Thursday 18 July 2013

This one cost Ben £300!

Which is, incidentally, about the same as this, rather beautiful dry cured ham from the Parma region in Italy.

Now that I have a massive, brand new, gravity slicer it allows me to slice my own, which is so much nicer than buying it in pre sliced, and it means I always have something nice for a quick lunchtime snack lying around!

So, anyway, Ben wasn't feeling very hungry so he thought he'd go over to Nottingham for dinner and blow some money on a weight saving exercise.

And, so, barely able to talk through malnutrition, he was telling me about his dinner, and how some truffled Tunworth made a superb cheese course.

And as luck would have it, I just happened to have a couple of Tunworth's in the fridge at The 5* Randolph, and some summer truffles, I thought I would continue with "Rabbit and Rarebit" combo.

I cut the cheese in half horizontally, just like a cake, and sliced some truffles over the cut surface, put it back together again, wrapped it up, and there you are, easy!

They've been doing it over in France for years, normally with Brie, and with real black truffles the results are incredible.

Now the cheese was maturing all I had to do was deal with the little bunny rabbits.


Legs and shoulders were removed, salted overnight, cooked in duck fat, shredded, mixed with some of the cooking fat, seasoned and then pressed overnight to make some rillettes, or just potted rabbit, if you prefer.

If there's no Parma ham lying around I love nibbling on the trimming of these before dinner service.

You know, it's tough being an Executive Head Chef!




The saddles were boned out, a light chicken mousse was made, more truffles sliced, and sliced ham laid out.


And, as you can see, another sandwich was taking shape, all I had to do then was roll it up in cling film, and give it a soak in the bath, and forty minutes later I'd end up with a nice little truffled rabbit ballotine.

With the chopped up bones a rabbit stock was made, ready to be reduced for the dressing, and I had kept some chicken fat so I planned to add some of that to split out on the plate as well, sharpened with a few drops of white wine vinegar, it just adds another layer of flavour to the dish.


More summer truffles are sliced, seasoned, and put just off centre, as a base for the Tunworth cheese, celery has been julienned, blanched and pickled, along with some little girolle mushrooms and carrot ribbons.

I think it's quite fun to serve carrots with rabbit, Bugs Bunny did enjoy them after all!

And the celery is good as it goes very well with both the cheese and the rabbit, cutting through the richness of the dish, and providing another texture, as is the wafer thin slice of fried bread.

This one is hopping out of the door at the moment, I'm getting through eight rabbits a week, but it's a good dish for service as most of the work is done in advance.


The crab dish was going really well, although I was now looking for any excuse to get some of these bad boys on the menu, so I ordered some.

And, as Andy only went and won Wimbledon, I had the perfect reason for a new summer starter.

I'm already thinking about the dish I'll devise for when Will wins down in SW19!


A couple of sea trout just happened to turn up, along with some cod that I was planning to salt for a garnish on another dish.

Equal amount of salt and sugar were mixed and the trout fillets left to cure for a few hours.

It firms up the texture by removing some of the liquid from the fish, and it means we can serve it cold, perfect for this brilliant weather we've been having.

And as this starter was inspired by all things summery, a cucumber sandwich was also required.

But a nice, dainty one!

So, a cumber was peeled, and then cut into long, thin strips, lightly salted and washed, fresh horseradish was grated into softened butter and crustless white bread was sliced.

Meanwhile the lobsters have been cooked, and the flesh removed from their shells,
These were then roasted and made into a classical lobster stock, along with caramelised vegetables, white wine, saffron, tomatoes and fish stock.

I was going to make some lobster ketchup by setting the stock with agar and blending it with some mayonnaise, smoked cayenne pepper, a pinch of sugar and some lemon juice.

Remember where you heard it first - lobster ketchup.




So
Incredibly
Clever
Ketchup!!



The last of the English asparagus was just begging to go with this dish, along with some rounds of new potatoes, that were steamed and marinated in herb infused water vinaigrette, compressed cucumber balls and caviar were going to go on top of the sandwich, and finally some nice, big, juicy nuggets of the worlds finest lobster.

Oh, and the cured sea trout.

So, if I were ever to go on a picnic, which I'm not by the way, this is what I would like thank you.

And a couple of bottles of chilled Champagne!





So, still on the lobster theme, we had a group of guests dining last night, and I wanted to offer a lobster starter, but English asparagus has finished, and it's boiling in Oxford, so I thought of using a couple of other summer ingredients.

Avocados for a start.








I wandered around to the covered market on the lookout for some, and as luck would have it, the fruit and veg stall is right next to the cheese shop, so I picked a perfectly ripe Camembert for a late night snack as well!


And I got  half a dozen, really soft avocados, which would make perfect guacamole, although I going to make mine really smooth with some lime juice and creme fraiche.


Everyone knows how nice shellfish and avocados go together, I then thought about adding a gentle kick with some diced, de-seeded red chillies, ripe watermelon would add a sweet juiciness, compressed cucumbers would add texture, little orange segments would also be a welcome addition.

Basically I'm just doing a dish based on south American ceviche.

Now, as these lobsters were quite expensive I needed to bulk them out a little, and as we had a delivery of some perfect John Dory that day as well, I could use them, so I was going to marinade them with some lemon and lime juice and olive oil. I also picked some lemon thyme over them and just steamed them at 50oc for a few minutes, as I wanted the fish to be nice and moist, but just cooked through, as some people are put off by raw fish.

Coriander was picked and my world famous lobster ketchup was taken out of the fridge, ready for action.





I made one up before service last night and it was so lovely and light and pretty, I'm going to put it o the menu at the weekend.

So what a summer we're having down in Oxford!

And just as a prelude to the next one here's a picture of a new dessert I'm playing around with involving  strawberries and cream, in various forms.


It's going to have a little summer pudding and I think Pimm's should be on there somewhere as well.

Right that's it, I'll tell you all about that next time, along with my new rice pudding dessert and if it's possible to update bread and butter pudding.

My monies on yes!





I'm off into town now, cider and sunshine, what a day off I'm having!

Music recommendation for today - "Walking on Sunshine" by Rockers Revenge.