Okay, it didn't turn out as a margarita soufflé. . .

[xiphias]

Instead, it ended up looking like, and having the exact texture of, lemon meringue pie. Except that it tastes like a margarita.

I just have to make sure that it's repeatable.

Okay. Here's what I did, partially for you, and partially for my own memory.

1 oz Jose Quervo Tradicianal
1/2 oz Cointreau
Juice of 2 limes
Juice of 1 lemon
1 oz raw blue agave syrup, dark. (That's a syrup made from agave nectar; it's a sweetener. You can get it at Whole Foods, next to the honey.)
1 egg white
1 pinch of powdered agar agar

Shake in cocktail shaker, hard, to foam the white.

Pour into large ramekin (your ramekin may vary -- we've got two ramekin sizes, and this is the larger one.)

When I did this, the foam stayed on top.

Put in microwave, and nuke for two minutes. (Your microwave may vary. You probably want to do it for a shorter period of time. Our microwave is low-powered.)

Take out, and let cool to room temperature.

Right now, after a couple hours of cooling, it's perfect. It may get too solid later, so, for the record, it's probably about 2 and a half hours after I nuked it, and it's really good.

Comments

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

Nice! I was wondering about the use of egg white and a thickener in a mixed drink, but I hadn't considered the use of a microwave. There's all sorts of applications of that idea.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Well, if one is using agar, some form of heating is necessary. And I felt that stovetop boiling would take long enough that too much of the alcohol would evaporate. This one, two minutes is enough to set the egg and to heat the liquid to activate the agar, but not long enough to burn off the booze.

Egg whites, and eggs in general, are a traditional ingredient in many classic cocktails. Nogs, as a class, include eggs and cream or milk; flips contain eggs, fizzes contain egg whites. A gin fizz is a gin drink shaken with egg white. And other stuff.

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

My family uses the Joy Of Cooking recipe for eggnog. Usually with brandy or dark rum. I like t best with brandy, I think.

My mother in law developed a recipe for gin sorbet with blood orange juice for the Millers Gin company. I can see if I can dig it out if you'd like. It's quite tasty.

[florafloraflora.livejournal.com]

That sounds SO. DAMN. GOOD.

[banshee99.livejournal.com]

A Lemon Meringita?

[voltbang.livejournal.com]

I'm intending to try to follow your lead here. The thing that stopping me isn't the agave syrup, it's the agar agar. Two of my three grocery stores don't stock it.Arggh.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I found it at the Super 88 -- the Asian import grocery store. It's a little packet of white powder imported from Thailand . . . um . . . that sounds a lot worse than it is. . .

Seriously, most of the writing is in a non-English alphabet which I do not recognize, but bouncing around Wikipedia convinces me that it is probably Thai, and it is Telephone brand agar powder.

It's got a little logo of a person talking on a telephone. I'm sure that there is a logical explanation somewhere in the corporate history of the manufacturer.

[voltbang.livejournal.com]

The interwebs say gelatin can be substituted. However, tonights very first lesson is, maintain a firm grip on the cocktail shaker. Tonights second lesson is that these ingredients are very very sticky, but smell good.

Maybe tomorrow.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

What I'm noticing is that gelatin and agar work differently. So I'd love to hear, once you clean the kitchen and try again, how your variation comes out.