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.

Smoking under glass

This a cool method of wowing the guest and also for smoking to order. The cheese is a sticky blue goats cheese which is mild and ripe. I find it better to do this with a moist cheese to allow the smoke to stick to the rind.

The cheese is placed in the center of the plate. You need a bowl of wood chips soaked in some brandy and water. Take a perfectly polished red wine glass and with a blow torch start to burn the chips until a steady plume of smoke forms. Hold the glass over the bowl and fill up with smoke fumes. Trap the smoked inside the glass and moving swiftly with a waiter there ready, turn the glass over onto the cheese and send straight away.

The guest will get an aroma of hickory at the table and also a light smoky taste to the cheese itself. You can smoke with anything you want to, its your creativity, try adding sczechuan peppers or rosemary?

Beef fillet

This is on the weekly du jour menu. I was making a beef jus and when straining it found that the short riblets i was using to make the sauce had braised slowly the meat was falling off the bone it was so tender. Also the meat had shrunk back leaving a clean exposed bone. Nice!
So here is the dish containing my new best thing.
Grilled beef fillet, soy and honey glazed riblet, savoy cabbage, smoked potato puree. pickled red onion compote.

Roasted salsify

Here we have roasted salsify with a parmesan cheesecake, thyme crumble, port, balsamic and shallot reduction.

This plate is taken from a dish that was on the menu when i worked inBoston, US. My chef de Cuisine was a very accomplished guy named Jerome Legras. He did this same dish with asparagus. I loved it a took it with me. I havent changed alot only the thyme crumble on top of the cheesecake.

Fantastic dish!!!

Crunchy sauteed skate wing, leek fondue, porcini mushrooms, black truffle vinaigrette

Pigeon

This dish was on the du jour menu tonight. It is a New Forest pigeon which is roasted on the bone, then the breasts are removed and glazed with black treacle. The treacle works well with the pigeons earthyness and slight sweetness. There is seared foie gras, a spinach puree and carrot puree. Madeira jus was poured at the table.

Another classy salad

The salad greens are held by a cucumber ribbon, served with beetroot, sicilian pistachio puree, sherry vinegar and truffle vinaigrette

Cool salad

Putting a little extra thought into something so simple really makes a guests night in the restaurant. It is the WOW factor that is the first impression, next is the taste which is more important. In this salad, it is the vegetables and organic green leaves from Secretts farm in Surrey that do the talking here. Dressed with balsamic vinaigrette and served with some micro celery and a light potato spiral to add a crunch. I served a shot glass of pumpkin juice (slightly reduced to concentrate the flavour) on the side.

Duo of Grssingham duck

Here we have a pan seared duck breast sitting on spaghetti squash, with a confit leg and goats cheese springroll, micro basil and chestnut sauce. It sold well tonight.

Feeling hungry???

Firstly, sorry for the picture quality. Here we have a rich dish, not for the faint hearted. Beef fillet roasted and glazed with bone marrow. The marrow bone is cleaned out and used to serve braised beef brisket. Garnish is a parsnip and horseradish mousseline and heny glazed vegetables.

Black leg chicken

This is a breast of black leg chicken from Challans in France, roasted on the crown. Sitting on truffled potato puree. The potato ring is filled with peas, carrots, confit leg and tarragon. Garnished with truffle julienne and a light chicken jus.

Trio of pork

Here is a trio of Middlewhite pork. The trio is pork belly which is slowly confit and then caramelised with a cider reduction, the skin is crisped up flat and used for the garnish. It is sitting on spaghetti squash. Next is a pork tenderloin rolled in smoked Alsatian bacon and then pan seared pink. Sitting on an apple and prune compote. The ball is a pork cheek and black pudding croquette. The pork cheek is slowly cooked and the meat removed, then cooked down in fat like a rillette. We make our own black pudding flavoured with harissa and mix this into the prok cheek. Then we roll in breadcrumbs and deep fry until crisp. This sits on buttered swiss chard.

Some dishes from this weeks tasting menu........

Today i was feeling really good at work. A big mis en place list, some kitchen work and some admin tasks. Caned it all day and felt good about it. My former mentors always told me that you're first hour in the kitchen is the most important to set the pace for the day. I always remember that, as it is so true.

Here are some dishes from my menu this evening.

• First up is a little crispy foie gras sandwich with muscat grapes
• Next is a salmon and crayfish canneloni wrapped in swiss chard with a tomato butter sauce, lemongrass creme fraiche and thai basil.
• Fish is Dover sole fillets pressed together and wrapped in potato. Pan roasted and served with a confit shallot custard, wild mushroom "pot au feu"
• Lamb loin with red and golden beetroot, truffle and parmesan gnocchi, spiced chestnut veloute

Time for a change

Hey you guys and gals. Ive changed my template picture which leaves me to reveal the dish that took its place before. This is a braised beef short rib and foie gras terrine with pickled vegetables and a light pinot noir gelee.

Halibut navarin

Here is a dish where the halibut is lightly braised through a jus made with fish bones and a little red wine. It is served with basil mash and glazed vegetables

Autumn squash plate

This has just gone onto the a la carte menu in the last week. It is a vegetarian option and is quite cute. In the center there is a butternut squash mousse made with butternut puree, whipped cream and gelatin. On top is a pumpkin juice jelly seasoned with vanilla salt and on the bottom is a savory oatmeal crumble. On top of that is a butternut crisp and dried pear skin. The cream is sour cream flavoured with some pumpkin seed oil. There are little wedges from Jack B Little pumpkins which are roasted in maple butter. The vinaigrette has shallot, celery, chopped chive, diced pear and confit pumpkin dice.
So if you like squash then this is the dish for you!!

Boudin blanc

Here is a starter i had on my tasting menu this week. Simple and tasty! It is a chicken and truffle boudin with a pear,potato and watercress mousseline. The sausage filling is made with chicken meat, egg white, cream, chopped truffle, truffle oil, chopped thyme and rosemary.

Home smoked organic salmon

In the restaurant we smoke our own salmon. We buy whole organic salmon and do it from scratch. It takes from start to finish 6 days until it is ready to be used.
We wash the salmon in whiskey then cure in salt, sugar, smoked paprika, thyme, ginger for 16 hours. We then wash off the cure and dry the salmon out for 24 hours.
After the drying process we lightly rub the salmon with olive oil and set up a smoker on a rolling rack and cure in whiskey soaked wood chips for 6 hours. Once this is done we wrap the sides individually in cling film and leave for 3 days for the smoke to permeate the salmon. We then clean and pin bone the salmon and vacuum pac with olive oil until needed.

Here is a dish with this very salmon. It is with a red beetroot tartare, devilled quail eggs, crisp smoked salmon skin, Keta caviar and chive vinaigrette.

Venison

This is venison with braised baby Savoy cabbage, poached pear, carrot and bacon parsley gnocchi, juniper sauce

Soup of the day

Here is a funky soup i did back in the Spring (sorry its a bit late), its a green asparagus soup with kaitafe wrapped langoustine and shellfish oil.

Menu du jour

Here is my tasting menu from the week of the 2nd November. Above we have a silky celeriac soup with roasted apple, toasted almonds and apple blossom

This is an aubergine and cepe mushroom tart with a bittersweet merlot reduction.
This is aromatic steamed monkfish, herb gnocchi, saffron poached leeks, black truffle jam
Above we have sous vide black leg Challans chicken (taken to 63C), root vegetable rosti, seared foie gras, braised leg meat galette, a light jus was poured at the table.
Here we have a Stilton stuffed pear, calvados foam and mulled port.

Small fish, big flavour!

If you have not heard of Gurnard then here is a little blurb about the ugly fish.
Gurnard has risen in popularity recently as an alternative source than overfished species like cod and haddock. A couple of years ago this fish cost 25p a kg. At last look the fish was reaching nearly Seven GBP.
Whats most important though is that the fish has a fantastic flavour and texture. Rick Stein has given the Gurnard its due with a feature on one of his TV shows. He battered it as his alternative fish of choice and since then, chefs have tried it and been blown away by its full flavour.
I certainly have and didnt pass up the opportunity to place it on one of my weekend du jour menus. Above i have made a vegetable crust and placed it on top of the fish bonding it with a little Dijon mustard. Baking it through the oven. The garnish is Fregola which is a Sardinian pasta shaped like little pellets which is cooked like a risotto, pumpkin juice and beetroot juice.

Love this quote!
"If the seabed had mirrors, the gurnard would surely swim by without a glance".
The independant Oct 08