Italy’s Cannavaro under pressure as stakes rise – SI.com – World Cup 2010

I recently wrote about purchasing the Experimental Texturas Kit from For the Gourmet (via Amazon.com). I decided to break it out this afternoon for an experiment. My brother and I are catering a 90th birthday party next weekend, and I want to come up with a special drink for the guest of honor, so I thought I’d use that as a starting point. The kit came with a few recipes, including one for White Sangria in Suspension. Instead of white sangria I decided to concoct a modified bellini with peach puree, white wine, and rosemary simple syrup (which I fell in love with last weekend).

Before I even got started I noticed a flaw in the recipe (and by flaw I mean the lack of professional kitchen equipment available to me in my home kitchen). The recipe recommends vacuum packing the beverage, once it’s blended with Xatnana (which I am assuming is the Adria‘s brand name for xanthan gum) in order to eliminate bubbles from the cocktail. Well, I don’t have enough in my piggy bank yet for a professional vacuum packer, so I channelled my inner Sarah Palin and went  rogue. This was the result:

The texture was both frothy and gelatinous. Not unpleasant by any means, but my mom noted “it looks like mucous,” which is now an unfortunate association that I can’t strike from my memory. I bet xanthan gum is used in the green Nickolodeon slime. But it’s also used in ice creams to create a pleasant mouth feel and and in processed salad dressings to stabilize emulsions. For now, I need to mull over possible applications in my own cooking. The most logical use for me would be to add it to the mix the next time I make gelato.

Has anyone out there incorporated xanthan gum into their culinary repetoire? I’d love to know what you are using it for.

Photos © StellaCadente*

–StellaCadente*

I’ve had a busy few weeks oscillating between three of my favorite activities lately: buying shoes, eating, and talking about food. So busy, I haven’t had a chance to sit down to collect my thoughts. My meals are starting to blur together a bit, but I have several good ones and one *great* one.

Over the past couple of weeks my inner glutton has come out in full force: dinner at The Bazaar in Beverly Hills, pizza margherita at La Parolaccia in Long Beach, pizza alla napoletana at Il Dolce in Costa Mesa, blueberry pancakes at the Hi-Life in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, cocktails at Vessel, Seattle, a bottle of Nicolas Feuillatte Brut on the patio at Maximillien, Seattle, pints at the Market Arms in Ballard, a curly wurly and a meat pie at the Kangaroo and Kiwi in Greenlake, Seattle, a croque monsieur and rosemary lemonade at Bastille in Ballard, lamb kafta meatballs at Sue Feniger’s Street in Los Angeles, and rabbit ravioli at Michael’s on Naples in Long Beach. (Apologies to all of the entrees that were not named…you know who you are!)

Just this past weekend I met my Editor A.J. Rathbun for drinks –an appropriate activity since he has eight (mainly) cocktail books to his name. Fellow contributing Al Dente contributing writer Tracy Schneider was a no show do to her impending trip to Europe (poor thing!). While bellied up to the bar, met the lovely folks behind pür•spirits who are importing artisan liquors in beautiful bottles from Germany. Finally, I learned my friend Virginia is working for Daniel Bouloud’s DBGB after completing her internship in the Saveur test kitchen.  (Go girl!)

All of this indulgence has me wondering if anyone has the number of an accomplished personal trainer in the South Bay area of Los Angeles?  Let me know.

Have you unleashed your inner glutton lately?

Photo: Cotton candy foie gras at The Bazaar, Beverly Hills © StellaCadente*

–StellaCadente*