Friday 21 October 2011

So I'm now going to tell you all about my "Victorian" garnish for the tasting menu tomorrow night, and how Lardy cake has been turned into lollypops!


But before that, I'm going to waffle on about how this dish came about.

It all started at the Cow public house in Westbourne Grove.

On Saturday lunchtimes, after popping into Books for Cooks, it seemed only correct for me to be tempted into the Cow, for a couple of pints of Guinness and a dozen oysters.

Or that might have been a couple of oysters and a dozen pints!


Such a great combination, the Irish are lucky to have such a perfect marriage.

And, knowing I needed to change the East Lodge smoked salmon starter for something a bit more autumnal, I thought this would be a good starting point.

Although, being East Lodge, I had to come up with something a bit more modern.

So, thinking cap firmly on, I wondered what else would go with oysters and smoked salmon.

Champagne, of course!

And bread.

And cucumber.

And horseradish.

And potatoes.

And watercress.

And caviar.

Now, these are classical garnishes for oysters and smoked salmon.

All I've done is East Lodge them up a bit!

The only other thing I've added is a dice of sugar cured tuna. I wanted to do thinly sliced fillets of mackerel,  as I love the combination of oysters and cured mackerel, but they ended up being a bit too strong for the other garnishes, so I got my hands on a nice tuna belly. And, anyway tuna is related to the mackerel so it all sort of fits!



So, ready?

Cold oak smoked salmon, (we use the trimmings to make a tarama with milk soaked bread and oil, clever eh!), our now world famous potato "pasta", rolled with a chive dressing and topped with caviar, home made Guinness bread wafers, belly of tuna, cured in sugar and air dried, pickled cucumber, chilled watercress puree, horseradish cream, and finally the two original players in the dish.


We make a black velvet jelly, by mixing equal parts of Guinness and Champagne and setting it and we shuck oysters and deep fry them in a light tempura style batter.

Right, thats it.

All I've done is put some things that really love being together on the same plate, and hey presto, a new East Lodge autumn dinner dish.

And now for my next magic trick, turning lardy cake into lollypops!

Before I was old enough to go to the pub on a Saturday lunchtime, I'd go shopping with dad.
And, like father, like son, we both loved a slice of freshly baked, warm, sweet, lardy cake.

So now I knew animal fats could be used in a pudding, but I wanted to use some duck fat in a savory lollypop.

I'm already serving honeycomb as a garnish for our duck terrine, but I wanted to do a main course, using as many bits of duck as I could.

So we make some duck scratchings, mix them with picked thyme, orange zest, cured duck and cracked peppercorns, and make these little lollypops!

These will be served tomorrow night, to Mr H, with those duck hearts you saw last time, on our uber cool chef's table. If you look closely, you can see it behind the lollypop.

They will add an interesting texture to the multi course tasting menu, and hopefully, keep everyone excited, about what's to come.

Right, I'm not sure how I'm going to get away with this one.

"Victorian" garnish!

Everyone knows steak and kidney pie, right?

Well, before kidneys were used, oysters, as they were so abundant, were.

So, a Victorian "surf and turf'!

By using some beef trimmings, marrow and caviar we can introduce a 2011 thought to a common Victorian dish.

I'm going to garnish a beautiful line caught sea bass with some beef juices, a small dice of bone marrow and caviar.

Steamed at 65 oc it will be so moist and sweet, and with the salty caviar, and rich beef sauce, all it needs is a few thin slices of marinated crunchy turnip to bring it all together.

Right. thats it.

Oh, just quickly, its a picture of Agness, and even though I love her, writing this does take a bit longer now!







Thursday 6 October 2011

So, this ones going out to all my Loughborough home girls, and how its not their fault.




Its all about Sunday lunch you see, and how something as simple as a few eggs, milk and flour can ruin a whole day!

All you need to do is whisk them together, let the batter rest,  pop them into the oven, and hey presto, they are done!

Just like that!

Well, sort of. The thing is you see, no matter how hard you try, no matter how many different recipes you try, if they are coming out like thick, deflated, sad little Yorkshire puddings, then blame the oven!

As you can see, every Sunday at East Lodge I make lots of lovely, light, crispy Yorkies, and they are all perfection itself!

And so can the rest of the brigade, proving any idiot can do it, providing they have the right oven, so there! I know, as I've tried at home, using the same recipe, and its been a disaster, because of the oven.

So, if you want a perfect Sunday lunch, for all your family, and if your husband loves you, he will buy the family a nice new shiny oven, just for perfect Sunday lunches!

Oh, and I will, of course, accept any lunch invitations that come along my way!

As a thank you, for all this wise advice.

And just one more thing, why has Yorkshire claimed these for their own?

Similar to a French sweet pudding, I have heard that it used to be served as a pudding, with jam and cream. Sounds pretty good to me, but the way I love eating them, is red hot, dipped in all the delicious, salty, fatty beef juices, just before a busy Sunday lunch service!

So, anyway, Yorkshire have their pudding, up in Derbyshire we have our Bakewell pudding, and our soon to be world famous Rowsley pie, and the Italians have their carbonara.

Made for coal miners or charcoal workers, in America it became known as "coal miners spaghetti".

Which, is I think interesting, as we, over at East Lodge, have been fooling around with our own version of this, but using potato.

And as we first got our potatoes from America, I think we can somehow link all these dishes together, don't you!

And there used to be a few coal mines around here as well.

By using very fine ribbons of potato, blanching them, just like pasta, and rolling them in Parmesan oil, an egg yolk puree on top and a piece of crisp bacon, we can do a Derbyshire version of an Italian classic, which I think is pretty cool!

So, this then got me thinking about potatoes, which in turn got me thinking about Guinness, and then about oysters.
Actually, do I really think that much?
No wonder I've got a headache most of the time.

Anyway, so after all that , I've now got a new smoked salmon dish on the menu at East Lodge, and its pretty global, and I'll tell you about it next time.

And, yes, I'm sorry that I didn't tell you all about my new steak dishes, but I will, but in the meantime have a look at these little ducky delights!

Finally got some, and they will be part of an Autumn salad on our Sunday lunch menu, so if the sight of our amazing Yorkshire puddings doesn't get you all up the drive on a Sunday, then perhaps the sight of these will!

Sam tried one and said they were Otterly delicious and I'm pretty sure when Lisa comes round for dinner she will love them too!

Right, that's it, I'm off to France now.

Well sort of, pommes boulangeres for dinner tonight, but I'm going to put some very thin slices of smoked air dried ham in mine.

I think it will go well with my plump pork bangers!

See, there I go thinking again.