Hi vegan friends !

Today, I hope i’ll realize the fantasy of plenty of you : a floating island 100% vegetal ! I must admit that I missed this desert quite much, and it made me lose a few dozen of hours in my kitchen, always tempting to cook foams, in the microwave, au bain-marie, in the oven… I think I’ve done the job : here’s the recipe ! 🙂

Oh, you must ask you why this island is from “Chaville”. Actually, it has been invented in this city, near Paris. That’s quite tricky for this small doggy island! (in french, “cha” sounds as “chat”, witch means cat, and “ville”, city) 🙂

So, for 2 to 5 islands (depends on you, I prefer small deserts ^^) :

• 30g (30ml) chikpea’s white
• 30g white sugar
• 2 teaspoon shaved-packed starch (corn, wheat… corn may be a little more bitter)
• 1 teaspoon shaved-packed guar gum (resist acidity from lemon juice)
• A few drops of lemon juice (or cream of tartar)

For the cream :

• 150ml of vegetable milk
• 20g white sugar
• A very big teaspoon of an oilseed’s puree (cashew for me)
• 1 vanilla pod or a few drops of vanilly flavor
• Option : a pinch of turmeric (for the good-looking… and by the way, I find it more tasty ?!!!)

Cream preparation :

1. Mix milk, cashew puree and sugar.
   
2. Cook over low heat for ten minutes and then over very low heat (till you got the texture you want)
3. Add turmeric (option)
4. Place cream in the fridge

Floating island preparation :

1. Mix chickpea’s white with starch and guar gum
2. Beat the mixture untill stiff. The texture is now as a shaving cream
3. When it whitens, add a few drops of lemon juice and sugar
   1. Beat until mixture becomes as strong as some kind of  marshmallow (for convenience, I always withdraw my drummer as beating, and gravity does the rest, otherwise it’s a bit complicated to remove the whipped white!)
4. Cut into as many parts as desired Islands

Floating island cooking :

• Microwave: for me, 1000W, 10 seconds max. In fact, simply have a look: when the volume doubles, stop it !
  Note: It may be necessary to reduce the starch or use one with a softer taste! (wheat ?)

• Poaching: Prepare a pot of salted water (sea salt for me) and bring to boil. Then add the foam and cook less than 20 seconds on each side. Then place islands on paper towels.
  Nota : this is really best poached !

• Oven (?). It is certainly possible to cook the mixture baked in a mold to obtain a precise form, but I’ve never done this! Feel free to leave a comment for this!

Final assembly:
Here on the left, a baked island in the microwave, right, poached. Only poached island was treated with turmeric (actualy, seas ^^): admit that it is much more appealing, right?

Extremely complex, the latter operation requires the agility of a cat in heat and a sly ostrich, but also a dressage talent that only master Loyal can lend you, if he does.

OR Quickly, drop islands on seas.

For gourmets, a little caramel will surely be welcome, and for us, gourmands, too late, but it was too good! 🙂

(translation in progress)

Le lin, quelle santé ! J’apprenais il y a peu que si je ne trouvais pas de graine de chia, c’est parce que ça n’était pas bon pour le bilan carbone : on la fait venir de loin, et le lin, c’est quasiment pareil !
Qu’à cela ne tienne, je ne parle plus de chia tant qu’on n’en cultive pas chez nous ! 😀

Bon, la digression est terminée, passons au pratique : comment passe-t-on d’une graine de lin à de la mousse !?
Tout d’abord, il va falloir récupérer le mucilage de la graine. C’est simple et beaucoup doivent déjà l’utiliser, mais peut-être que cette technique vous séduira !

1. Tout d’abord, verser 1 tasse de graines dans une casserole, et couvrir de 6 fois le volume en eau.
2. Porter à ébullition, et immédiatement laisser cuire à feux doux 20 à 40 minutes. Malheureusement, en fonction de votre plaque de cuisson, je ne peux pas donner d’indication plus précise, le temps de cuisson varie trop d’une plaque à l’autre !
3. Une fois que l’eau fait des fils pas encore trop collants sur la spatule exprès là pour ça (ne pas touiller, c’est inutile… et gluant…), la passer dans un tamis en fer afin de séparer les graines du mucilage
4. Laisser refroidir, vous pouvez le conserver plusieurs jours sans souci
5. Une fois refroidi, il faut et il suffit de battre le mucilage. Attention, s’il n’a pas assez cuit ou qu’il n’est pas battu assez longtemps, vous n’obtiendrez rien…

Cette recette est assez exigeante et nécessitera certainement plusieurs ajustements de votre part. Ne désespérez pas, vous y arriverez ! Si vous perdez patience, laissez les graines dans le liquide, et quand vous monterez la mousse, vous aurez une excellente base pour des pâtes à pain au lin 🙂

Extraction de mucilage de lin (1/3), cuisson

Extraction de mucilage de lin (2/3), après filtration

Extraction de mucilage de lin (3/3), conservation

Foams can be built with Proteins isolates ! A strange name ? Oh ! no, you’ve certainly heard of it from a very muscular man/woman ! But, unfortunately, eating those without any kind of activity won’t give you a muscular body. Unfortunately, in fact, for me ! 🙂

So, a little word about those powders. It’s a good thing to exactly know what you’re eating, but personnaly, I dont like the soja powder that much. Actually, pea or gluten seems better tasting… so have a try if you’d like, I’m now preparing my own pea’s whites… (see the other article ^^).

Ready to get your foam ?

• 50ml water (and till 100ml, experiment will told you. Moreover, it depends on the recipe you have in mind !)
• 20g sugar (minimum if you’re using soy)
• 10g powder of :
  • Soy protein isolate
  • Pea protein isolate – thanks to Alain for its tests 🙂
    • pure gluten – thanks to Alain, it changed my view of seitan ! 🙂
• 10g corn starch (Vegan pistachio meringue cookies prefers wheat one!)
• 1 teaspoon shaved-packed guar gum
• A few drops of lemon juice, vinegar or tartar cream
• A drummer or a whisk/strong arms

Preparation :

1. Mix powder, starch, guar gum with 20 to 35ml water
2. Beat and add water
3. When it goes white, add lemon juice (tartar cream) and then sugar
4. As it gets the texture of shaving cream, stop to beat, otherwise you’ll get a too stiff texture (as a marshmallow)

It seems that I did’nt to whipp Soy without sugar, but Alain (thanks again ^^) had good results with Peas and Gluten. He added that arrow-root seemed to give a better result. I’m sure it is, so try with your own powders and starch and find your best own recipe ! 🙂

Oh, just to explain : in France, tartar cream is difficult to get, so we use lemon juice, it does the same even if there’s a little taste ! (I’m going to buy some tartar cream… hope that’s great !)

Last update 23/03/15 : Tips and tricks

What exactly is a vegetal foam?

A foam is not an emulsion, and you’ll understand this here!

Premises and skill

Foams can be started with cans. This discovery, I made it looking for a viscous liquid that I presumed was looking like egg white. Don’t show disgusted faces : eating whites, egg or chickpeas whites, is not done by numerous people ! :p

You’ll see, try it is adopting it ! Tasty and convenient, you can easily get some anywhere ! For me, as I’m eating many chickpeas, chickpeas’ white is the best (and it is not very tasty).

One another advantage is that all those whites are easy to preserve : some days in the fridge, and many more (don’t exactly know how many) in the freezer !

How-to : get a vegetal foam’s white

First of all, what is a white ? A white, is a whitish liquid containing proteins, and that can go whipped ! (please note that if the color is pink, I’ll call it a “pink”, as red beans gives ^^)

Do you know which vegetals gives foams ? Here is a little list approved by my own: (not exhausted)

1. Palm’s heart (hope I got the good translation…) : taste is a little sharp
   Unknown composition, so I do not recommend its use as I do not know more!
2. Legumes
   1. Chickpeas : taste is not strong, very easy to use
   2. Beans (red or whites), Flageolets : taste is strong, usable in salted cooking (for me)
      Be careful, they may contain lectins and are currently not recommended for consumption (see Article composition)
   3. Split peas : taste is not strong, easy to use
   4. Tofu “Whey”
3. Cereals
   1. Gluten !
4. (see protein’s isolat’s foams)

So, now you’ve chosen your own vegetal, we’ve got two possibilities :

1. Get white from cans
2. Home made white

Get white from cans

This is the most difficult part : by your can. Then, if you’ve a can-opener, just draw ! 🙂

Here, for example, a little can shows 150ml of chikpea’s white. Incredible, isn’t it !

Home made white

Here are all different manner of getting your own white (pink) :

1. You own fresh vegetal (not dried)
   I recommend whiten and throw this water, then:
   1. Keep it in a jar you’ll can close
   2. Cover with water, add a little vinegar ou lemon juice
   3. Let in the fridge for some days (I don’t know how long…)
      Note : I have to do it again, I had fresh pean just one time in my life…
2. You own dry food
   1. Soak it for one night (fridge or not)
   2. Get the soaked liquid
   3. Cook it
      CAUTION: Do not hesitate to boil (not less hot) 10 minutes (minimum 30 for beans). This destroys the lectins, which are toxic elements (I do not recommand beans and soybeans untill I’ve found new informations).
      Cooked foam is quite impressive for me!
      
      After a long time, a sediment shows itselft, so just toggle the jar !
3. You own the dry vegetable but don’t want to use the soaked liquid (recommanded)
   1. When the vegetable has been soaked and is fully regrown, go to step 1!
      Note : waiting my own validation on 12/13/14
4. You own the vegetable and ask for yourself is cooked liquid is usable ?
   1. It is ! 🙂
      Note : because knowing the quantity of vegetable/water/heating/cooking time… I’m afraid each one of you have to learn by himself ! (my first time was the good, I tried to have as few liquid as I can… that is my recommandation !)

Note : for Palms’ hearts, I never had fresh ones, so… I don’t know how to do 🙂

Beat your white (pink) until stiff

So, to get a good foam, you’ll need :

• 50g (50ml) of white (pink) from… :
  • Chickpeas OR from
  • Beans (red, white) OR from
  • Flageolets OR from
  • Palm’s heart OR from
  • …
• 1 teaspoon packed-shaved guar or xantham gum
  => This is a thickener: for a raw foam, it is sometimes unnecessary, you be the judge!
• A few drops of lemon juice, vinegar or tartar cream
  => This is a stabilizer!
• Options :
  • Water
  • Starch (attention, corn one may be a little bitter)
    => This is a texturing: serves in particular to dry the foam during cooking!
  • Sugar
    => This is a stabilizer!
• A beater or a whisk/strong arms

Preparation :

1. Mix white (pink) to guar gum
2. Beat, when it becomes white, add lemon juice (option, but it stabilizes foams).
   One another option is to add starch, but you’ll have to want this texture ! Here, it’s nonsense.
   Note : Adding sugar will be very easier to get foam going stiff. But first, it’s just an option, and secondly, the foam can go too stiff (as dense as marshmallow – rarely tasty…)
   1. Beat until foam gets a shaving cream texture! You can obtain a foam as stiff as marshmallow, so be carefull! (same as the “note” from step 2: no, I’m not contradictory)

*Oh, as I’m with it, I choose guar gum because it endures acidity. If you’ve good results with one another, please, let me know ! 🙂

Tips and Tricks

After some wonderful players return, I will share tips at this location (editable article):

• Raw foam: the gum is not essential
• Cooked foam: the gum should be essential (depends on the expected texture) and increases its density, it gives a “melting–soft” cake (dry density makes much more complicated)
  If you want to dry the foam, several solutions:
  • baking powder (lowers density during cooking)
  • starch
• Get cooking!

Conclusion

Vegetal foam (“Neige” is the word in french, witch means “snow” ^^) is so possible : let’s bewitch your kitchen ! But as I’m not Merlin, I presume it will take me months/years to answer how many water for this or that vegetable… I invite/beg you to help me creating a table for each vegetal !

So, let’s bubble ! 🙂