Hi Jared,
Wow, what a nice gift!
I've been using iSi products for about 3 years now, and have made everything from aerated tempura & pancake batters to gelatin-based foams, infused bitters, cocktails & oils, chocolate mousse, carbonated cocktails/teas/sodas and plain & simple flavored whipped cream. The options are totally awesome! I'm quite excited to share a few ideas with you because I absolutely love using my iSi - I have coconut foam in the fridge at all times
Which whipper do you have? They have ones that are for both hot & cold use and also ones that are for cold use only. I started with a Creative Whip but traded up so I could make Hot recipes too. I currently have 3 different sized Gourmet Whips (it's for hot & cold use) and use them regularly for warm recipes like hollandaise sauce and fluffy, frothy soups & hot cocoa.
The most important thing I learned (the hard way) is that you have to finely strain anything with particles out before you put it into the whipper. The release valve is so small that even small particles can become stuck (tip: be aware of ground cinnamon - it will clog every time! Use a liquid extract instead).
The biggest collection of iSi recipes I have found is on their own website - they have a section for home (more simple recipes) and professional (some are super challenging but fun!) and you can sort by the type of whipper you have, ingredients, etc. You have to sign up for an account, but it's free and didn't take me too long before I was in the site and creating a shopping list
Last recommendation ... there are certainly cheaper CO2 and cream/N2O chargers out there, but I have found that the other brands are inconsistent in the amount of gas they have in each charger, and also sometimes they taste funny in the output -hard to explain but definitely noticeable. Sometimes it would make a short little "hiss" (not enough gas) with off-brand chargers and my recipe was ruined a few times before I read up on it and learned why I should be using iSi brand chargers. I also found out that it voids the warranty if you use other chargers and it breaks the device. Just a little helpful tidbit!
I order my iSi chargers online, Amazon has pretty good prices.
To Brad's point, Chef Steps has a lot of great iSi recipes & videos too! I recently received their whipper/siphon online class as a Christmas present, and I am about 75% of the way through. It's super informative and I've learned more about the science of how it actually works, which has already made me even more comfortable/confident/excited about using my iSi whippers.
To eshua's point, experimenting with stabilizers is so fun! It took me about a year to get into doing this. Now, I usually get mine from Modernist Pantry or Molecular Recipes. Will Goldfarb also has a pretty cool site for this stuff called Willpowder. There are tons of other shops like this online if you do a quick search.
Enjoy & have fun! What are you making next?
:newhere: