Drum Roll Please..... Challenge #2

Balsamic Vinegar Pearls DONE!

Here's my step by step. I actually failed 3 times before I succeeded.

I put the olive oil in the fridge for 3 hours at first. After 3 failures, I decided to follow another set of directions from another video and put it in the freezer for 30 minutes. I forgot about it and left it in there for an hour. LOL

Remember the weird agar-agar? Read this post for more on agar-agar. I ended up using a coffee bean grinder and made them into about 4 oz. of agar flakes! I was so proud of myself :-)

 Now I heat 1 cup of balsamic vinegar at medium and whisk in 1 tbsp of agar flakes. I heat this mixture till it lightly boils. Then, I let it cool down till it is around room temperature.

 

 

As you can probably tell, these 3 pictures above are the failed attempts. This is what I figured out. As I put in more and more pearls, the temperature of the oil quickly ascends. And as the olive oil warms up, my agar pearls disintegrates! So the 4th and last attempt, I dropped the pearls slower and intermittently put the oil back in the freezer for a minute. And here it is!!!! Beautiful!!! When you put these pearls in your mouth, the agar  quickly melts on your tongue and gives you a potent dosage of balsamic vinegar. YUM!!!

Dried Anchovy

I KNOW what y'all are thinking!!! "What IS THAT?" "NAsty!" "Ewwww" hahaha Tell me I am right. I'm looking for a cooking syringe so I can make those balsamic pearls. And in the mean time, I have to keep my kitchen busy with experiments!

I got a pack from an Asian market this weekend because I have eaten them a long time ago in Hong Kong. Growing up, our maids from the Philippines always let us taste their meals, and this is one of the dishes i really liked. Then when I was in Malaysia, my Chinese Malay friends made something similar for me at my farewell feast. So I got curious and decided to satisfy my craving. 

It was purely an experiment but it turned out really yummy, and yes, people, FISHY! LOL I washed half the pack in water, put it in the pan with a little oil and a dash of salt. Now, here's the fun part, I remembered it tasted sour, so I experimented with fresh lime juices. I also put a bit of garlic and ginger in it and served it cool.  My little 3 year old had a problem with the fishy eyeballs at first, but quickly got used to them haha... My husband and kids LOVED this dish! Don't you want some? ;-) You know you wanna try this.