Science for Dinner

Hi everybody! I made an instructable with all kinds of fun food.

What’s on the menu?

Colorful Romaine Salad

Bubbling Salad Dressing

Color Changing Pasta Two Ways Including Naked Egg Carbonara

Strawberry Pop Rocks and Dr. Pepper Glazed Chicken with Fried Rice Noodles

Apple Spice Gummy Bears with Crystallized Sugar Wontons Complimented with Apple and Cheesecake Foam

Lemon Honeycomb Candy

Whew! What a menu! So many culinary techniques went into this meal. Look below and I’ll tell you how you can make the elements of this dinner for yourself.

For the salad, I purchased a head of Romaine lettuce. I cut off the bottom and placed individual leaves in glasses filled halfway with water and 4-5 drops of food coloring. I let them sit for 24 hours.
The leaves utilized the colored water and became very colorful. I chopped them into pieces and sprinkled Parmesan cheese onto the pieces.

This was a fun part of the meal and it was terrific on the salad. Here are the ingredients in the order that you need to add them to a clear glass for the intended reaction.

1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon powdered ranch dressing
1 drop pink food coloring
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

To make color changing pasta, the first thing you need is pasta. Makes sense. But then, you will need a head of sliced cabbage. In a boiling pot of water, boil cabbage slices for ten minutes and remove cabbage.
Replace cabbage with 12 ounces of spaghetti pasta. Add 1 teaspoon of salt. Boil for 8 minutes. Drain off liquid saving 1/2 cup for carbonara.
At this point you have color changing pasta. I am going to give you two ways to make that color change.
1. You can squeeze a lime over the pasta and that will change the color. Add 2 tablespoons of melted butter and then you will have a citrus butter sauce. Yum!
2. You can soak an egg in 1 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar for 24 hours. The egg shell will dissolve and you will have a “naked egg”. While the pasta is very hot, break the egg into the noodles. You should see a color change from the vinegar in the egg (osmosis). Add one more egg (regular) and one egg yolk. Add 1/2 cup purple cabbage pasta water (hot). Stir quickly and add 1/2 Parmesan cheese, 8 chopped pieces of bacon, 1/4 cup sautéed shallots, and 1 clove sautéed and minced garlic. Enjoy!

In a Dutch oven, add 1 cup Dr. Pepper soda. Then, you will add two packages of strawberry Pop Rocks and and heat on medium high heat on the stovetop. Cook until liquid becomes more dense. Add 1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper. Mix 2 tablespoons all purpose flour with 2 tablespoons cold water. Pour into Dutch oven and stir. Place four chicken thighs (boneless and skinless) into liquid. Cook until chicken reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Brush glaze on chicken and serve with fried rice noodles and chopped green onions.

In one inch of very hot vegetable oil, place a handful of uncooked rice noodles. They will fry up very quickly so be prepared with some tongs and a plate lined with paper towels. This will take maybe two seconds. If necessary, turn the mass over to make sure all noodles are fried.
Break up the mass and garnish glazed chicken with fried noodles and chopped green onions.

Take 6 gummy bears and soak them in apple juice mixed with 1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg. Place in the refrigerator for 24 hours. Due to osmosis, the bear will swell to twice it’s original size and taste a bit like yummy apple pie.
To prepare the wontons, dip each one in bowl of melted butter (3 tablespoons) and then pat each side of the wonton in a sugar cinnamon mixture (1/2 cup sugar to 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon). Drape wonton over the backside of a mini muffin tin with an aluminum foil ball (about 1/2 inch in diameter) underneath the wonton. Bake for 5-8 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Watch closely so that you don’t burn your sugar. Cool.
For the two foams, I used the following combinations of ingredients:

Apple Foam:
1 cup apple juice
1 tablespoon sugar
2 drops pink food coloring
1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum powder

Cheesecake foam:
2 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum powder

Use an immersion blender to aerate each of the foams and keep them refrigerated until ready to use them.

To make Lemon Honeycomb, you need the following ingredients:
1 1/2 cups sugar
2/3 cup honey
1/3 cup lemon juice
2 teaspoons baking soda
In a medium pan on the stovetop, heat the first three ingredients over medium low heat until the temperature reaches 270 degrees Fahrenheit. Stir and try to maintain this temperature for 15 minutes. If the temperature gets much higher than 270, the candy might have a burnt taste.
After 15 minutes, stir in baking soda. Bubbles will begin to appear and the whole mixture will change in consistency. Pour into a 9 x 9 inch pan lined with parchment paper or a pie plate lined with parchment paper. Allow to harden. Use a knife to “whack” the candy and break into pieces. Store in a ziplock bag until ready to use.
Use pices to garnish wonton dessert.

Thanks for checking out my meal made possible by science! I hope you enjoyed it and will try some of these fun ideas at your house.
Jennifer
ButterMyBiscuits