Lychee pink peppercorn drink can be made in two ways: served on a spoon, as a jello shot, or as a regular drink.
- Made with lychee ravioli or caviar, pink peppercorn lemongrass syrup, orange zest, and raspberry, served on a small spoon.
- It is made as a drink with white rum, lychee juice, pink peppercorn lemongrass syrup, lemon juice, and orange bitters.
I will post the recipe for the drink first, as it is easier and faster to make.
| 1 1/2 oz white rum 3/4 oz pink peppercorn – lemongrass syrup 1/2 oz lemon juice 2 oz lychee juice few drops of orange bitters soda water Shake hard with ice and strain into a glass filled with crushed ice. Splash with soda is optional. Garnish with lychee fruit and mint. |
Note: I made another variation of this drink with ginger-peppercorn syrup instead, served straight in a cocktail glass. Top with Mango foam.
Making a drink in a spoon is about flavour pairing, tasting, experimentation, and surprise. It can also be used in drink deconstruction, where some ingredients are removed from the recipe and reintroduced beside the new cocktail. You will experience the same flavour as if the drink was made the usual way. I did that with a Bloody Mary – a Vodka Martini with tomato caviar on the side.
I used Basic and Reverse Spherification to make the lychee ravioli.
Lychee Pink Peppercorn
Ingredients
- 10 oz lychee juice
- 2 g Sodium Citrate*
- 2.25 g or 0.7% of liquid - Sodium Alginate
- 5 gr Calcium Chloride
- 1000 ml water
- Raspberry
Pink peppercorn lemongrass syrup
- 2 stalks of lemongrass
- 2 spoons of pink peppercorns – one of them is cracked
- Â 1 1/2 cup water
- 1/3 cup sugar
- Boil water, lemongrass, and pink peppercorns. Turn the heat on low and add the sugar.
- Simmer for 3-5 minutes. When sugar is dissolved, put it aside to cool down. Place the syrup in the fridge for 6 hours. Fine strain, bottle, and store in the refrigerator.
Instructions
Basic Spherification
To mix lychee juice, dissolve SC first and then mix Sodium Alginate with an immersion blender. After dissolving SA, fine strain and put the mixture in the fridge for a few hours or overnight to eliminate any remaining air bubbles.
Dissolve 5 g of calcium chloride into 1L of cold water in another vessel.
To make Ravioli:
Use a small cooking measuring spoon, scoop the SA mix and place a small raspberry into the spoon. Dip the spoon with the SA mix into the CC bath and flip it over. The formed membrane will hold the raspberry inside the Ravioli; wipe the spoon before making the new Ravioli. It takes about 2-3 min for the outer gel membrane to form.
To make Caviar, use a catheter syringe with a wider tip opening or a squeegee bottle. Drop by drop, squeeze the liquid gently over the bath from about 11/2″ distance.
Use a slotted spoon to remove the Ravioli/Caviar from the Calcium Chloride bath and rinse it into another vessel filled with cold, clean water—strain and store in the fridge. The liquid inside the spheres starts to jellify slowly in about 20-30 minutes.
How to serve:
Pour some syrup on a small Chinese spoon, place the Ravioli on the spoon, and grate orange zest on top.
Use Reverse Spherification if you want to slow down the jelling process in the Ravioli.
Ingredients for Reverse Spherification
10 oz lychee juice
7.5 g or 2.5% Calcium Gluconate
1 g or 0.3% Xanthan gum
2.5 g Sodium Alginate
500 ml - 17 oz approx. distilled water
pH level is 4.2
Prepare the alginate bath by mixing or blending 2.5g SA in 500ml water. I prefer the distilled one.
Please put it in the fridge until it clears up.
Next, add calcium lactate glucose—2% of the flavoured base—to another bowl and mix to dissolve it.
Add Xanthan gum and blend it again until dissolved.
Put in the fridge for a few hours for the bubbles to dissipate, or if in a hurry, strain in it through a fine-mesh strainer. Less incorporated air is an essential part of achieving a better round shape.
The order is a bowl with Calcium Lactate Gluconate mix, a second bowl with Alginate bath, and the third one with clean water for rinsing.
Use a cooking measuring spoon to scoop the CLG mix from the bowl, dip the bottom of the spoon in the alginate bath and slowly flip the spoon over. Please ensure the Raviolis don't touch each other and move the spoon around the spheres in the water without touching them.
When they are done, use a slotted spoon for 2-3 minutes to put them in the clean water bowl.
After each step, use a paper napkin to clean the spoons to prevent cross-contamination, especially between the alginate bath and the Calcium Lactate Gluconate base.
Rinse and use them, or store them in a flavouring liquid in the fridge. The flavouring agent can be any other flavour or alcohol, infusing them while stored.
Notes
* Sodium Citrate - dissolve it before adding SA to increase the pH level to around 5.
I made another version where I used ginger-peppercorn syrup instead of orange zest. I used Nutella powder to sprinkle on top.
Keep the Ravioli in a container with some water or the same mixture. The Ravioli will start leaching flavour if too much liquid is in the vessel.
