I recently had dinner at The Nomad in NYC (highly recommend) and we were served as one of our appetizers a bowl of roasted corn with basil and tomatoes topped with a thick corn foam. I just got an iSi whipping siphon for my birthday so I tried my hand at recreating the spirit of the dish.
I ended up making a potato and corn hash with shrimp and basil topped with a corn foam. I blended fresh corn with melted butter, shallots and a little basil, strained thoroughly and thickened with a cornstarch slurry (and strained again). I didn't want to use heavy cream because my girlfriend has a lactose intolerance so I wasn't sure if I needed to thicken the mixture (hence the cornstarch). The foam came out beautiful and light but started to dissolve fairly rapidly. Next time I'm going to experiment with gelatin to stabilize.
Anyways, now I'm on the search for more siphon recipes. I've tried the famous 40-second cake (although in my microwave it took 70 seconds) with good results and made the cold-brew coffee on this site (amazing). Anybody have any ideas? Tips for producing thicker foams? Thanks!
