This is homage to summer and tomatoes. I love to use tomatoes when in season and I couldn’t help ourselves when the thought of tomato water fluid gel came to us. The tomato water/yuzu fluid gel has the bright flavors of tomatoes and yuzu but isn’t all the fuss of runny, water-like liquid. Gelling gives it the body to stand up on its own and is the perfect complement to a summer tomato salad. It also has potential for many protein dishes like fish or meat.
I hope you enjoy our interpretation of this fun technique.
For those of you not familiar with a fluid gel check out our article at:
For the water:
10 vine ripe tomatoes
Large pinch of salt
Method-
With the tomatoes, score an ‘X’ on the bottoms of each and set aside.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil and set up an ice bath. Drop the tomatoes in the boiling water for 30 seconds each then drop them in the ice bath. Once all are blanched , pull them out of the water and peel the skin off of the tomatoes.
Take the tomatoes and cut them into quarters. Salt the quartered tomatoes and place in a large tea towel or cheese cloth and hang in the refrigerator over night with a bowl placed beneath it to catch the water.
Don't use cheese cloth from your regular supermarket. They're pretty lousy ,try Sur la table or whole foods.
Caution - unless you want to play a joke on someone, you don't want it that clear for the tomato water. We got it that way through coffee filters.
For the fluid gel
350g or 11.83 oz of the tomato water
30g yuzu juice
4g agar agar
Take the tomato water and weigh out 350g(11.83 oz). Add the yuzu juice and place in the blender. Blend with the agar for 2 min. place in a sauce pot and bring to a boil.
Strain and place in a flat container(it's faster, we used a rectangular pan.) and let it chill. Once fully cooled, place back in the blender and blend until completely smooth (about 2 min)like jelly, strain through a fine mesh strainer and voila!
