How to Make Your Own Sriracha "Caviar"

People who love Sriracha just can’t seem to get enough of the spicy sauce. Now, thanks to food stylist David Ma and Nomiku creative director Monica Lo, they can enjoy it in a whole different way: In caviar-like form. Ma and Lo used a process called spherification to make Sphereracha—tiny little balls of Sriracha that can be used as garnish.

Creating Sphereacha was pretty simple: Ma combined two parts Sriracha and one part honey with 5 grams of sodium alginate in a syringe. When he dropped the solution into a mixture of 1 liter water and 5 grams of calcium chloride, a chemical reaction turned the liquid into solid spheres. After leaving the spheres in the calcium chloride bath for three minutes, he moved the "caviar" to a water bath, then used it to garnish everything from omelettes to potatoes.

Monica Lo via Imgur

After this successful run, Ma would like to combine Sriracha with lime and oyster and soy sauces.

The best part? You don’t need any special chef skills to make Sphereacha. “If you have the right materials and chemicals, really all it is is dropping droplets into a solution,” Ma told PSFK. “Anyone who can spend $120 on Amazon can learn this in an afternoon. It’s pretty much plug-and-play.”