Today’s Best Recipe is Balsamic Popping Pearls.

This is also known as balsamic caviar.

It’s an easy, fun, and delicious way to add flavor to salads or garnish meat, sushi, and other food.

These taste like, well, balsamic vinegar.

Sprinkle these bursting balls over your favorite salad, add to a charcuterie tray, and garnish meats–use anywhere you want a burst of flavor.

These are like the popular Popping Boba, only flavor boosts of balsamic vinegar.

Ingredient Checklist:

• 2 grams agar 
• 2/3 cups balsamic vinegar
• 1 cup olive oil or vegetable oil

How to Make Balsamic Popping Pearls:

1. Add oil to a tall freezer-safe glass and place in the freezer for 30 minutes. The idea here is to get the oil cold enough, without it solidifying, that when you drop the balsamic vinegar into it, it will create balls before reaching the bottom of the glass.
2. Meanwhile, add the balsamic vinegar and agar to a small saucepan, and over medium heat, bring to a boil, stirring continuously to dissolve the agar.
3. As soon as the mixture is a rapid boil, please remove it from the stove and allow it to cool for about minutes.
4. Fill a dropper with the balsamic vinegar/agar mixture and slowly (with even pressure), drop droplets into the cold oil. Pearls should be forming right away.
5. Continue until you have no more vinegar/agar mixture.
6. Pour oil through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean container (it is clean and can be used in recipes).
7. They are ready to use, or you can gently “rinse” the pearls in cold water.

Storage:

Place pearls in an airtight container and store them in the refrigerator for up to one week.

Trouble Shooting:

If your vinegar isn’t turning to pearls in the oil:

1. Agar wasn’t fully dissolved in the vinegar mixture.
2. The balsamic/Agar mixture was too hot.
3. The oil wasn’t cold enough.

 

Balsamic Honey Sauce.

It’s a versatile sauce.

Use it as a marinade for meat, fish, and poultry, as a flavorful boost to a meal, like Steak Gorgonzola-Alfredo, as a salad dressing, or let it firm to jelly and serve it on your next charcuterie board.

This sauce is sharp, somewhat pungent, and incredibly addicting.

It’s different, but the flavors are complex and unusual–which is something I love about it.

A little goes a long way with this Honey Balsamic Sauce.

You can alter the flavor profile by using different balsamic vinegar, such as those infused with fruit, aged, or whatever you choose.

In about 20 minutes, it will turn into a thick liquid. 

If you are serving as a jelly, you’ll want to place the jelly in a dish over ice to keep it from reverting to a liquid as it warms. 

It takes about 8 hours to set as a jelly.

The sauce can be used right away.

Ingredients Checklist:

1/2 cup Balsamic Vinegar

1/2 cup honey

1 1/2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin

How to Make Balsamic Honey Sauce:

1. Combine the honey and balsamic vinegar in a small saucepan over low heat.
2. Sprinkle unflavored gelatin on top and often stir until the mixture begins to a low boil.
3. Remove it from heat and cool it to room temperature.

The mixture will thicken as it cools.

 

To Make Balsamic Honey Jelly:

1 cup Balsamic Vinegar

6 Tablespoons Honey

1 1/2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin.

How to Make Balsamic Honey Jelly:

1. Add balsamic vinegar in a small saucepan, sprinkle unflavored gelatin on top, and let sit for 10 minutes.
2. Place over medium heat until gelatin dissolves, and the mixture is hot. Do not simmer.
3. Remove from heat and stir in honey.
4. Divide into six small ramekins.

*Use 1/2 cup berry juice and 1/2 cup Balsamic Vinegar for those who don’t want the pungent vinegar flavor.