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Chef Cássio Prados combines umami taste with molecular gastronomy | Press

May/2014

São Paulo, May 2014 – Chef Cássio Prados’s gastronomy blends skills from basic, oriental, and molecular cuisines. This is proven in the recipe “Mushroom mix and nirá caviar.” The preparation is rich in the fifth basic taste of the human palate, umami, since among its ingredients are shiitake and shimeji mushrooms, foods that have this taste strongly.

The chef explains that the fifth taste is present in several recipes he creates. “Umami foods are great to be used in savory dishes, which is why they are always present in my preparations. In this starter I also use nirá, a type of Japanese chive that pairs very well with mushrooms. This dish is served at technical-emotional cuisine events that I host.”

Recipe for mushroom mix and nirá caviar

Ingredients

3 units of nirá
500 ml water
2.5 g sodium alginate (organic salt)
2.5 g calcium chloride (organic salt)
200 g shimeji
200 g shiitake
30 ml peanut oil
20 ml soy sauce
10 g pink peppercorn or aroeira seed

Preparation method

With the help of a hand blender, make a liquid base of nirá by blending it with 250 ml of room-temperature water and salt to taste. Strain and set aside.
Still using the blender, mix the sodium alginate (organic salt) into the nirá liquid base until its viscosity increases. Then place it into a squeeze bottle for sauce and set aside.
Prepare a “bath” of calcium chloride (organic salt) with the remaining 250 ml of water in a round bowl, stirring well until homogeneous, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Drop the nirá solution into the calcium chloride bath and observe the formation of small green spheres.
Sauté the mushrooms with peanut oil in a very hot skillet, add the soy sauce, and set aside.
Arrange the mushrooms on the plate, add the peppers and the nirá spheres rinsed in running water, and serve immediately.

* Both sodium alginate and calcium chloride are organic salts and can be found at the website: http://www.cocineros.info/