Its a bit sad really, but its going to start getting darker now.

And the British asparagus season is over, so thats it for another year!

I've just had my final portion, steamed and rolled in the juices of a very fine rib eye steak.
I made a gratin of sliced potatoes, layered with sliced shallots, garlic and cheese.
Each layer was seasoned correctly with salt and pepper and brushed with melted butter.

It was baked for an hour and rested for another half.

 I'm not sure I'd ever say this but it would have been just as nice without the steak!

Although for the impending long dark nights, a couple of plump pork sausages would be a nice garnish!

Anyway, there I was getting all depressed about the end of summer and these bad boys came along!

How wonderful are these going to be on our Summer menu?

I love tomatoes and I wanted to do these ones justice.
And, although perfect,  dressed with the usual suspects of olive oil, Balsamic and basil, I fancied something a little more funky.

Oh, and by the way, tomatoes should never be served fridge cold, always allow them to come to room temperature first. Their taste will improve ten fold.

So after starting with an idea to serve them with some North African seasonings, I moved slightly over to the right and thought about the sub - continent.  Their sweet flesh loves spices, and with a garnish of smoky tomato marmalade, some cooling thick strained yoghurt, mustard and onion seed dressing and dried aubergine crisps, it make a refreshing, colorful starter.

And even one I would eat!

And I'm sorry for all the pictures tonight but from the right angle I think it looks like an amazing landscape somewhere far away!

And I'm not drunk, yet, anyway!

So after feeling a little bit sad today, what with the asparagus season over and too much tennis on television,  I've discovered that some dishes don't always need an 18 oz steak to make them better, that summer is not over yet , and with a little imagination we can create new planets to marvel at.

Brian Cox would be amazed!!

Right thats it, I'm off to enjoy summer, its a hog roast at tomorrow nights wedding at East Lodge so  I might even enjoy a cider as well!

The thing is I love kebabs!

When I was head chef at Odette's, after service on a Saturday night we used to go down to the Edgware Road, where there are lots of Lebanese restaurants, and have a sneaky couple of lamb kebabs.

Just for a late night snack you see, as we had just finished a five hour service, so we needed some food!

I didn't think I could get away with serving up kebabs to our Saturday night wedding guests but it did get me thinking about other popular Saturday night dinners.
So this year I decided to offer a couple of new buffet ideas, dishes from Thailand or India.
And not forgetting our famous "ELFC" - East Lodge Fried Chicken. All we need is some black and gold boxes to serve it in and we'll be sorted! We brine boned, skin on chicken legs for 12 hours, then drain them for another 12. Dredged in our secret blend of herbs and spices and deep fried they really do taste better then the original. And it means I can have my Saturday night fast food fix!

Along with the fried chicken we served a Thai green curry, made with lots of Asian green vegetables, Clay pot rice with sour Thai sausages and tiger prawns and a spicy roast pork belly salad. With the addition of a caramel and tamarind dipping sauce and a red hot birds eye chili relish I think it all looks rather good!
Oh we garnished the pork salad with "son in law" eggs, hard boiled and deep fried I thought they would go well in a wedding buffet!

Eaten all together everything gels together, providing a pleasing range of textures and tastes.

The thing about serving a buffet is that there should be a nice mixture of different cooking methods, meats or fish, salads and textures. And, of course, it should all look appealing.

Thats what I tried to do with our Saturday night Indian delight!

Made up of tikka spiced pork fillet, served with a spicy cucumber and roasted peanut salad, diced lamb cooked with mint and yoghurt and then baked with basmati rice, stir fried cabbage with mustard seeds and finally, butter chicken.

Made with marinated chicken thighs, and then baked in our new ovens at 300 oc they come out nicely charred.
I'm trying to recreate a tandor oven you see.
And its not too bad really.

When mixed in a rich tomato sauce and finished with cream and butter and corriander sprinkled on top you could almost imagine you were in the local curry house!





And the great thing about buffets is that everyone shares, and I love that, getting everyone eating and enjoying themselves.
Its what life is all about!
So you see, all I've done is made sure all of our guests have a proper English Saturday night!

The added bonus is that I get to taste it all as well, so I don't even need my kebab fix on the way home.

Right, thats it.

I'm watching Bear Grylls eat locusts in some rain forest and its got me thinking about next years Saturday night buffets!

So, as last weeks blog was telling everyone about how fish and chips, could in fact, be good for you I thought I'd share something slightly more, well, bad for you!

Roasted marrow bones are, in my opinion, a fantastic way to start a Sunday evening supper. Scooped out and spread on garlic rubbed sour dough bread, some capers and sea salt it reminds me of my time in Paris when we would eat them prepared the same way, as they were so cheap!

Fergus Henderson, of St John fame, really put them on the map over here though.  I've spent many afternoons at the bar there, supping a few pints of Guinness, munching Welsh Rarebit and enjoying his roasted beef bones on toast. A few ice cold oysters turn a Friday afternoon snack into a feast!

No oysters for me last Sunday, although Sophie did make a wonderful cherry crumble. With lashings of cold vanilla custard it really hit the spot.

We cooked the cherries with some sugar and a splash of brandy, to start releasing the juices. With some corn flour mixed in, its a really quick way to make a fruit compote or pie filling.
Meanwhile butter was rubbed into flour and sugar, spread out on a baking dish and baked in a medium oven.
Allowed to cool down, and then broken up it makes an easy, ready to use crumble topping.

Sometimes I churn it into ice cream for a crumble ice cream, sometimes I just eat it on its own, straight from the oven!
This allows us to keep the topping nice and crisp, and of course, if you have some fruit compote around you are never more than 10 minutes away from pudding!

So, as always, it got me thinking about how I could get cherry crumble on the dessert menu at East Lodge.

As our "Hot Pudding" we made some very thin pastry cases, filled them with hot cherry compote and covered them with our now famous crumble topping.

Garnished with a cherry puree, some griottine cherries, cherry syrup and an Amaretto and pistachio praline ice cream, it proved a summertime winner on Monday night!

And its rather pretty isn't it?

So, there you are,  my Sunday night supper, somehow ended up on the menu at East Lodge, good eh!

Right that's it, I'm off to prepare dinner, curry tonight and I'll tell you about our international buffets next time.

Sophie wants to watch a film about dancing black ducks tonight so I'd better get cracking.

Or should I say quacking!!

So then, did you all know that fish and chips might, actually, be good for you?
And before you all start thinking I'm talking a load of old cods wallop just hold a minute.
The perfectly cooked fillet of cod in the picture is, in fact, steamed. So therefore its one of the healthiest  things to eat!
Not so sure about the batter, chips and chunky tartare sauce though!
By dipping the lightly floured fillet of fish in a beer batter and plunging into red hot fat,  it creates an air tight seal and so the fish starts releasing moisture, which cannot escape, and so cooks the fish.
What a brilliant idea and when done well is a real treat.
The problem I have with fish and chips is that the batter will start to go soggy, this is because whatever is inside will continue to release steam.
Like anything deep fried it should be served, piping hot, straight from the fryer, so even though fish and chips is great for a lunchtime dish I wanted to find a way of serving this Great British classic to our dinner guests.
So the idea of the soon to be world famous "inside out" fish and chips was born!
I wanted to serve all the elements of the dish but as a starter, and of course, in a lighter more modern way.

So we made a mousse with some lightly salted cod fillet, and steamed some cod fillet at 55 oc for 15 minutes. This will allow me to have big beautiful
translucent flakes of fish. Thinly sliced potatoes were baked in the oven for the "chips".
Disks of sweet confit tomato are topped with baby capers and baby pickled onions as a nod to the tartare sauce.
Pea puree and home made spicy tomato syrup are dotted around the dish to add freshness.

We made a malt vinegar jelly as well, but I think it was too powerful, overpowering the cod, so I'm going to work on a different palette cleanser.

I like a coke or lemonade with my fish supper, so I thought about doing a sweet and salty frozen lemon granita, served in a glass, topped up with soda water.
I think the acidity will really sharpen up the fish and chips and, of course, help it remain true to its roots!

And, finally, the batter.
Its the whole point of the dish you see!
So all I do is fry very thin, light, wafers of beer batter.
I'm going to use beef dripping when it goes on the menu next week.
And you know, the batter will never go soft or soggy.
Guaranteed . Never. I promise!

So, there you are, it will become world famous.
I'm even thinking of going on The Apprentice to show those jokers how to do it!

Right, thats it, I'm off for a bacon sandwich, I'll tell you about Sophie's amazing cherry crumble next time.


      
                                                                                  

Right, even though its rubbish outside and it looks like staying that way this week I'm going to prove that, actually, summer in here!
I'll start with the peas.
Even though they are great, frozen, all year round, the arrival of fresh ones opens up more possibilities for a creative cook.
We pod them, saving the pods for a stock, blanch them, and then start changing their texture.
By infusing the pods in boiling water for 10 minutes, seasoning with a pinch of sugar and salt we can make a clear pea "tea". Cooled down and set with gelatine it forms the first component of this pretty Sunday lunch starter. Blanched peas are also podded and pureed with butter and some are reserved for the salad.
We also make a ravioli, not using pasta dough, but by using very finely sliced cured ham fat. Wrapped around podded peas and frozen, it will be warmed under the grill just before serving. The fat will go translucent, and will, of course,  allow me to call the dish "ham and peas"!
I thought some beautiful, glistening, freshly picked white crab meat would be superb with this, but being Sunday lunch, thought I would serve some boned, crisp fried confit chicken wings instead. Oh, and I had no crab anyway!
With a warm dressing made with some Morel mushrooms and some sliced summer truffles, surely this means I will be wearing my shorts soon!

And now we have Cherries as well! As well as using them in our puddings , they make a very agreeable garnish for rich meats, such as duck. Ours are from Goosnargh, over in Lancashire, and really are very good.
Arriving whole, it allows us to use the whole bird. Salting the legs, then poaching in duck fat, the meat it used to make a duck sausage. The breasts are served nice and pink and the bones are roasted to make a dark sweet sauce.
We also bake the skin to make duck "crackling", this is then used as a seasoning for some stir fried greens that are served on the side.
The only part I have a problem with is procuring their little hearts!
They are absolutely out of this world, especially grilled on my barbeque, in my garden, drinking wine, in the sunshine, if summer ever arrives in Pilsley!
So, some of the cherries are pickled in a reduction of red wine vinegar and sugar, some are pureed and some are saved, whole, for a garnish.


With a slice of fried duck liver and a pressed potato and bacon cake, it is another dish that proves, that somewhere else, Summer is here!
Just not Pilsley!

And, finally, here is a picture of some bread. It has just come out of the oven, ready for all of our Sunday lunch customers.

And I thought it looked nice!

Seeing as, at the moment, I'm surrounded by ballet dancers, it seemed apt to talk about meringue.
Well Pavlova to be precise!
Named after the Russian ballet dancer its a meringue based dessert, and done well, and served with some summer berries, makes a nice easy pudding.

I'm serving a small one as part of our raspberry plate at the moment. It goes well with the slightly tart raspberries along with a summer pudding, a raspberry and Champagne jelly, a very light lemon and vanilla mousse and some raspberry sorbet.
Garnished with some fresh raspberries, mint and gold leaf, its a very pretty dessert, one which I think, all light footed ballet dancers would love!
So, anyway, after a few too many glasses of red on Sunday night, I started thinking about savory meringues and if I could make one.
 Turns out I could but I would have to careful with the amount of sugar I could add. Too much and it would, of course, be too sweet. Too little and the egg whites would not support their own weight and therefore not be stable.
So by boiling sugar and a mixture of sherry and white vinegar to 121 oc and pouring onto whipped egg whites I managed to make some savory meringues that were as light as a "pas de chat"!
I sprinkled them with thyme flowers, cracked black peppercorns and Maldon sea salt and baked them in warmish oven for 20 minutes.
I'm thinking of adding some chopped truffles next time as well.
I served them last night, as an amuse, garnished with some apple puree, parfait of duck livers and some honey glazed pancetta.
I'm going to use, I think, a puree of gooseberries, instead of the apples, when they arrive in a few weeks time - how exciting!
And by then, hopefully, I will have sorted out how to use dark chocolate with some thyme, oranges and wood pigeons as another course in my new tasting menu.
Right then, I'm off to Highfield House Farm to see if  I can get my hands on some bone marrow and a couple of big fat steaks for dinner tonight.

I'll tell you about my inside out fish and chips next time!

So the new menu went well on Tuesday night.
We had a tasting menu for the chef's table and an a la carte in the restaurant.
It was nice that Jodie and Simon came up from the Peacock, hope they enjoyed it!
And the staff from Matlock's world famous Indigo furniture store, who built the chef's table, found some of the new dishes interesting.
That's the whole point of a tasting menu, you see, to make sure we make it interesting for the diner.
Whether that means trying to get them to eat some cured venison, perhaps served a glass of beer, and some dripping, its giving them something that they normally wouldn't try.
You know, the one dish that I thought would raise a few eyebrows, was the one that everyone seemed to enjoy most.
For the last few weeks I've been really trying to incorporate tomatoes onto the dessert menu. Now that the weather is getting better I just thought it would be fun, and anyway, I get bored!
So I was faffing around, trying to make sweet tomato confit and a spicy tomato syrup, but neither really seemed to hit the spot, so it was back to the drawing board.
A few months ago, for a wedding tasting, I came up with the idea of a sweet carrot sorbet to garnish an orange mousse and so I wondered if there was any mileage in teaming up tomatoes and carrots, but that didn't seem quite right either. Then cucumbers entered the equation, and the new pudding starting taking shape.
I had to be careful, as it was after all, still a pudding!
We peel a cucumber, scoop out small balls from the flesh, and vac pac them with a light, sweet, tarragon syrup. Various melons are peeled, cut into geometric shapes and compressed in the sous vide machine.
Sliced carrots are cooked with orange juice, blended, and churned into a sorbet. We also make a yoghurt sorbet as well. Tarragon leafs are cooked in the microwave and sprinkled with icing sugar to make sweet tarragon crisps and finally we deep fry julienne carrots to make crispy carrots. Oh, and a brown sugar wafer adds a nice toasty crunch!
And so you see, not a tomato in sight!
On Tuesday night someone asked me how I got my inspiration for my dishes, so now you know. It often starts with one ingredient and that will send me off in another direction.
And the outcome - everyone really loved the dish, so do I by the way!