A little more of the menu

Not a huge amount of time on my hands, kids birthdays to sort, life, packing for Noma next week. It's all go, and January was supposed to be quiet, ah well, never a dull day I guess.

Gareth has returned from his week at Noma, impressed by what he saw, but gobsmacked with how labour intensive running the 'best restaurant in the world' is, all the paid chefs, and some 20+ stagieres, he has retailed me with tales of pine needle prep, and his scariest job, veal threads!!! No I had no idea what he was on about either...

They were given the veal, an had to deconstruct it, thread by thread, each one no larger than a hairs breadth, hmmmm don't know whether I am looking forward to it as much now, jus' kidding. I will leave the rest of his telling to his post, which I am sure he will put up as soon as he has caught up on some sleep.

Anyway, a couple more dishes for you, got to go, need to find my travel plugs, now where are they?





Clockwise from top left
Fennel, Seville orange, almond
Olive roasted monkfish, spring onion, kale
Crisp oxtail, smoked eel, artichoke and cauliflower


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad wherever I may be at the time

New year, new dishes, new tech, new doodles

1st week back at work.............Done!

Now we are unpacked, stale culinary cobwebs dusted away, mojo found and put in a safe place, resolution to keep a better eye on it. Ideas scribbled on every available piece of paper, new menu written and mis en place begun.

As I was compiling thoughts for our new menu starting next week I thought it was time to get my little felt pens out and start the KP nightmare of colouring in plates as I started by seeing if the elements would fit into the dish.

Then I thought where my pens might be I stumbled across a great little app for the pad, a simple one allowing me to sketch dishes and doodles with a huge array of features for the princely sum of £1.79 (sketchbook pro), Almost the only complaint I have with it is it doesn't make me draw any better, a huge downside for a non pencil artistic person such as myself, but hey let's give it a go anyway, so ideas a plenty and learning as I go I came up with the following sketch which then translated into the dish below it.

I am very content with the fact that It can help me visualise dishes but labour wise, don't think it will see the death of the pen on plate, sorry to my KP's simply because if I am trying to get an idea of what a plate of food is going to look like on the train then the pad is the way forward, but usually it's in the kitchen, not enough time at my disposal, and a quick throw down just to see if it remotely works will do.

Either way, this is a huge amount of fun nonetheless.








Crisp lemon sole, herb tagliatelle, pickled vegetables, sauce soubise, onion glass

New menu(s) a couple of bits

Not much writing today, busy service awaits so will leave you with a couple of snaps

Duck and cherries, chicory and fennel

Eton 'Tidy'

And one from our new canape menus

Foie Gras doughnut

No more time, will be posting my Chef of the Year entry menu soon, so until then

Later

And now the real McCoy, Salmon and Lamb

Tricky week, 1 chef on holiday and business has doubled, fun fun fun

So this week I had to actually work, hmm no sympathy? Ok fair enough

The doodles did make it into dishes, happy enough with both of them, well received by my guests which is the most important aspect, however i feel they are missing a little je ne ce quas. So a little more playing required

Anyway the Salmon, as I said in the previous post would explain why the loin and belly, I hadn't really given it any thought before until I read This. As to why do we not consider a side of fish for different cuts, after all we would never quick roast a side of lamb and expect it to tick all the boxes, there is a huge variety in texture and tastes from each region of the animal, but whilst this does not ring true in fish, there are certain qualities we should perhaps not ignore when planning our menus

I took the side and separated the loin from the belly, and whilst I didn't give it the activa treatment they did, I did trim the shape and roll the belly tight to get a somewhat cylindrical shape. This I then cooked sous-vide at 48C for 8 minutes, and chilled down ready for service.

Whilst the loin piece is roasting, I just simply drop a piece into some seaoned lobster butter which sits on the passe at 50C for about 5 minutes.

The rest of the dish consists of some braised fennel, wilted spinach, confit fingerling carrots and an orange & fennel fluid gel, it ticks all the right boxes as far as a 'dish' goes, but as I said.... Missing a little I don't know what!!

Then the Lamb, not quite the visual food porn I was hoping for, but to eat takes comforting food to a new level, would love to be able to do this dish with lamb loin for the menu, but then I would sell none due to the supplement I would have to charge

'Tis a very simple affair, the lamb leg is Denham Castle lamb, with production like this I do not need to mess around with anything, the rearing has given all the flavour I need, to cook it all I did was to double bag each leg, with a few sprigs of thyme, rosemary and a little olive oil, this was then cooked for 24 hours at 55C, this produces a perfect medium rare throughout, I chilled the legs briefly and scorched the outer fat with a blowtorch which gives a wonderful roasted not to the flavour without over-cooking any of the meat.

The mash is scented with the smoked garlic I made a couple of weeks ago, which we pureed and stored under vacuum, grilled aubergine, and a fine ratatouille.

Will have a couple of desserts next week, but the pictures are over exposed (still trying to get the hang of my camera)

Time to start thinking towards the new menu, where did I leave that mojo?????

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a wee taster

I know usually my 'short' posts are far from that

this time though

a quick show of a plate design of a dish on the current menu

dish is called

"Everything but the squeak"

a celebration of pork

the last step as each element is cooking

Hasty Pudding - a bit of food history bandwagon

It must be that chef's have had enough with innovation, the buzzword over the last couple of years has to be:

'my dish is older than your dish'

'but my dish is even older'

'mine was cooked by cavemen'

'but mine was cooked by dinosaurs'

'but mine.................' and so it goes on.

We are obviously struggling to come up with new ideas and concepts, and wrapping it up in buzz-word terms such as keeping history alive, and that they really had to know their flavours back then.

By now you must think I am slapping and slating this trend as a cop-out in culinary terms, this could not be further from the truth, I think it is completely fantastic that records of these foods exist and that with modern day technologly and know how allow us to expand on what was once was and were fantastic recipes and dishes.

So what is Hasty Pudding? in a nutshell it is a savoury porridge, a recipe for which I use has onions and leek in it, doesn't exactly sound appetizing does it? Sure Heston at the fat duck has been making snail porridge for years to much acclaim, however I wish to stand up and make the bold claim "this one's yummier", probably get shot for that. Not that I think the snail porridge is not a lovely dish having been fortunate to try it on a number of occasions both as a guest and working in the kitchen, just that this combination is soooo moreish. don't beleive me? well I was surprised too.

enhancing the original recipe, I simply make a leek puree to cook my oats in and get a great colour, add some shredded leek and soften with a little goat's milk, the chicken is pot roasted, a few baby leeks, some madeira jus and finished with a little goats milk tapioca and a shallot crisp. I love it when a plan comes together.

more information on this dish and other great dishes from the annuls of time here