The Foodie-file: Sour Cherries and Molecular Gastronomy

Friday brought a massive snow storm to Toronto and me to a lunch at the Globe Restaurant on the Danforth in Toronto’s east end. The chefs at the globe created a menu featuring sour cherry products from Cherry Lane farm in Niagara. We were welcomed with a cherry ginger ale (a great idea, I can’t wait to try this out with a shot of whiskey in it at my next soiree). But coming in from the cold and sleet – it was the duck confit with dried sour cherries, wild rice and topped with warm creamy mashed potatoes that warmed the cockles. Served in a small glass that you could wrap your hands around and eaten as a parfait it was a comforting palate pleaser. What followed were cherries paired with many classics with modern twists: a claflouti with almond milk foam, fois gras with a drop of cherry concentrate and smoked sea salt, a mini rootbeer float with cherry sorbet and licorce ice cream, and a cherry parfait with crumbled cherry biscotti and white chocolate ice cream.

The picture is what they called cherry caviar on a chestnut flour blinis with crème fraiche. The caviar was made from cherry juice concentrate and a molocular gastronomic method called Spherification. “Spheres,” in gastronomic terms, are what you get when you mix a liquid with sodium alginate, then dunk it in a bath of calcium chloride. It looks and feels like caviar and has a thin membrane that pops in your mouth and releasing a liquid center (remember starburst fruit chews?).

Here are a few more foodie pics from the event. Look for sour cherries, dried and other wise as the next big “superfruit ” ie: good for you and loaded with antioxidants.

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