French Laundry at Home: Cauliflower Panna Cotta with Caviar

When I first opened the French Laundry cookbook and started flipping through the pages, the canape section was up first.  The first few recipes which I've already completed, totally in my wheelhouse and relatively easy to complete.  Then I got to this one and it sort of came out of left field.  A cauliflower custard served under a thin layer of oyster gel and caviar.  That can't possibly be good, can it?  Coming from my kitchen it turns out that in small doses it probably can be with time to improve the technique. 

So let's dive into this one.

My experience with oysters has been brief and not exactly pleasant.  It's a texture thing.  However, there is a store I recently discovered based in Champaign that is opening a second location in Normal, that has access to about 2-3 dozen different kinds of oysters three days a week.  So I ordered up a dozen of these bad boys for this dish.  I used three for the gel, and actually ate four of them.  Like I said still getting used to them, but I'm hoping with better access to them I will think of ordering a dozen every now and again and trying to learn to like them.  So I shucked them and combined them with some water and let them sit overnight to macerate and flavor the water that would become the gel.

While the oysters were sitting I worked on the cauliflower soup.  Naturally, a head of cauliflower and water.  This is the part of the dish I was actually sort  of looking forward to, because unlike a lot of people I actually like cauliflower.

The cauliflower along with the water cooked with some butter which wasn't pictured cooked for about ten minutes until the cauliflower was tender.

Once tender I added cream and cooked for an additional 10 minutes.

Once tender I put everything into the food processor and blended until smooth and then strained it. 

The oysters had macerated and it was time to make the gel.  This is actually where I had a bit of a goof up.  In following the recipe directions it should take a couple hours for the gel to thicken and be poured onto the cauliflower soup and to be spread evenly.  Well I checked it after about 30 minutes and it was stiffer than jello, oops.  So the presentation here was interesting to say the least.  I also mixed some fresh cracked pepper into the mixture before putting it in the fridge.

The whole thing was topped with a quenele of osetra caviar.  The recipe called for beluga, but beluga sturgeon are endangered and they limit the entire catch in the Caspian to like maybe a dozen fish per year, and the caviar I saw online for like $500/ounce.  Needless to say, A I couldn't find it in stock anywhere and even if I did no chance I was buying it.

Anyway, overall definitely not my favorite dish I've ever made and I probably won't be making it again anytime soon.