Sierra Mist (cocoa nitro-air, yogurt foam, goat milk)

This dessert is an incredible combination of flavors, temperatures, textures and techniques with an amazing presentation. There is ice cream, a foam, a cremeux, cooked mousse, lecithin air and liquid nitrogen.

Sierra Mist is a creation of molecular gastronomy Chef Digilio of La Vineria de Gualterio Bolivar in Buenos Aires. The inspiration of this dish was the memory of  the mist in the early morning or late afternoon coming down the mountain range in a town called Sierra de la Ventana to which Chef Digilio used to go camping with friends. This is another classical dish that has been served at La Vineria season after season. Chef Digilio prepared this dish in front of our camera so we could capture all the details!

The dish consists of a dollop of yogurt foam covered in chocolate crispy cereal (looks like a stone), a dollop of goat milk ice cream and a dollop of chocolate cremeux on a bed of chocolate powder made from cooked mousse and on top of everything there is a disk of cocoa air frozen in liquid nitrogen. When the dish is presented to the dinners, they are impressed by the cold “mist” from the liquid nitrogen that flows from the chocolate disk onto the rest of the plate creating a magical effect.

If you don’t have liquid nitrogen, you can freeze the cocoa air on an anti-griddle or the freezer but it will not have the mist effect. If you do use liquid nitrogen, please follow all the safety precautions.

Ingredients for Chocolate Powder

- 125 g (4.4 oz) Chocolate (80%)

- 5 egg yolks

- 4 egg whites

- 30 g (1.05 oz) sugar

- 60 g (2.1 oz) butter

Ingredients for Chocolate Cremeux

- 250 ml (8.5 oz) milk

- 4 egg yolks

- 30 g (1.05 oz) sugar

- 150 g (5.1 oz) milk chocolate

Ingredients for Cocoa Nitro-air

- 250 ml (8.5 oz) milk

- 50 g (1.8 oz) bitter cocoa

- 1.5 g lecithin powder

Ingredients for Yogurt Foam

- 250 g (8.8 oz) plain yogurt

- 50 g (1.8 oz) cream

- 100 g (3.5 oz) chocolate rice crispy cereal

Ingredients for Goat Milk Ice Cream

- 250 ml (8.5 oz) goat milk

- 80 ml (2.7 oz) cream

- 30 g (1.05 oz) sugar

- 10 g (0.35 oz) glucose

- 10 g (0.35 oz) inverted sugar

Preparation

Chocolate Powder

1- Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler at low temperature. Remove from heat.

2- Whip the egg yolks with the sugar.

3- In a clean bowl whip the egg whites until stiff.

4- Mix everything and cook in the oven at 160 °C (320 °F) for 20 minutes. It should be crispy, if not let it cook for a longer period.

5- Let it cool down and process lightly in a food processor.

Chocolate Cremeux

1- Bring the milk and about half of sugar to a boil in a small saucepan. Meanwhile in a bowl, whisk the egg yolk smooth and very rapidly whisk in the remaining sugar. Make sure no egg yolk and sugar lumps are still visible.

2- Pour a quarter of the boiling milk into the egg yolk mixture and whisk quickly. Pour the tempered egg mixture into the heated milk and on low heat stir the mixture to 81⁰C (183⁰F) while constantly stirring using a rubber spatula. Remove from heat and pour into another bowl to stop the cooking process.

3- Add the chocolate (chopped or grated) and using an immersion blender make the mixture smooth. Pour into a container and place covered in a refrigerator. Let it cool down in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours before serving.

Chocolate Air

1- With an immersion blender, mix milk, cocoa and lecithin powder in a high container wide enough to collect the air (about 25 cm). Reserve in the fridge.

Yogurt Foam

1- Mix yogurt with cream without whipping too much.

2- Pour the yogurt mix into the ISI Whip without any nozzle, charge it with one N2O cartridge (use 2 cartridges if using 1 L ISI Whip) and shake vigorously.

3- Let it rest in the refrigerator for at least a couple of hours.

4- Slightly process chocolate rice crispy cereal in food processor. Reserve.

Goat Milk Ice Cream

1- Mix all the ingredients.

2- Bring mix to a boil and remove it from the heat.

3- Let mix cool down in refrigerator.

4- Prepare the ice cream following your ice cream maker’s directions.

Assemble and Serve

1- Place a couple of spoons of chocolate powder on a plate to create a base for the rest of the ingredients.

2- Place a dollop of yogurt foam on a spoon using the ISI Whip without nozzle. (see pictures of same technique used in Truffle of Sauce Grande)

3- With another spoon, cover dollop with chocolate crispy mix.

4- Carefully place yogurt dollop on chocolate crispy mix and cover it completely with the chocolate crispy mix.

5- Place the yogurt foam on one end of the chocolate powder base.

6- Place a dollop of chocolate cremeux on the other end of the chocolate powder base.

7- Place a dollop of goat milk ice cream in the center.

8- Prepare a container with liquid nitrogen following all the safety precautions.

9- Produce the cocoa air by lifting the immersion blender to the upper part of the liquid surface to incorporate as much air as possible so that a foam forms on the surface. Once you have enough foam on the surface, let it rest of 1 minute so that the foam sets and the excess of liquid is eliminated.

10- Proceed to remove the foam with a large slotted spoon and place it in the liquid nitrogen. With the help of another spoon, pour some liquid nitrogen on the cocoa air until it freezes completely.

11- Place the cocoa nitro-air on top of the yogurt foam, cremeux and goat milk ice cream.

12- Pour a spoon of liquid nitrogen on the cocoa nitro-air to increase the "mist" effect and serve immediately so the dinner can experience the “mist” coming out of the cocoa nitro-air.