Transparent Cheese & Tomato Cube - The Secrets of Fine Dining
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Learn how to make a 'cube of wonders' a.k.a tomato spheres inside cheese broth, with professional chef, culinary instructor and food content creator, Natalia Rudakova.
Rudakova is the host of The Secrets of Fine Dining series by Fine Dining Lovers, bringing you incredible tips and tricks, straight from the chef’s kitchen, to level up your fine-dining cooking techniques and plating skills.
Prepare to be amazed as she highlights some incredible, yet simple, molecular gastronomy and fine-dining techniques, which you can re-create at home.
18 October, 2021
serves for
2
ingredients
For the Cheese Broth
Water
500 ml
Parmesan cheese
200g Parmesan rinds
White peppercorns
10
Bay
1 leaf
Agar agar
2.5 gr
White wine
20g Dry white wine
For the Tomato Sphere
Vegetable oil
500g
Thyme
5 sprigs
Garlic
5 cloves
Cherry Tomatoes
200 g
Calcium Lactate
6g
Water
1 litre
Sodium Alginate
5g
Salt
1/8 tsp
If you enjoyed the fine-dining trend for transparent food, you'll love this transparent cube of cheese broth complete with a tangy tomato sphere suspended in the centre, which can be eaten either cold or hot.
Watch and learn as Rudakova breaks down the simple steps, showing how easy it is to make a cube of wonders at home.
To see more videos and fine dining creations from Natalia Rudakova, visit her Youtube channel and follow her on Instagram.
Step 01
To make the cheese broth:
Add water, Parmesan rinds, peppercorns and bay leaves to a pot. Bring the mix to simmer and cook for about 20-30 min, in order to properly infuse the water with the cheese and other aromatics.
Step 02
Pour in the wine and simmer for an additional 2 min.
Step 03
The cheese broth is ready. Strain it through a cheesecloth and transfer the broth to a clean pot.
Step 04
Whisk agar agar powder into the cheese broth and bring to a simmer for about 1-3 min, while continuously whisking.
Let the mix cool down a little bit.
Step 05
To make the tomato sphere:
Confit the tomatoes by submerging them in the oil and aromatics (thyme, garlic, salt, etc.), and cooking at 100°C for about 20-30 mins.
Step 06
Cool down the mix and fish out the tomatoes. Transfer the remaining flavoured oil to a glass jar or an airtight container (once properly cooled down) and keep in the fridge for your future culinary endeavours.
Step 07
Juice the tomatoes.
Step 08
Blend the confit tomato juice with calcium lactate, and transfer to a squeeze bottle.
Step 09
Meanwhile, blend water with sodium alginate.
Step 10
Prepare 3 baths: 1 with sodium alginate mix; and 2 more with clean room-temp. water.
Step 11
Pour the tomato mix into a tsp. And drop into the sodium alginate bath. The tomato juice will start to spherify, forming a thin coating on the outside. This process is called reverse spherification and is widely used in fine-dining.
Step 12
Once the tomato sphere is formed, transfer it to a water bath to clean off some of the sodium alginate, and then to a second water bath for keeping purposes.
Step 13
Place the tomato spheres on parchment paper and freeze.
Step 14
To assemble the Cube of Wonders:
Pour the cheese broth mix into the cubical moulds, about 3/4 full.
Step 15
Dip the frozen tomato sphere into the cube filled with warm broth.
Step 16
Once in contact with the frozen sphere, the broth will start to slowly solidify, while as the tomato juice inside the frozen sphere will melt.
Step 17
Serve these 'Cubes of Wonder' at a temp. no higher than 85°C, i.e. you can serve them either cooled down (fridge temp.) or warm.
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Natalia Rudakova
I’m a professional chef, a culinary instructor and a food content creator.