like squid stock-oil emulsion. Generally, with a vinaigrette, there's no need for an emulsifier if it's done properly or unless the oil:water ratio is just that high because then the emulsifier is there to act as a stabilizer. In terms of what emuslifier to use for that purpose, lecithin would work; I use it to stabilize my nut milks for storage in the fridge so that the water and nuts' fat do not separate. Honestly, I'm just sort of at a loss as to why an emulsifier is in this recipe. Perhaps they just sort of kept the emulsion on their line at the restaurant and needed it to be stable on the line for service. The only other thing I can think of is instead of making a stock and then adding an emulsified stock to the squid that they are just rendering the squid in the pan with oil and they have to use an emulsifier so that the oil emuslifies into those juices... still it doesn't seem to add up to me. One other thing has occurred to me. I don't know who told you the ingredient list, but if it was just a server or some other renegade member of the FOH staff, she/he might not have been right about the 'emulsifier' part. Also, emulsifier is a much more guest-friendly word than transglutaminase which may be what the chef actually used. It's used to bing proteins together. Wylie Dusfresne does this incredible lamb 'flank stank' where he binds ground lamb into this amazing steak. Richard Blais did a gourmet lollipop (like lamb lollipop) but with really good Kobe beef I believe. It can also be used to make fish noodles or what I'm thinking in this case, fish risotto. Willpowder is where I buy all my fun stuff. Of course. you can always use Adria's line.