This weeks du jour menu

Chilled white gazpacho with compressed melon, cucumber and white grape

Wild halibut fillet poached in a tumeric and lime leaf nage, curry cured duck egg yolk, mango vinegar froth and thai basil

Herefordshire beef fillet glazed with brioche and morels, Cheltenham beetroot, foie gras veloute

Barkham blue cheese mousse, balsamic caramel, red grape curd

Presentations of smoked duck

This is a work in progress for my a la carte menu. Im testing flavours, presentations and recipes to see what works the best. This evening i plated two versions of the dish. The top picture is...

Smoked Gressingham duck breast, balsamic jelly, glazed cherry, Marcona almond, foie gras and cherry terrine

and the bottom plate is ....

Smoked Gressigham duck breast, glazed cherrys filled with foie gras,

balsamic jelly, Marcona almond, orange syrup

Smoked duck breast

Cure:

400g Sel de Guerand

1 whole Orange peel

1 Anise star (crushed)

2 Clove (crushed)

half a Vanilla pod (chopped)

2 Black pepper corns (crushed)

4 x Gressingham duck breast

Hickory wood chips

Cure the duck breasts for 90 minutes in the salt mixture. Rub off the cure, rinse and dry the breasts. Leave un wrapped on a tray for 2 hours to dry.

Set up a smoker on the stove by lining a hotel pan with tin foil. Adding your wood chips and gently toast on the stove. Once the wood chips are smoking nicely Place a steamer tray on top of the hotel pan, lightly brush your duck breasts with olive oil and place onto the steamer tray, covering with another hotel pan.

Smoke slowly until the duck breasts are medium. Remove the duck and chill. Air dry the breasts whole for 4 hours, then slice to order.

Chicken liver and foie gras parfait, pineapple and vanilla compote, 5 spice cracker

This an amuse bouche from a few days ago. Great feedback from guests which is what counts!

Here is the recipe for the parfait:

Chicken Liver and Foie Gras Parfait

Fresh foie gras	g	250
Fresh chicken livers	g	250
Ruby port	ml	125
Madeira	ml	125
Brandy	ml	60
Shallots(peeled and sliced)	g	150
Garlic(peeled and sliced)	clove	2
Tyhme	sprig	2
Eggs	ea	5
Unsalted butter	g	500
Pink salt(nitrate)	tspn	1
Salt
Ground white pepper

1. Preheat a low oven to 250°F, or a Rational oven to 90ºC. Chop the foie gras and chicken livers(season the livers with pink salt) into small pieces and place them in a large pan and bring them up to room temperature. Crack the eggs into a large pan and also bring them up to room temperature. Melt the butter in a pan and keep warm.
2. Reduce all of the alcohol with the shallots, garlic, and thyme until almost dry and remove the thyme.
3. Liquidize the foie gras, chicken livers and eggs until smooth, then add the butter slowly but steadily and correct the seasoning. You will need to do this in batches. For a smoother parfait, leave the blender running for a few minutes. Pass the mixture through a fine chinois.
4. Line the bottom of the terrine (1-1/2 qt capacity) with parchment paper. Pour the mixture into the terrine molds just below the lip and cover with foil. Place the parfaits into a bain-marie with the water level with the parfait mix. Cook in the preheated oven for 1 hour 30 minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches 60- 65C. Remove from the bain-marie, leave to cool to room temperature then refridgerate for 24 hours.
5. If not using immediately, cover the parfait with clarified butter. This will stop the parfait from oxidizing.

This weeks du jour menu

Warm beetroot soup with sour cream and saffron floating island

Hampshire Brown crab cocktail, roasted seeds and nuts, marie rose sorbet

Teriyaki glazed pork belly, seared scallop, poached mushrooms, shallot and ginger confit

Elderflower parfait, frozen olive oil emulsion

(Dessert courtesy of Dale over at http://thecomponents.wordpress.com/)

Teriyaki marinade

100ml Mirin

100ml Kikoman soy sauce

100g Sugar

500ml Water

Grilled mirepoix

25g Carrot

25g Celery

25g Onion

5g Ginger

20g Pineapple

50g Beef trimming

In a hot pan, add the mirin and flambé. Once the alcohol has burned off, add the soy sauce, sugar and water. Bring to a boil and add the mierpoix. Simmer until reduced by half. Strain through a fine chinois and thicken with corn starch.

Tomato sorbet

Water 292g

Dextrose 153g

Peeled tomato flesh(good quality) 1093g

Salt 6g

Stab (neutrose) 8g

Tabasco 1g

Basil 4g

Tomato paste 110g

Mix together the dextrose, and stabiliser. Boil the water and add the two powders, mix well and boil for 1 minute. Transfer to a container and rest overnight.

Blend the fresh tomato, tabasco, basil, tomato paste and salt into the syrup until completely smooth. Pass through a conical strainer and pour into paco jet containers and freeze completely.

Puree when needed.

Parfait of Brown Hampshire crab, mary rose sorbet and crisp

This week we had some beautiful Brown crabs from Solent in Hampshire. I've wanted to get live crabs in for a while to teach my team how to cook, break and clean them. The flavour of the meat is sweet, fresh, and delicious. With a product this good, there is not much that i want to do to it apart from showcase its superb flavour. Therefore, i did not do much to it.

The parfait is layered up of...........

Crab jelly made from the shells

White crabmeat mayonaisse scented with preserved lemon zest

Brown crab meat(seasoned with tabasco, lea and perrins, and lemon)

Lemon and basil curd

Chiffonade baby gem

Crab jelly

White crab mayonnaise

Roasted nuts and seeds

Marie rose sorbet

Marie rose crisp

An important aspect is that i got extremely good feedback from our guests on this starter and will consider putting it on the A La Carte menu through the summer.

Marinated red, candy and golden beetroot, jambon Iberico de Belotta, walnut vinaigrette

This weeks starter on the tasting menu. The beetroots are from Secretts farm which is located in Milford, Surrey.

The Secrett family company was founded in 1908 by Frederick Augustus Secrett, a highly respected horticulturalist of considerable standing. Currently we are receiving asparagus, beetroot, pink fir potatoes, turnips, organic baby greens( of very high quality), parsnips, and chick pea shoots.

They have a farm shop as well and are well worth a visit.

http://www.shopcreator.com/mall/Secretts/