Kenyan pork

This is an amazing protein.  Beautifully little (as in not flabby forced fed British stuff which is it's highly sought after brother on the shelves and over twice the price), I've always had a very soft spot for Kenyan pork in our non muslim section of Watirose.  It's a beautiful piece of protein.  Best done just under medium (and trust me on this, please).

I paired it with corn puree, corn kernel, red wine essence as per quail from previous times.  I cooked this little fillet wrapped in cling film, tied at the ends for 8 minutes and in actuality it could have done with just 7.

Rested, portioned, oui la la, sublime.

Pork fillet, corn puree, bacon dust, corn kernels, leek and pop corn (with asparagus to keep our 5 a day in check!)

Egg yolk ravioli, salmon, asparagus and quail essence....

A dish beyond it's ingredients.  Really, we are talking egg yolks left over from soufflé, salmon trimmings to correct the cut and a quail stock I had but decided to reduce.

Ummmm .... stunning.  A beautifully portioned starter, gorgeous flavours to quench the palate for more to come.

Egg yolk ravioli, confit salmon, quail essence, asparagus.

Venison fillet with morels....

And the venison story continues.  I marinated this beautiful fillet overnight in (god help me) truffle oil - it works here trust me, and walnut oil.

Wrapped it in cling film, tied off the ends.  I sous vide cooked this little fillet.  It's against the grain for me.  I am left underwhelmed with sous vide cooking as most beautiful prime proteins are overcooked at a low temp leaving them rare looking but well done in taste and texture.  But just 3 minutes 30 secs (from room temp, then left to rest still wrapped)..

With a duck stock consume, morel mushrooms, leeks cooked through,  crisped cooked Extremadura Iberico Bellota ham ( its the best in the world and I would never suggest cooking this beautiful ingredient but here and now it was just the ticket)  and crisp cooked oyster mushrooms for texture contrast

Venison fillet with morels, leak, consume, caramilsed garlic and Iberico Bellota

.

Utter heaven.  Really.  HEAVEN.

Venison Carpaccio

OK so this fillet of venison I had acquired at a price, I chopped off each end to make a seamless fillet and tightly cling film wrapped it with aromatics of thyme, olive oil and a touch of garlic.

I popped it in the freezer to firm up and then seared it on a very high heat to get some caramalisation without affecting the rawness of the meat.  Re wrapped tightly in cling film, back in the freezer.  

Parsnip puree, parsnip and carrot dehydrated, ash emulsion (to which I am addicted right now) a touch of Jerez vinegar, some confit then caramelised garlic.  A parmesan wafer or two.....  Stunning.  STUNNING.

Carpaccio of venison with parsnip puree, crisp parsnip, leek ash emulsion and caramalised garlic

Venison in Dubai

We have lived here 5 years to the day yesterday.  I love venison and even got in touch with the NZ venison (Cervina as is the promoted name in NZ) group.  They said no, we do not have the demand or the facility to export halal venison to Dubai.  So I have, as always, ordered everywhere it is on the menu and the Pamplona  restaurant Enekorri  outshone my previous experiences (which to date the best had been at Cibo in Auckland, my home town and a local restaurant if I am resident there)

OK so I spied venison in Dubai the other day and did entree and main.  I'm talking 130 Dirhams for a 350 gm fillet.  We don't pay that for protein in Dubai and I couldn't stuff it up!  Oh gosh.  I do not float my boat, I'm simply not that sort of person but these two dishes were truly extraordinary.....

Two posts to follow...

Roast chicken taken to new heights

The humble chick, but how glorious it can taste given a little care.

We get these gorgeous little french poussin here which have the lovely dry yellow skin of a proper bird not the wet slimy plumped up flesh you get these days in supermarkets.  One poussin is perfect for two.

I took the breasts, legs and wings off this little bird, boned out the thigh, french trimming the shin and cutting off the knuckle, same with the wing, took off the wing tip and boned it out, trimming the end to create 2 breasts (skin on of course), 2 legs and 2 wings french trimmed.

I popped a little butter under the skin of the breasts and sprinkled with salt.  I wrapped tightly in cling firm (together) so that the skin was outermost and tied off the ends.  I popped a little butter in each leg cavity and wrapped each tightly separately and tied each end off, wrapped the little wings together in the same manor.  I popped these in the fridge overnight.

I then made a stock with the bones of the birds and nothing else, no wine no anything.  I let this sit overnight in the fridge with the bones still in the stock.

The next day I skimmed the fat off the stock (keeping the bones in) then heated it to below simmer and put the chicken parcels in.  I poached the legs and breasts for 10 mins, the wings for 5 then took them out, strained the stock and reduced it.  It was clean chicken tasting and sweet, needing only a mere hint of salt.  Nectar.

When cool I unwrapped the chicken parcels and browned them off in a pan, I had poached some leek in chicken stock and made a couple of little pea & tarragon jellies.  I had also crisp cooked some parsnip and carrot strips.  I had also caramalised some onion for sharp sweetness.

So simply cutting the double breast in half and serving a leg and wing each, a pea jelly on each plate, the leak, the caramalised onion, the crispy parsnip and carrot and the reduced stock.  This was gobsmackingly delicious.  Chicken essence in every mouthful.  Elegant and can easily be preprepared for a dinner party.  Yum.

Chicken, pea tarragon jelly, chicken jus, crispy parsnip and carrot.  

Quail twice cooked Middle Eastern style

Ok so yes this is another quail dish - I'm on a role here so am experimenting different techniques with this delicately sweet bird.  I have taken a leaf out of my Greg Malouf cookbook and substituted quail for pigeon but added my own twists here and there.  I served it with a Malouf salad of carrot with an interesting dressing - olive oil, lemon juice, honey, orange blossom water, paprika, cumin, garlic, salt.  The quail itself was poached (for 6 minutes) in a  masterstock of onion, garlic, water, ground and whole cinnamon, cardamon, honey, chili all of which had been cooked and reduced before the quail was added (halved).

After a 6 minute poach it dried out in the fridge for the day, then was fried (in a non stick pan using not much oil), liberally sprinkled with a salt of roasted and ground fennel and coriander seeds and served with this carrot salad to which I also added thin slices of raw beetroot for earthiness and sweetness.

The masterstock itself was gorgeous so I reduced some and seasoned it up at the end serving it with this dish.  I would make this again.  Next time I would do a more simple accompaniment as I found the dressing in the salad tended to overpower the beautiful flavours in the quail and stock sauce.  I would next time cook Israeli couscous in some of the masterstock and serve again with reduced stock sauce.

The quail was utterly finger licking and this is a fabulous way of bring out the natural sweetness of these little birds.

Twice cooked quail, masterstock sauce, fennel coriander seed salt and beetroot carrot salad.

Quail again, with fennel and orange

A classic combination in French cuisine and I thought it would work well with the rest of the quail I had.  Once again thigh bone removed, frenched and confit legs.  I made a fennel puree from a little orange rind, braised fennel, quail stock just to loosen, confit garlic and salt, sugar and sherry vinegar to balance at the end.

I toasted off some fennel seeds and coriander seeds and ground them.  If you have never noticed before get some coriander seeds, grind them and smell them freshly ground, they are like smelling oranges.  Hence keeping the fennel and orange theme.  Don't use preground coriander seeds, it's simply not the same.

I crusted the quail breast with the ground spices and seared them off for a minute in a pan along with the legs.

On the plate some of the fennel and orange puree, topped with the quail, a drizzle of red wine essence to give a punch and some shards of baby asparagus.  Delicious.

Quail with fennel and orange

A Middle Eastern nod to Quail - cardamon, orange blossom water, beetroot, quail...

Middle Eastern flavours are probably at their best (in my opinion) when the protein is highlighted by a subtle use of spice and sweet.  This dish exemplifies a beautiful modern Middle Eastern take on quail.

I removed the breasts and legs, took out the thigh bone and French trimmed the leg.  Wrapped these tiny morsels in clingfilm and confit in duck fat for about an hour (the quail we get here in Dubai are really tiny, if your quail are bigger they might take a couple of hours).  The way I confit is I heat the duck fat to melting (low temperature only is required as duck fat melts at very low temperature), I always pop a few garlic cloves in the dish because I keep these for all manor of things.  Then put the quail legs that have been tightly cling film wrapped and tied into a small ramekin or similar with garlic cloves if you are using them and cover with the melted duck fat.  Cover tightly with foil, sit on a baking tray just in case it overspills and in the oven at about 120deg C for as I said one hour for tiny quail, longer up to two hours for larger quails.

OK so then cook beetroot, puree with some confit garlic, a little pepper and salt and water to make a lovely smooth puree.   No need to pass this.

Quarter or eigth (size dependent) baby turnips, cook in some olive oil, honey, orange blossom water and a touch of salt until they are tender and yummy.

Use the quail carcasses to make a stock then strain and reduce with cardamon, a touch of salt and pepper, a touch of sherry vinegar and honey just to balance sweet, salt, sour.  This should be sticky and delicious when you taste at the end.  The taste should have a lovely balance of middle eastern flavours with the cardamon and honey.

Plate by searing the quail breasts along with the confit legs.  They will take just two minutes.  Cook the breasts skin side only.  The residual heat will be enough and you do not want them fully cooked through, they need to be pink.  The legs will be golden brown in the same time as cooking the legs as they have already a layer of duck fat and are of course fully cooked.

Dollop some beetroot puree, sit the quail on top, scatter the braised and roasted turnip, drizzle over the cardamon quail jus and a few fennel fronds finishes this off.  The honey and orange blossom water with the cardamon and sherry vinegar are a heady mix.  Trust me, you will make this again.

A beautiful light take on Middle Eastern quail.

Quail two ways, beetroot puree, braised and roasted turnip, cardamon, honey, orange blossom water and jus.

Caramalised onion and saffron risotto, squid with tomato, red wine essence

No photo but I made this last night and was STUNNING.

I caramalised onion with a little sugar and olive oil slowly, so that it was melting.  I then added it to quail stock.  The taste of the stock was gorgeous so a good base to work from.

As the onion was already in the dish, I crushed some garlic in a pan with some olive oil and added the rice to toast (but did this on a low heat as I didn't want the garlic to burn), then did the usual of adding some white wine to add acidity to the end result, cooked it out, then added the stock with the caramalised onion bit by bit in the usual risotto style.

I had some FRESH squid that was I'm sure out of the UAE waters that very morning.  It was a beauty. I sliced it finely and warmed it through with some finely sliced sweet cherry tomatoes and olive oil.

Any juice from the squid I tipped back into the risotto, seasoned with salt and a little cayenne pepper and poured the risotto into heated plates (the key in my opinion to good risotto is the rice must be still ever so slightly firm - personal preference, nice and loose so it's a thick sauce consistency and well seasoned) topped it with the squid tomato mixture and some very finely sliced just cooked asparagus.  No cream, no cheese, no butter.  This was clean and beautifully balanced.  The squid cooked in this manor is simply melting.  Oh final point, just a touch of saffron is suffice.  For two people about 10 threads.  

Parsley veloute with hamour and parmesan wafer

OK so this would be considered non bene in Italy I guess (although that's a bit of a mystery too because  some Italians are quite happy to eat cheese with fish, depending on their origin).  But this is French, right?  And the French along with the Spanish don't seem to have food "rules" like Italy which seems to be bounded by what is bene and what is not and varies from village to village, Nonna to Nonna.

Anyway I'm babbling.  Veloute is a lovely sauce, light and perfect for fish.  Parsley veloute is bright green and delicious.  Easy peasy, needs to be passed first though to get that lovely smooth seductive consistency.  Served with a beautifully cooked piece of fresh fish (in this case local UAE hamour) and that contentious Parmesan wafer and ... viola!  A perfectly balanced plate of light yumminess.  Oh and a black swirl of that addictive leek ash bonito nori emulsion which I simply cannot seem to get enough of right now.

Parsley veloute with hamour, Parmesan wafer and leek ash bonito nori emulsion

Lamb with pistachios and peppercorns

I have done this Greg Malouf dish from his book "New Middle Eastern Food Malouf" previously and to recipe.  I found the white peppercorn component simply too strong and completely dominated the dish.  This time I reduced the white pepper, adding some black (which in my opinion has a softer flavor) and coriander seed.

The recipe (as I had followed the previous time I made this) was using Middle Eastern brik pastry as the accompaniment.  I had fresh sourdough bread on hand as I had made a batch so instead sliced it very thinly.  This, I knew, would work.  The brik pastry (or in this case sourdough bread) sandwich with sage cheese and onion is delicious.  Crunchy, salty, sagey and yummy.

Lamb, I used backstrap (as called in NZ, here in Dubai it's referred to as loin).  Anyway, the prime back fillet of lamb.

It's a good dish.  I added a decent jus this time round as I found it lacking in that department last time I made it (sorry Mr Malouf).  It just did not seem complete without a sauce and worked better with.  Definitely an improvement too with the reduced white pepper element.

So I've made this twice now, once as per recipe, once with my own improvements.  I still don't think it's perfect so will leave it there.  I simply think the combination of spice is out.  The cheese pastry/bread is perfect, the rest not quite on point.  Every other dish I've cooked from my Greg Malouf book as been spot on so ...  dunno really...

Greg Malouf's lamb with pistachios and peppercorns

Rabbit with bacon popcorn and corn

I did this dish with quail a few nights ago, it was SUBLIME.  I had rabbit leg on hand and decided to bone out the leg, wrap it in pancetta, cling film it and poach it for 20 minutes before caramalising the pancetta.  Once again a stunning dish.  Better with rabbit or quail?  I have no idea.  They are both gorgeous.  Original recipe (quail) ...  Anjou Quail Recipe 

Rabbit with corn puree, bacon pop corn, bacon dust wrapped in pancetta.  BEAUTIFUL to eat. 

Cauliflower textures ...

I've done the scallop version of this .... in the trusting hands from a recipe of Agnar Sverrrisson which was gorgeous.  I wanted to try the hard core cauliflower as per this incredible chef .Cauliflower, Romanesco Textures

This is a beautiful plate - light, textural and contrasting with the correct use of acid.  I love it as a woman, keeping an eye on my weight (always,  ho humm.....) but  this is a gorgeous dish in it's own right.  The balance of sweet and sour are represented here which I search for in every dish.  The textures are compelling and addictive.  Really?  This is cauliflower??  I added a thread or two of asparagus for color contrast.  Not necessary but tasted beautiful and in keeping with the dish.

I will make this one again.  Feminine, light yet utterly addictive.

Cauliflower textures care of Chef Agnar Sverrisson

Quail, corn, pop corn, who would have thought?

My interest in this London based Icelandic chef continues.  Agnar Sverrisson is a master at isolating an ingredient and making it shine.  This did justice to every single element on the plate.

An interesting one to cook as I really had no idea how it would come together, but come together it did.  We are lucky to have the most beautiful quails here which are tiny (TINY).  Sorry little quail.  I think you must have looked so cute.

The quail legs are wrapped in cling film and confit in duck fat, the breasts have a whiff of a pan to keep them pink and succulent.  Yes it took a little time but the results were sheer brilliance in the mouth.

Anjou Quail Recipe - Great British Chefs

Quail with corn, corn puree, bacon dust, bacon pop corn and red wine essence.  

Leek ash, bonito flake and toasted nori emulsion.....

Yeap sounds a little strange but trust me on this one.

The leek ash is simply done by grilling the dark green part of leek under a hot grill until it's black (it only takes a couple of minutes, wash and dry the leek first).   Then pound or blitz with enough olive oil to make an emulsion and a touch of salt.

Get about half a nori sheet per couple of teaspoons of leek ash emulsion.  Toast by popping it on an element or heat source for a couple of minutes until it's crisp not burnt like the leek, just until it can be powdered.  Add this along with about 3 teaspoons of dried bonito flakes, so about 3 pinches of bonito flakes to the leek ash and blitz together to form an emulsion, add a little more oil as required so that it makes a lively dark smooth puree.

This is stunning with seafood, in particular scallops.  I substituted this emulsion for the leek ash emulsion and redid a dish I made recently, Sea Bass with Cauliflower Puree.   Once again with this recipe I substituted hazelnuts instead of almonds and Frangelico instead of Amaretto.  I used bonito flakes soaked in boiling water and strained for my fish stock.  Finally this time I used local Hamour fish instead of sea bream simply because it was beautifully fresh and I knew the sweetness would work well with the scallop.   The bonito nori leek ash is unbelievable with this dish.  A keeper.

Hamour, scallop, scallop roe, cauliflour puree, hazelnut cream and bonito nori leek ash

Vineet Bhatia's tandoori lobster and coconut pannacotta again

This continues to be one of my favourite things to both cook and eat.  It's super easy and each time the flavours have been a sheer delight.  The lobster holds it's own and somehow the balance of spice encourages the subtle taste of the sweet meat to take centre stage.

The marriage of what is essentially a coconut curry represented as a pannacotta with a rich sweet tandoori marinade on half the lobster and a spicy Goan vinegar based marinade on the other half of the lobster is just exquisite.  I sometimes garnish with frozen freshly scraped coconut as I have done here which adds to the texture and balance.

Vineet Bhatia's tandoori crayfish with coconut pannacotta from his Rasoi cookbook.

Yummy scrummy sourdough bread

I'm continuing to love my attempts to perfect my bread using my sourdough starter.  After trying lots of different recipes now for the bread itself (because results were varying) I decided that in the end I needed to find a ratio that worked everytime for my particular sourdough and environmental situation.

For me, using my 100% hydration sourdough (ie equal quantities of flour and water) the ratio working best for me is:

200gms starter
450gms flour
150gms water
10gms sugar
10gms salt

Kneed the lazy way using the kitchen aid dough hook till it's very very elastic, oil the bowl, pop it back in, cover with cling film to prove until at least double, then I don't actually knock it back as such, I sort of pour gently onto the tray I will cook it on (using baking paper as the base) then cover and let it prove again.

I bake it hot, 230deg c with a tray of water in the bottom of the oven.  This gives a lovely bubbly crust. I turn it onto it's top for the last 10 minutes so that the base and top are lovely and brown and then viola, 40 mins of cooking time (or there abouts) and for me bread perfection.

I've read recipe after recipe and blog after blog on the this's and thats of sourdough and different techniques, quantities.  I really do think if you're after a certain result as I was (an open crumb, slightly chewy and springy, lovely taste not too sour, good balance of sweet sour salt) then it's really best to play around and get what works for your own home environment and starter.

I've done this one several times now, all perfect.

Scallops with cauliflower textures

Scallop and cauliflower as we all know are a classic combination.  Usually paired with a little proscuitto on cauliflower puree.

I found the recipe for Agnar Sverrisson's Scallop Cauliflower Textures  while researching the chef who originates from Iceland.  His clean approach to flavours appeals to me and when we next go to London I will seek out his restaurant.

His scallop with cauliflower is a beautifully balanced recipe.  The scallop utterly shines.  The cauliflower in all it's textures is clean clear and precise.  This is a gorgeously light dish, the cauliflower couscous is stunning (and gluten free for celiacs of course).  I cooked it myself and still enjoyed each exquisite mouthful.  We can't say that often about dishes we ourselves cook.  Delicious.

Scallops with cauliflower textures

Vineet Bhatia's wasabi icecream.

I've made this dish several times now.  It's utterly addictive.  It's from my Rasoi cookbook by the phenomenal Vineet Bhatia.

I've made it with lamb as per the book, I've made it with salt crust beef (divine) and most recently I applied the same spice ingredients but took it in a different direction with raw tuna.

The result was as beautiful as ever.  The flavors were clear and precise.  The combination of wasabi icecream, the subtle spice of fennel and coriander, the chili and ginger, the couscous with a beautiful balance of sour and sweet.  The whole thing is an utter delight.  I popped barberries in replacing raisins most recently and this was spot on.  Visually and on the palate barberries belong here (lucky for me I can pick them up in their dried form easily here as they are not so common in other parts of the world).

Thank you Mr Bhatia for yet another sensational dish.

Tuna, wasabi icecream, spiced couscous Rasoi style.

Textures of beetroot and duck breast

I followed an interesting recipe for this Pigeon with Beetroot Recipe - Great British Chefs.   I can't get pidgeon here unfortunately.  It's one of my most favourite of meats.  I used to get it until about two years ago and poof it just has disappeared from everywhere.

Duck breast skinless is very similar in my opinion.  So I served half a duck breast per person (cooked skin on, rested then removed skin just before serving).

This is an interesting dish and I liked it but only because I added a good dose of duck jus.  Without that (which is nowhere in the recipe) this simply wouldn't tie in as a dish.  I added a "texture" in the form of dried mandolined beetroot slices which I love as they are sweet crunchy and look like rose petals.  The other change I would make next time is to omit the smoked beetroot.  I like smoked things.  They need to be subtle but the taste can be beautiful.  I smoked the beetroot very mildly, for about 20 minutes.  I could hardly even smell it, just a hint which is the result I was after for my own personal taste.  However in this subtle dish even the slight smoke took over.  I simply don't think it worked here.

Would I make it again?  Yes, without the smoked beetroot and again with a good amount of jus.  The most interesting technique for me was the pear coated in beetroot powder.  I cooked the pear for a couple of minutes so that it got to the point of succulence before coating it and I dried the beetroot slices in the oven before blitzing (rather than the complicated and not home cook friendly version in the recipe).  I'm against the sous vide technique for tender cuts of prime protein.  I think it washes out the taste and texture so I would always pan cook to rare in preference.

Textures of beetroot with duck breast

Egg yolk raviolo, iberico bellota, duck consume

In my opinion this starter is perfection.  I made it as I wanted souffle for dessert and it was a light souffle with no creme patisserie in the mix, just egg white and passionfruit.  Sorry I'm digressing again.  Anyway back to that raviolo ..the runny yolk  paired with the sweet nuttiness of the iberico bellota ham (from Extremadura which has the most glassy nutty sweet iberico I've tasted) with a beautiful subtle duck consume.  Utter perfection.  Light with saucy goodness of runny yolk with consume and that ham....well lets just say these ingredients are happy partners on a plate and my tummy is happy on consumption!   The photo doesn't show it but this pasta was as thin as almost translucent which for best results it should be.  Use a small dish to sit the pasta sheet on that will hold the yolk in place, put the yolk in a separate small dish or cup so it won't catch on the side of the shell when tipping on to the pasta base, dab sides with water, top with top pasta sheet (down to second from last or last (ie thinnest setting on you pasta roller).  Handle carefully.  Press out the air and put on to a floured sheet of parchment and into the fridge.  Cook from cold.  A minute or 2 in salted boiling water and you'll get runny yolk every time with perfectly cooked pasta.  I read a Giorgeo Locatelli recipe for potato puree, egg yolk and shaved fresh truffle ravioli served with beurre noisette.  Next time I get my hands on truffle I'll do that because to me that is food HEAVEN!!

Egg yolk raviolo, duck consume, iberico bellota ham.  An exercise in simplicity resulting in a happy tummy and heart.

Egg yolk ravioli, broad beans, parmesan and dill

Egg yolk ravioli are easy.  I use a little dish and sit the pasta sheet on top, I put the egg yolk into a small cup so that it cannot catch and break when I'm tipping it into the pasta, then dab with water, put the pasta sheet on top, press and cut and carefully handle.  You can refridgerate these for several hours so they really are easy.  As with the mozzerella you need to season before the top pasta sheet goes on to it.  Just think about how much salt you usually put on an egg.  That has to go inside otherwise it's just not going to be as sharp as it should.    I cook directly from the fridge, just for a minute or until the pasta is just cooked.  The yolk will be runny and delicious.  Yummy.  I could eat this any time.

Egg yolk ravioli with parmesan broad beans and dill.  Sauce is not needed because of all the runny goodness of the yolk.

Buffalo mozzarella ravioli, roasted tomatoes, basil.

This is just a Caprese done in a slightly different way.  Thin ravioli, filled with buffalo mozzarella served with roasted tomato and basil.  Dress the tomato with olive oil and a good vinegar (I love the Spanish Jerez sherry vinegar, toasty oaky and soft, it's seductive).  I pop a piece of basil in with the mozzerella and it's important to season it up inside (in my opinion because mozzarella is great only when given flavour.

Caprese ravioli

Sea bream, Bearnaise and asparagus.

Skin side down sea bream cooked only on the skin side, flip it onto the plate, residual heat will cook the flesh and you'll have a sweet succulent crispy yummy piece of bream......Bearnaise is one of my favourite sauces.  I love tarragon.  It can go with steak, chicken, fish.  It's a delight and turns a meal into something a little special.  With steamed snow peas and mandolined steamed beetroot.  Gorgeous.  

Sea bream bearnaise, snow peas and beetroot.

An oldie but a goodie, filo, home hot smoked salmon, caviar.

The filo pastry here is good.  Very good.  I know it's all sounding a bit 80s but here it's a staple for the plethora of sweet beauties that you see in abundance.

I loved home smoking my salmon for this dish.  It's so easy, a little tea, a little brown sugar, a little rice on some foil in the bottom of a wok, a bamboo steamer firmly over the top, a little baking paper to sit the salmon on, pop it in skin side down, turn up the heat and smoke for about 10 minutes.  You get to decide the doneness (I find hot smoked salmon from shops well overdone for my taste).  And I cure it first in some sugar, pastis and a little salt.  Gives a beautiful sweet flavour.

So just a little filo tart shell,  a touch of labnah at the bottom (or strained yoghurt), the salmon, a bit of fish roe or caviar, top it with the crisp skin of the salmon (easy in a pan with a pan on top)....a little sweet pea puree and viola.....

Filo, home smoked salmon, sweet pea puree, salmon skin and caviar

Duck breast with confit fig, confit fennel, confit duck leg

The recipe for this came from Duck Breast with Fig Recipe - Great British Chefs.  The chef is Agnar Sverrisson and I've read a bit on his food style now.  It's very appealing to me.

I did do a few changes to this recipe.  I served half a duck breast and half a leg per person, plenty in my opinion.  I took the confit duck off the bone and mixed it with some confit garlic and toasted ground fennel seed, wrapped it in clingfilm to set and then took off the clingfilm, wrapped it in foil to cook in the pan, cut in half to give a nice round of seasoned confit duck meat.  This is an easy and very useful technique for taking fatty meat off the bone for presentation.

Duck leg confit off the bone to set in the fridge

The other change or actually in this case addition I made was the use of licorice paper.  I'd seen it on the television and wanted to try it.  What a fun thing to make, just melt some licorice in a pan with a little water until it's sort of soft and gluey....then blitz it to a puree and spread out thinly on baking paper or a silicone mat.  Pop into a low (about 60-70deg C ) for about 1hr 30mins or until you can see it's dehydrated enough to peel it off the paper.  Set it in the fridge until serving.  It's delicious and looks great.

Licorice paper

I also cooked the skin from the leg separately for texture (long and slow in the oven with the licorice paper).  Instead of dried fig in the puree I used dates as this is what I had and wouldn't change that making it again as the date fennel puree was exceptional.  So the result of all this fiddling was a beautiful dish.  Based on Agnar's recipe above.  Gorgeous balance of flavours, exceptional depth and a dish I will make again without a doubt.

Duck breast, confit leg, confit fig and fennel, fennel date puree and sauce with licorice paper and crispy duck skin.

Pork belly on fennel puree with licorice paper

I was just fiddling around when I did this recipe....

I saw some pork belly that looked pretty good, not too fatty so decided to make something up.

I popped it in the oven for 3 hours at about 140deg in a mixture of soy, white wine, miring, chilli, juniper berries, star anise and anise seed.  it was sitting flesh side down, skin side up in this braising liquid, covered.

After 3 hours I took the pork out of the liquid and put it in a dish with some foil on top and a weight so that it compressed and popped it in the fridge for a couple of hours (I was serving it that night, if I had longer it could have sat compressed for a day or two).

I strained the braising liquid and cooked it down to a sauce consistency.  I scored the skin of the pork and put it back in the oven skin side up to get sticky and chewy.  We are odd people in this household, we are not big fans of "crackling" and prefer a chewy crisp rather than explosions of what taste to us like hot burnt fat with crackling.

So I had some fennel puree I was serving with duck with fennel (next post) and put a touch of fennel puree on the plate, topped it with a piece of fennel braised in ouzo, pork belly on top, sauce around and a few dots of leek ash I had left over from my leek ash sea bream dish and some licorice paper I had for my duck with fennel (next post).

Utterly utterly delicious and we simply could not fault it.  I'll be doing it again.

Yes I'm in a fennel / anise phase that has lasted for a while!

Braised pork belly on fennel puree, confit fennel, braising liquor topped with licorice paper with leek ash emulsion

Sea Bream - salad entree and leak ash, crispy leek hazelnut cream sauce to follow...

Sea bream is one of my go to fish.  Sweet flesh with skin that crisps to a delicious point.

I cook it often just under a hot grill, skin side up.  It's easy, no splatter and good for dinner parties.  I never turnover skin on fish.  If grilling I grill it skin side up for just a minute or 2, if cooking in the pan skin side down I leave it there until it's almost cooked on the flesh side and turn it over onto the plate skin up.   Always salt the skin first and coat it with a little oil or even soft duck fat.   If cooking in a pan preheat the pan first.  This way you'll get a lovely crispy skin every time and will never overcook that succulent flesh.

Last night I trimmed off my bream to give enough for an entree of simple grilled bream, pomegranate and shaved fennel salad.  Beautifully crisp, light, acidic and a wonderful starter.

Grilled sea bream with pomegranate and shaved fennel salad

Main was more of an epic.  This was a fun recipe to do and I found it on an Irish Masterchef site just because I wanted to play around with leek ask (Noma inspired from my reading or at least hailing from northern Europe as I've seen it in Sweden too).... the recipe was Sea Bass with Cauliflower Puree  .

This had lots of my favourite of flavours and some of my not so favourite.  I didn't have Amaretto, it's not my preferred but I always have Frangelico.  Therefore instead of the "almond cream sauce" as per the recipe I did a hazelnut cream sauce, using toasted hazelnuts in place of the almonds and a dash of Frangelico in place of Amaretto.

I cannot be bothered deep frying unless it's for a specific fish (Thai style etc)....so I drizzled my mandolined leek with oil and baked them in the oven.  I popped them in acidulated water first in the fridge because I know that way they go curly and I like a bit of that on a plate sometimes.

The leek ash was fun.  I have never tried (purposefully anyway) ash in my dinner.  It's worth doing this, very simple, takes just a couple of minutes under the grill and you end out with a wonderful black emulsion once blitzed with some olive oil.  It's flavour was gorgeous with the other ingredients giving an earthiness and pungency that enabled the sweet fish to stand out.

I didn't have cauliflower either, I used a baby turnip and made a delicious puree from that instead.   Oh yeah I didn't have fish stock and wasn't about to make it so I used what I always use - Bonito flakes steeped in hot water.  And no scallop with roe either (roe on scallop is hard to get here for some unknown reason) so I ditched the scallop and just garnished with a few extra bonito flakes.  This meal was a knockout and one I will make again many times over the years...it's one of THOSE dishes.  I'd seek out roe on scallop next time, the powder I can imagine giving a heavenly finish and the cooked scallop a beautiful underlying sweetness to the overall concept.

Sea bream, turnip puree, hazelnut cream, leek ash, crispy leeks, bonito flake

Rabbit stuffed with fennel and confit garlic puree with rabbit jus and a sweet ending...

Rabbit is a favourite of mine.  It's so incredibly versatile and the bones make a sweet delicious sauce.  The lack of fat means you do have to take a little care cooking it.

Last night I boned out the legs and make a stock with the bones.  I had already braised some fennel in duck stock until very soft a couple of days prior and had some confit garlic (done in duck fat) sitting in the fridge.  The puree of these was a perfect stuffing for my rabbit legs.

I then wrapped them tightly in cling film and let them set in the fridge for the day.  To serve I poached them just below simmer for about 25 minutes.  Removed the cling film and browned them in a pan.  Reduced the rabbit stock, adjusted to taste with a dash of sherry vinegar, sugar and salt.

Turkish figs are good and cheap here in Dubai at the mo so I halved them, reduced some red wine to a sticky glaze and brushed them over the fig, grilling to finish them off.  Then sprinkled with some toasted ground fennel seed.

Fennel braised in ouzo and chunks of fresh just cooked beetroot gave a lovely freshness to this dish.  The rabbit by the way was cooked to perfection, this is an easy way to get a rabbit leg stuffed and cooked without everything falling out and without having to wrap it in prosciutto every time.

Rabbit stuffed with fennel garlic puree, fig in red wine with fennel powder, braised fennel, beetroot and rabbit jus

I ended our meal with mini flourless chocolate cake topped with fresh cherry jelly (set in the same size mould as the chocolate cakes were cooked in) and topped with a scoop of freshly made passionfruit sorbet (I could say quenelles but that would be pushing it!  The sorbet was so soft....)  Zingy acidity with the earthy chocolate is an addictive combination.

Flourless chocolate cake base, fresh cherry jelly and topped with fresh passionfruit sorbet