Earlier last month I was browsing the aisles of Waitrose in London when I came upon a small jar or “Balsamic Pearls”. It was my first encounter with them, frankly I almost dismissed them as just another caviar pot, and I haven’t exactly seen or tasted them before so I decided to take them home with me and wait together until the perfect opportunity showed itself. A few weeks later and the perfect opportunity came galloping towards me in the form of a small Stracciatela Mozzarella jar, that is the creamy stringy kind, and I knew it was time.
I perfectly remember the weekend afternoon when I opened up the pearls jar, I’ve just baked a loaf of homemade bread and the apartment smelled of baked dough. I prepared a nice salad of crisp greens, tossed it with some cherry tomatoes, tore apart chunks of bread still hot enough to scald my fingers in the process, then with a pop I pried open the lid of the balsamic pearls…
How do balsamic pearls look like? They are a cluster of dark shiny orbs swimming together in a pool of very fragrant balsamic vinegar. They are beautiful, modern looking, and they looked like they’d taste good which of course isn’t really an indicator of anything but they did promise something tasty.
Ah now, this is the moment where I remember getting out the creamy mozzarella out of the little jar it came from and placing it gingerly on the bed of greens. I found the mozzarella in one of the deli fridges of Sultan Center, Souq Sharq branch, and though I was in initially envisioning trying the pearls with a buratta I somehow thought the softer texture of the Stracciatella would be a better match to the delicate nature of the balsamic pearls.
Here we go, the pearls were slippery and didn’t land slowly nor gracefully on top of my cheese like I was planning, hence the somewhat awkward picture. The spoonful of pearls went down in a plop, all at once and all together…
The first spoonful of pearls went down to the bottom of the salad bowl, barely grazing my cheese though staining the surface with balsamic vinegar all over. For the second spoonful I was more prepared, I scooped a smaller amount and let it down very gently hence the picture below. Be very careful when handling them if you care about your dish’s presentation, the pearls are slippery and tend to stick together.
Ta-Da! My camera admired my handiwork, they didn’t look half bad and they sure add an interesting twist to an otherwise fairly ordinary dish.
Give the pearls a minute and you’ll see pools of balsamic vinegar running around in the most tempting delicious way ever.
The pools of balsamic vinegar joined together with the pools of cream from the cheese and together they made the most awesome dip for my chunks of still hot bread! I might show you how I baked these in another post in preparation for the holy month of Ramadan.
One last picture, remembering the delicious weekend lunch <3
How did the pearls taste like? Well, I though they’d come with a bite to them and add some texture to dish but they didn’t, not at all. They are full of balsamic vinegar flavour but its not intense like, say, balsamic glaze. When you bite into them all you taste is balsamic vinegar, and a good one, but that’s about it. They are more decorative than texturised but they are sure very fun to decorate with and eat!
Now I’m trying to come up with more ways to use my pearls but I’m still undecided. Do you have any ideas you can share with? Please do not be shy.
Oh and you do not have to go abroad to have balsamic pearls, I found them available in the very same deli fridge that I got the mozzarella from in Sultan Sharq but they come from a different brand so yes you could have them for lunch right away and buon appetito
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