Serves 6
Competing on Iron Chef America for the first time was one of the most stressful things I have ever endured. I had always loved watching Masaharu Morimoto in the old Japanese shows, so going up against him was intimidating. For our challenge, the secret ingredient was beets: We had to use them for everything, from appetizers to desserts. Beets and yogurt seemed like the perfect combination to transition from the savory dishes to the desserts.
This dish consists of a hollow sphere of frozen beet, topped with sweet, creamy farmer’s yogurt. As I was making these during the competition, all I could think was “Why the fuck did I decide to do this dish today? I’m such an asshole.” Seriously. There we were with an hour to cook all these dishes and here I was fiddling around with balloons in liquid nitrogen. They seemed to take forever to make. But in the end, they were beautiful and delicious. Garnish with a little bit of mint and you have a classic flavor combination with a mind-blowing presentation.
800 grams beets, leafy stems removed
25 grams sugar
4 grams salt
1000 grams grass-fed whole milk
40 grams nonfat dry milk powder
1 gram Y3 yogurt enzyme (see Sources, here)
20 grams honey
5 grams salt
10 grams micro mint
Masticating juicer
Yogotherm (see Sources, here)
Tank of nitrogen gas
Balloons
Liquid nitrogen (see Sources, here)
Insulated cooler or dewar
Syringe (at least 30cc)
Peel and roughly chop the beets. Juice the beets and skim off the foam that forms on top of the juice. Put 400 grams of beet juice, sugar, and salt in a small saucepot set over medium-high heat. Bring to a simmer, reduce the heat to medium, and reduce by one-third, 10 to 15 minutes. Prepare an ice bath. Remove the juice from the heat and transfer to a stainless-steel container. Chill completely in the ice bath.
Use a syringe to pour 30cc of juice into a balloon. Fill the balloon with nitrogen gas to the size of a softball and tie off the bottom. Fill a small insulated cooler or dewar with liquid nitrogen, leaving a ½-inch gap at the top. Roll the balloon in the liquid nitrogen from 12 o’clock to 6 o’clock, then rotate the balloon 90° and repeat the rolling process for 90 seconds, evenly coating the inside of the balloon with juice as it freezes. Remove the balloon from the liquid nitrogen and let it temper for 1 minute in the refrigerator. Use a sharp knife to gently slice open the outside of the balloon. Peel the balloon away from the frozen beet sphere and reserve in the freezer until ready to serve. Repeat 5 times to make 6 beet spheres.
Put the milk in a large saucepan set over medium heat and heat to 185°F. Remove from the heat and let cool to 112°F. Pour the milk into a Yogotherm. Add the nonfat dry milk powder and Y3 yogurt enzyme and stir. Let the mixture sit for 2 minutes. Put the lid on the Yogotherm and let sit at room temperature for 6 to 12 hours, until it thickens to a creamy consistency. Transfer the yogurt to a mixing bowl and add the honey and salt. Stir to blend. Transfer to a covered container and refrigerate until ready to use, up to 1 week.
Put the Yogurt in a piping bag fitted with a plain tip. Pipe a 5-gram dollop of Yogurt in the center of 6 large bowls. Place a Beet Sphere on top of the yogurt. Pipe another small rosette of yogurt on top of the sphere. Garnish each sphere with micro mint.