Thursday, December 27, 2007

Handpulled Mozzarella with Heirloom tomato salad

When there is a combination of harmony with respect to color, taste, presentation, this is the right salad that I prefer. I prefer hand pulled mozzarella to the one’s that you can get at the supermarket, as this is more soft and can be salted to your satisfaction. To have a soft mozzarella on your plate you need to boil a pot of hot water (roll boil), pour half the quantity of water into a flat pan and crumble the mozzarella curd into this hot water. The remaining hot water needs to be kept on the stove top with the gas burning so that you have some reserve if you need, leave the curd in the hot water for about 4 minutes and let it loosen. Before you can start doing anything with the curd, wear about 3 layers of vinyl gloves to protect your hand form the hot water. Once you are ready gently pull the mozzarella and roll them into equal round balls. Make sure to release the air trapped inside them when you are rolling, by gently spreading the surface with you thumb. Once that is done immerse them in cold water (not good to put in ice water as it will become hard), so that it retains the shape. The heirloom tomato has to be cut into quarters and marinated in olive oil, sea salt & pepper. The mozzarella cheese also has to be cut into equal quarters once it is set. The cheese has to get the same marination. On the plate spread basil pesto and around the pesto sprinkle aged balsamic vinaigrette. Both the cheese and the heirloom tomato that is marinated needs to be placed alternatively on a plate. It can be garnished with brioche croutons and also pieces of basil.

2 comments:

SG said...

Wow Suji chet i loved the hand pulled mozarrela recipe..i will try it out myself..great website by the way..i am enjoying it completely.
Sindhu.

Steppen Wolf said...

Hand pulled pork is king...