Alinea at Home: Pear, Eucalyptus, Oil and Black Pepper

So it's been a really long time since I've made one of these posts.  Needless to say, I've been really busy and this project kind of got put on the back burner. 

The start of the dish, sauvignon blanc, water, sugar, lemon and pears.  The lemon juice was mixed with a bit of water and was used to keep the pears from browning once they were cut. 

I took a spoon to the pear and took a sort of semicircle out of it, and then from there I took a smaller spoon and hollowed out the middle.  The water, wine and sugar were combined and the cut pears were simmered in the mixture for a few minutes until cooked through. 

The start of the eucalyptus portion of the meal.  The first step was to make the eucalyptus infused water.  This takes, water (of course) sugar, salt and eucalyptus leaves (the internets is a wonderful wonderful place).

So the whole mixture was put in a pan and simmered.  Once the liquid reached a simmer I killed the heat and let it steep for about an hour.

Who wants eucalyptus flavored jello?  I know I do, so here's how you make it.  You take the eucalyptus flavored water and heat it up a bit and then mix it with a sheet of gelatin.

So this is a little trick that I'd like to think Alinea is famous for, but I suspect that the origin at this point is probably truly lost as any place that does molecular  gastronomy is doing at some point during their meals now.  The trick is layering gels.  Now this instance is not so crazy as the gels being layered are the same flavor.  But there are dishes in this cookbook where 3 or 4 different gels are to be layered on top of one another.  Stay tuned for that episode, coming at somepoint in the future.  I took a portion of the eucalyptus flavored liquid that had been studded with the gelatin.  I poured a bit of it in a dish and then into the fridge to completely set.

Once the first layer had set, I put the pears in and filled it with the rest of the gelatin, and then back into the fridge to set up.

The ingredients for the final prep, the completely set pears in jello, black pepper and in my case truffle oil (because I was out of olive oil). 

The classic Alinea plating of a single bit on a fork.  I really liked this dish, the pear was naturally delicious, the jello didn't really stick to the pear so I didn't get much of it in this bit and the pepper added just the right amount of spice.