It's important to get your essentials.
Essential oils, that is.
Used in perfumes for ages, essential oils are sliding their way into the kitchen. Made by extracting the aromatic compounds of fruits, vegetables or flowers and then distilling them, these oils offer concentrated flavor with just a few drops.
Daniel Patterson, who invited us into his kitchen at San Francisco's Coi, creates magic nightly by using essential oils in his delectable signature dishes. For us, he tinkered with litsea cubeba oil and transformed the taste of our granita into something deeply lemony and exotic. We think of it as culinary jazz.
So how can you compose your own gastronomic improv?
You can add these flavor-packed droplets to everything from cocktails to exotic foams and sauces. Sprinkle a few drops of ginger oil in a carrot soup; the taste of the oil adds a delicate warm, spicy, woodsy essence. Add a few drops of lemon oil in your sugar cookie batter for a bright, zingy taste.
Or try this recipe for chocolate cinnamon caramels, from
Aroma, the innovative book Patterson coauthored with renowned natural perfumer Mandy Aftel. The caramels are a delicate balance of caramelized sugar, cocoa and cinnamon bark essential oil.
The Goods
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups heavy cream, measured and ready
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
4 drops cinnamon bark essential oil
salt
fleur de sel, for sprinkling
The Method
Heat the sugar over medium-high heat in a nonreactive pot, stirring with a whisk from time to time, until the sugar is a deep brown color.
Add the cream carefully and stir until completely incorporated.
Put a thermometer into the mixture and continue to cook it until the mixture reaches 240 degrees Fahrenheit, while stirring the mixture constantly. This will take about 10 minutes.
Remove from heat and allow the caramel to cool for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Stir in the cocoa powder, the essential oil, and a pinch of salt.
Pour the caramel onto a sheet pan lined with parchment paper.
After it cools, cut into bite-size pieces.
Sprinkle a little
fleur de sel on top, just before serving.
To get oiled up, read
Aroma.