Recipe: Vanilla Bites

This recipe is an adaption from the Book Amuse Bouche by Rick Tramonto. It really is a great example of combining all tastes (sweet, sour, bitter, salt) to form a perfectly flavored bite.
People either love it or hate it - and it is usually only loved at dinner parties where the eaters are adventurous - so you might want to take what can your guests are before serving this.
Recipe - Vanilla Bites:

• 1 ¼ cup crème
• 1 packet of gelatin
• 2 Tablespoons of Vanilla Paste
• 5 Medium Sized Mint Leaves
• 1 Teaspoon of Sea Salt
• 6 Larger Sized Purple Potato Chips (Plain or Ruffled)

1. Place large bowl on countertop, fill half way with ice, then fill a quarter of the way with water, creating an ice bath. Set aside.
2. Meanwhile, place a kitchen towel in a circle on the countertop. Place a medium sized bowl in center of circle, pushing towel just under bowl to keep bowl from moving.
3. Place ¼ cup of crème into bowl. Add gelatin powder into bowl, whisk until gelatin is almost completely dissolved.
4. Meanwhile, place ¾ cup crème in a small pot and whisk in 2 Tablespoons of Vanilla. Turn heat to high and bring crème to a boil. Remove from heat as soon as crème starts to rise up the sides of the pot. Whisk vigoriously to circulate vanilla and cool crème.
5. Slowly pour vanilla-crème mixture into gelatin-crème mixture, while whisking, until completely combined and gelatin is dissolved.
6. Place a sieve of chinois in a metal, medium sized bowl and slowly pour mixture through.
   Immediately place strained liquid in the large bowl-ice bath, slowly and gently stirring until steam stops rising from the liquid. Immediately remove from ice bath, cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge to refrigerate at least 2 hour before service.
7. 45 minutes before you plan to enjoy the Vanilla Bites, remove the vanilla mixture from fridge, mashing with a whisk and gently stirring to break up the gelatin mixture into small pieces.
8. Drizzle in 1/8 cup crème, whisking until combined. Continue to drizzle remaining crème until vanilla mixture is a ‘fluffy’, ‘foamy’ mixture that is the consistency of ‘pudding’. Set aside.
9. Stack mint leaves on top of each other and roll up tightly together to slice off in ‘chiffonade’ pieces. Set aside.
10. Lay potato chips on cutting board and spoon out about 1 Tablespoon of vanilla foam mixture onto each chip, place chips on serving platter.
11. Sprinkle Sea Salt over bites and around edges of plate.
12. Sprinkle chiffonade of mint over bites and around edges of plate and serve.