Escargot

This is a fricasse of Wild Burgandy snails with globe artichoke, chestnuts, shallot and garlic. In the beggars purse is a snail sitting atop a sliver of confit potato and topped with beurre d'escargot. Garnish is a red wine air and crisp parsley.

Steamed Dorset brill with Colchester oyster

Hope everybody had a good Christmas. This was the first Xmas that my daughter really knew what was going on. It was awesome and i must call my Mum to thank her for all the holidays she spent running around making sure i was positive Santa lived! This dish is for you Mum.

This brill is taken off the bone and the fillets are layed head to toe. They are seasoned with salt and pepper and preserved lemon zest. They are then rolled very tight and set in the fridge. On pick up they are poached in barely simmering water. After poaching it is removed from the cling film and a strip or pine nut and herb crust is layed on top, and gratined. It is sitting on some jullienne leek and served with a poached oyster. The sauce is a Champagne and oyster nage which is poured at the table.

Foie gras mousse

Here is a light foie gras mousse on top of brioche sand and garnished with textures of mandarin.

Roasted onion pannacotta, cured vegetables, grape fluid gel

The pannacotta is made with roasted onion puree, cream, milk and agar. The crackers are purple potato and white potato and truffle. The fluid gel is made with grape juice, muscat wine and gellan F.

Trio of organic lamb

Poached saddle, lamb cutlet"souffle", braised neck wrapped in herb crust, carrot and Savoy cabbage ball, glazed chestnuts, garlic potato mousseline

Seared dayboat seabass, salt cod cromesqui, langoustine consomme and lollipop

This dish is on my weekly tasting menu. The langoustine lollipop is minced raw langoustine mixed with egg white, then rolled tightly and poached. The salt cod brandade is a thick creamy mixture of salt cod, white wine, cream and gelatine set into a semi-sphere. Then unmolded and pressed together, breaded and fried. A twist of vegetable spaghetti and thai basil sits behind the fish.

It's just a damn soup!!!

It maybe just a damn soup, but they need respect too. every menu contains a soup of some sort or another. This creation above is my new a la carte soup.

Jerusalem artichoke veloute, warm quince pannacotta, dried apple.

Salmon "mi cuit", vegetable spaghetti, langoustine consomme

Here is a dish from my weekend du jour menu. "Mi cuit" means half cooked so the salmon is lightly cured in salt and sugar and then vacuum packed with thyme and olive oil and cooked in a water bath for approximately 6-8 mins, depending on the thickness of the fish. At this temperature the fish changes texture and flavor but doesn't look cooked all the way through. It has an opaque look but melts in the mouth and has subtle and pleasing flavor. the vegetables are cut into long jullienne and blanched briefly in salted boiling water and reheated in olive oil.

The langoustine consomme is made by an ice filtration technique. I made a langoustine stock and reduced it down by half to concentrate the flavours. Take 1000ml of the stock and 5gram gelatin leaf and bloom the gelatin in cold water. Take a third of the stock and dissolve the gelatin sheets. Put the stock into the freezer and froze solid. With a steamer tray (lined with a double muslin) on top of a hotel pan the frozen stock is put into the tray and left in the fridge for 24 hours. The resulting liquid left in the tray should be a perfectly clear and clean tasting consomme ready for action. The lists of what you can do is endless....smoked salmon, smoked bacon, brown butter, wild mushroom, that left over braising jus that you want to use for the fine dining restaurant, all the flavours are there, just need to be released!!

Braised venison with root vegetables

Here was my amuse bouche this evening. It is a bread tube which is filled with a rich braised venison civet. Topped with a warm root vegetable espuma and fresh juniper.
The beautiful richness of the venison is tempered with the light foam and the bread crisp adds a playful bite whilst the juniper gives the mouth an aromatic feel.

The rest of the evening..........

Here is a cheese course with a fantastic cheese named Stinking Bishop. The cheese is a semi soft pasteurised cows milk cheese and is washed in perry wine. The name of the cheese comes from the owner of the orchard who's name is Mr Bishop. Mr Bishop grows the pears which make the wine. The pears are originally called Moorcroft, but over the years the pears have taken on nicknames and the name Stinking Bishop comes from the name given to the pears because of Mr Bishops foul temper. So they say. Sounds plausible to me!

It is served with an endive marmalade and home smoked pigeon.
This is a pheasant and wild mushroom terrine served as the amuse.

New Forest Mallard

Here is a dish that was on the menu tonight. Mallard is a very flavourful duck. The meat is very red as opposed to a slightly pinker colour of farmed ducks. Ideally this meat should be cooked medium rare as overcooking can create a dry texture and musty flavour. Below i have paired it with caraway scented white cabbage, black currants, sweet and sour jus.

Skate wing

I absolutely love skate wing. I had some in this weekend and the dish is featured on a previous post. With the skate that was left i deboned the wings and layed them out flat with a light pounding of a mallet. I seasoned with salt and pepper and crushed walnuts and rolled them into logs. I then set them in the fridge to firm up. I poached them in a water bath just lightly simmering until medium well. Once chilled the skate was lovely and firm and full of moisture.

The resulting dish is this, steamed ballontine of skate wing with a trio of truffle: vinaigrette, shaved, cream.