Pan fried salmon, pea puree, vichy carrots, parmentier potatoes

Here is my starter from the same ingredients as last blog, this time I went for a smaller starter, using the scraps from my main salmon dish.
Firstly I pan fried the remaining scallops in seasoned butter, then knocked up a pea puree, using petit pois cooked in vegetable stock with white wine, then blitzed down with cream, adding small amounts of butter at the end, then the rest was remainders from the main course I had prepared before!

Practising with various lighting and plates at the moment as still getting to grips with my new camera, enjoy :)

Poached Salmon, vichy carrots, sweet potato parmentier, brazed beetroot & coriander emulsion

Here is a dish I created at home today, All food was brought from around the Birmingham market, a great place to pick up cheap fresh seasonal ingredients!



- I cut the salmon with a pastry ring, then sealed the salmon in a pan with the ring on, then added fish stock & white wine to pan and let it poach, removing ring at end.

- I peeled the sweet potato (a northern whiter variety) Then diced it into 1cm cubes, then the parmentiers were sealed in a pan then oven roasted till soft.

- The carrots were washed, peeled, trimmed and then boiled, when soft drain then quickly sauteed in butter and sugar to glaze.

- The beetroot washed, peeled, left to soak for 10 minutes, then sliced on a mandolin then perfect circles cut with a small pastry cutter, these were the slow roasted for 20 minutes on 130degrees then dipped in boiling water for 5 minutes until tender and excess juice has come out.

- The coriander emulsion was made my making a paste of chopped coriander in a pestle and mortar with a clove of garlic and smoked malvern sea salt, then olive oil slowly whisked into at a drizzle at a time.

I made a starter using roughly the same ingredients and will blog this in the coming week.

Playing with my new camera :)

Got a new camera this week, so thought I would take a few pictures at work of the various starters and desserts on the menu this week.


Starting at the top we have my chicken terrine from last week, im slowly refining my recipe each time I make it, almost happy with it now and when I am finally satisfied with it will update the recipe below.

After that we have portobello mushrooms, raspberry vinagrette dressing, poached pears and pine nuts; I can't stop eating the pears off this one, they are slowly poached in just white wine and sugar for about 30 minutes until soft and the wines starting to reduce.

Third is a dessert, warm cherries (in port and kirsch) with vanilla icecream rolled in toasted almonds and a caramelised cherry on top, the twin sauces are a cherry liquer and a light cherry syrup

Next we have some chocolate dipped strawberries for one of our romance packages.

The Next two photos are of our chocolate marquis, served with a lime creme fraiche, caramel sauce and some sugar work/garnish.

Finally the last two are of some of the starters and preparation for them, on there is the mushrooms dish from before; a tomato/smoked bacon bruschetta; pea, poached egg & peashoots soup; seared tuna nicoise salad & last the home made gravlax with a horseradish cream and dill scone.

Got a busy week ahead then looking to do some home cooking next monday for here :)

Chicken, Leek & Pistachio Terrine, grape chutney, pistachio oil

Heres my new terrine for our menu at work this week, a chicken, leek & pistachio one, don't really have a recipie as just went with it, but I shall jot down the jist of it!

Main base is a chicken parfait, I cooked the breasts in the oven over leeks submerged in white wine, then blitzed them down with cream, white wine, butter (amalgamated with a few egg yolks), there own stock, seasoning and a few chives for colour. You want a good thick paste, with about 60% Chicken 20% Butter 10% double cream 10% Wine & stock mix as a rough guide, but I did it to taste more than measurements.

For the internal pistachios I blanced them, then coated them in salt and sugar and roasted them till they crisped, but still had a soft inside. About 15 minutes on 160

The Leeks were stripped, washed, then sauteed in butter and seasoning and left to soften for about 15 minutes on a low heat

Chicken strips were chargrilled and then roasted, cooled and sliced into thin strips.

Then I slowly filled the terrine mould with the parfait at bottom then stripped leeks lengthways and the chicken and a small handful of pistachios, then another layer of parfait, and so on until full. then chilled overnight.





The outer crust is roasted pistachios ground down and rubbed into the chilled terrine then re moulded and clinged tightly to help set. Hoping to use some better pistachio kernels to get a greener colour next week when there remade.

For plating, I used home-made grape chutney (which Ill add the recipie at a later date), a pistachio oil dressing (blitz pistachios down in a bit of herb oil and sieve) and dressed the plate with pea shoots and micro red amaranth.

Enjoy :)

Pineapple and lime sorbet, spiced berry smoothie, strawberries in citrus cream

I brought a blender last week and have been blitzing anything I can get my hands on!

Heres a fun dessert ive created today, which is quite simple to make in large quantities and very interchangeable with the ingredients.

For the pineapple and lime sorbet:

- 1 Whole pineapple
- 2 Limes
- 100g Sugar

Peel and core the pineapple, then coarse chop the pineapple and add to the blender, zest and juice the 2 limes, dicing the zest as fine as possible and also add with the pineapple.

Create a sugar syrup to the soft ball stage (120 celcius on a sugar thermomometer) and let it cool slightly.

Blitz the pineapple mix down, then slowly add the sugar solution to the mix blitzing bit by bit, when fully mixed, scrape out and freeze, with the sugar solution and the various acids of pineapple, this is a good sorbet to freeze without the aid of a churner as it wont solidify into a solid block like most frozen fruits and will be quite malleable and scoopable, theres nothing worse than making your own frozen products to find you have to break them with a chisel and hammer!



For the spiced berry smoothie

- 1kg of whatever berries you have to hand, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries etc
- 250g caster sugar
- juice of 1 lime
- 5 spice
- 100ml double cream (coconut milk is a fun and healthier addition too)

blitz all down to a puree, chill and serve




Citrus cream

Whip double cream with a handful of caster sugar to a very light peak, then slowly whip in either lime or lemon juice, as if you were making a syllabub, adjust the sugar quantity to keep the tartness of the citrus at bay

Pancake day! Served with strawberries and a vanilla bean sauce

Well its shrove tuesday and that can only mean one thing, so heres my pancake recipe.

200ml Milk 50ml water
2 large eggs
140g flour
20g sugar
1 tsp salt
zest of a lemon

whisk up the eggs with the sugar and the lemon zest, then add the milk, then from a height sieve the flour and salt into the mixture whilst whisking, then briskly whisk the mixture until smooth, I then usually chill it in the fridge for 30 minutes.

The quality of the pancake really only depends on the quality of the pan, you need a good thick based pan which preferably is non stick and never used before, rarely is this the case, so its best to salt your pan and have it on a high heat for 10 minutes, then carefully remove the salt (now extremly hot so be careful!) and wipe pan clean with a dry cloth, then add a small amount of butter or oil, making sure the pan is evenly coated, after which remove the excess oil, making sure that its not too hot that the oil starts to smoke.

When you have finally got to this stage, add a small ladle of the batter and swirl it round to get an even smooth covering, cook on one side for about 1 minute until the edges crisp and start to lift, then attempt to flip it (or use a spatula)

You can add various things into your mix, for example, the seeds of a vanilla pod, cinnamon, five spice, various fruit zests, blueberrys, cardamom...to name a few


enjoy :)

Pecan and Caramel Cheesecake

Heres a quick dessert at work, simple to make with no baking involved.

Recipe:

Base
250g Shortbread biscuit
250g Pecans
150g butter

Blitz biscuit and pecans down into a small crumb, add the melted butter and mix into a paste... here I added caramel too, but if your are not confident with sugar work then its best to miss this out as it can be quite dangerous, if you are then bring 100g sugar to the boil with 50ml water and bring to a light coloured caramel(takes about 6 minutes on a high boil or 160-170 degrees on a sugar thermometer) then quickly whisk in 20g butter and 50g double cream and keep whisking until it comes out in a smooth thick caramel, immediatly pour into the base mixture

With or without the caramel, set the base in the bottom of a lined large cake tin, spread to about 1cm thickness

Filling

500g Cream cheese
200g Caster sugar
300g Double Cream
1 Vanilla pod
4 leaves gelatine (and 50ml water to dissolve them in)
2 whipped egg whites (stiff peak)

Cream the cheese sugar and double cream together with a whisk until a light paste, soak gelatine in cold water before dissolving into the boiling water, then add to the cheese mixture, whip up the eggs by hand with a small amount of sugar, then add to the cheesecake mix, pour into the lined tins and set for about 2-3 hours in a fridge


Topping - Crushed pecans brought down to a fine crumb, with caramel from the base recipe poured in swirls on top covered with the pecan mix rubbed into the unset top of the cheesecake so it sticks.


To cut the cake, use a warm wet thin knife, cleaning the knife after each cut making sure to firmly go all the way through the base.

Enjoy :)

Time for a dessert now, layers of finely rolled shortbread, filled with blueberry and strawberry creams with a spiced raspberry coulis.

Well here goes! Heres a Ham Hock terrine I made at work with layers of ham hock strips, ham cubes, layers of gherkins running through and set in a white wine jelly. Served with a picalilli dressing and toasted onion bread.

First Blog test

Well here goes...