Lychee Cocktail with Raspberry Caviar (Caviar Cocktail)

Starting with a Molecule-R kit to learn molecular gastronomy

They have all kinds of kits for different purposes (Cuisine R-Evolution, Cocktail R-Evolution and many more!).

Each kit comes with specific recipes that you can use the additives for, PLUS it also teaches you how they work, so you can become creative with them too! (The kit comes with all the additives, the tools you need, a booklet & a DVD).

The beginners Cuisine R-Evolution kit that I’m using here, gives you almost EVERYTHING you need to create beautiful, imaginative creations. Note – you do need to have an immersion blender or a GOOD high powered blender to mix some of the additives into the solutions.

PLUS, I also used Xanthan gum for some of my recipes, which is an additive that you should easily be able to find in the gluten-free section at your local supermarket/grocery store, or specialty stores that sell gluten-free ingredients).

Xanthan requires powerful shearing action to be blended into a liquid properly – An immersion blender or a good high powered blender will do the trick!.

Since the additives come in individual packets, you don’t have to measure out anything. You just measure out the liquid, rip the packet of the additive you require and just add it.

It’s really quite brilliant and foolproof, you will end up making a fairly large amount of caviar.

The one downside with these kits is that they are a little pricier than buying individual bags for different additives. That is to be expected though, because if you buy individual bags for separate additives you will have to measure things out.

Which means you will also have to invest in a small digital scale (like a chemical scale – I have one which I bought in Australia, and it’s ONLY used for weights up to 1lb with a 0.1g accuracy).

With these kits though, you don’t need to measure things out because they have all been PRE-WEIGHED for your convenience.

Basic spherification

Spherification is caused by the reaction between Calcium molecules and Sodium alginate molecules. Calcium molecules get trapped between the Sodium alginate molecules forming a “gel layer”.

There are two main types of spherification – Basic and Reverse.

In Basic Spherification,

A flavoured base with sodium alginate is dropped into a calcium lactate bath. The sodium alginate reacts with the calcium to form a gel layer.

It forms a thin membrane that bursts readily in your mouth (when served as soon as it’s prepared, or at least within 15 minutes).

The longer it’s kept without being eaten, the liquid center of these spheres becomes smaller and smaller. This is because the gelling process continues towards the center, making it more like a chewy gel, rather than a delicate sphere that bursts in your mouth (I call this process inward gelification, to make it easier to remember).

So ideally, the spheres/caviar need to consumed within 15 minutes of preparation.

This is not too time consuming, since the bath and solution are ready to be used in an hour. Reverse spherification on the other hand requires a 24 hour resting time.

This method DOES NOT WORK with acidic solutions (very low pH solutions). This can be rectified by adding another additive to neutralize the acidity (Sodium Citrate), but this is not included in the kit.

Sodium alginate is a thickener. It will thicken the solution that it’s added to. But since it’s not too soluble, it requires agitation (by means of a blender or immersion blender) to disperse and dissolve.

As a result of this agitation, air bubbles will form, so you need to let it rest a little bit before being used.

It is important to use DISTILLED water, tap water may (most-likely) have free-floating Ca ions. If there is calcium in the solution that you are using to dissolve Sodium Alginate, that solution will gelify!

If you want to store the caviar, you can store it in the same solution that it was made in minus the sodium alginate. If you keep it in water, the flavour will dilute (as a result of osmosis).