King fish with red wine sauce, chickpeas, tomatoes, broad beans and fennel

I have been watching "The Very Hungry Frenchman" which is Raymond Blanc touring France and cooking dishes inspired from the region in which he is spending time.

This dish is inspired from his travels to the south of France.  I love France.  Mr Blanc's television series evokes memories for me.  I've been everywhere he showcases and have taken a great interest in the local cooking.  I have to admit to being completely seduced with French food and technique over the years.  The most fascinating thing for me was the use of fresh ingredients and very little fat.  An extremely light way of cooking which most people from .. say for example down under ( my reference point) think is a very heavy, butter and cream based cuisine.  So so SO very wrong.  In fact I find regional Italian cuisine extraordinarily heavy (regardless, let alone in comparison).

So, anyway taking a leaf out of Raymond Blanc's trip to France, this is a dish inspired by his time in Nice.  The essence of the Med nudging beautifully cooked fish.  Fennel and star anise bring out the most extraordinary flavours in fish.  The red wine reduction is soft and beguiling with it's complexity.

King fish cerviche with avocado sorbet

I have made avocado sorbet before but have not partnered it with king fish.  The fish was simply today's catch, diced, red chili, lemon juice, a tiny amount of crushed garlic, coriander and salt.  The sorbet a simple puree of avocado with lemon juice and zest and (per one large avocado) about 35gms of invert sugar.  Then popped into the ice cream churner.

Unfaultable as a light starter.

Tamarind pork, kadhi sauce, pistachio nut kidchi

The sweet, sharp tamarind marinade on the pork with a balanced indian yoghurt sauce and creamy pistachio basmati rice kidchi made this dish divine.   Taking a few different Indian techniques and thinking about flavours and textures is fun.  The more I learn about Indian food the more I realise the extent of this beautiful cuisine and different applications using non traditional Indian proteins.

Salt crust baked potatoes

This is the first time I have applied this technique to potatoes.  It won't be the last.  The taste and texture of these baby spuds was sublime.  Salty dry exterior, creamy sweet inner.  They looked like little pebbles which gave a neat visual.  The salt crust is just course sea salt mixed with egg white to create a slurry and poured over the potatoes in a small dish and baked (for about 20 minutes in this case, depends on your potatoes).

Pea puree, fish and a spicy Jun Tanaka tomato chutney were the accompaniments here.

Hamour with basil tomato bulgar salad

Taking a leaf out of the Middle Eastern realm I paired beautiful fresh local hamour fish with a simple bulgar, pomegranate, tomato and purple basil salad, scented with all spice and lemon and served with labnah.  Stunning.

Salmon Indian style

Kadhi sauce is a yoghurt based sauce thickened with chickpea flour.  It is beautiful with fish.  I portioned my salmon so I had an entree size and main course size and did two different kadhi sauces.

First one was a simple kadhi tempered with curry leaves and mustard seeds.  The fish was marinated in a fresh coriander chutney and served with a green pea coriander mash.  Very fresh with the use of citrus and herbs.  A beautiful light elegant starter.

For the next salmon preparation I made a tomato kadhi based on a Vineet Bhatia recipe.  Served with some crisp beetroot, beetroot dust and coriander.  A completely different taste to the first dish but just as perfectly balanced.  The addition of a chenna chutney (a cream based chutney bursting with fresh Indian flavours) and coriander .... the salmon shone.  A delightful meal.

Quail, jus, pea, stock (jellied), utterly deliciIous

I think the title says it all.....oh and tamarind.   A Vineet Bhatia recipe....GORGEOUS.

Scallop Vineet Bhatia style with coconut panacotta...

I have created this superb dish by Vineet Bhatia using lobster in the past and, as per his recipe  "Rasoi, New Indian Kitchen" cookbook, this is a gateway to beautifully balanced, light and modern Indian cuisine.

I was after the beautiful Omani Lobster which has represented itself with aploumb in the past when I have cooked this dish.  However, the local scallop was so so SO fresh it seemed a crime to not buy it.

This technique of a sweet, almost jammy marinade using the base of tomato (heinz) ketchup juxtaposing a coconut vinegar based marinade (split between the two portions) is sublime.  With a Thai flavored panacotta, really I could  bang on about this beautiful dish forever-  Vineet Bhatia is GIFTED.   Truly.  Without his "Rasoi, New Indian Kitchen"  book I would not have learnt the French techniques that have become common place in my cooking repertoire.  To apply these to Indian cooking....well, I don't know, it's just genius.

Indego by Vineet, Grosvenor House Hotel Dubai, is our local - in actuality this is the closest licensed restaurant to my home in Dubai.  I have visited Indego four, maybe five times however Indego has been increasingly disappointing. My own frequency would have been more common place if the dishes matched the refined elegance which to my admittedly limited knowledge of Indian cuisine bestowed.

Chef Bhatia's creations in his beaufully serviced restaurant should be gobsmackingly (OK, I will settle for pretty bloody good, being a Kiwi and all... ) perfect.   No, there is something wrong with this picture.  I implore Chef Bhatia to engage a study and get his kitchen up to his Rasio cookbook standard  which I assume represents his  Rasio London standard.  It is seriously disappointing when one cannot order a dish which represents the refined modern Indian cuisine that is detailed in his beautiful book and which I can recreate at home.

On that note, the direction in this book unsurpassed.  The sheer attention to detail, portioning, explanation of the taste profile in the final dish.  By god Mr Bhatia, you are gifted.  Not confined to your extraordinary understanding of the subtle use of spice.  Your guidance with technique and explanation of result....you are indeed an incredible orator in your written language.  Thank you!

Salmon with tomato and olive salad, quails egg, broad beans, croutons

I was lucky enough to find a beautiful selection of cherry tomatoes and to do them justice peeled these gorgeous little things which is easy and makes them so much nicer to eat without splurting everytime you stick your knife in!  I keep the skins and cook them crisp in the oven for garnish.  They are yummy.

I made a tapenade with the olives but next time I do this dish I will incorporate the pureed olive with a simple olive oil vinegarette to distribute the flavors. The little quails eggs are a bit fiddly but they are so cheap here I can't pass them up.  I cook them from room temp for 1min 30 secs then put them in cold water.  They need to be peeled very very carefully to keep the egg in tact.  The yolks will be perfectly runny when cooked this way.

This salmon was banging fresh so I grilled the skin and left the flesh beautifully pink and rare.  A gorgeous light dish that looked beautiful on the plate.

Roast poussin, parsnip three ways, poussin and caramalised onion jus

Parsnip is one of my all time favourite of veg.  So versatile and so different in taste depending on how it's cooked.  My three favourite ways are roasted, pureed and dry cooked to crisp in a low oven.  Paired here with a beautiful free range Poussin and jus from bones and caramalised onion.  Yum.

I took out the thigh bone of the leg and put a ball of foil scrunched up inside to keep the shape while it was roasting.  I also added some crunchy croutons, baby tomatoes and chervil.  This really was a textural and flavour delight.

Bonito, hazelnut, shrimp cream sauce with grilled salmon, crispy leeks and leek ash emulsion

A bit of a standard in this house now...a real go to favorite.  Taking the leek ash idea but adding benito and toasted nori.  The cream hazelnut sauce with bonito flakes this time kept in the sauce rather than passing them and the brilliance of sweet baby shrimp.  With the perfectly cooked salmon, crunchy leek, this dish has everything a fish dish should represent.  Sweet sea flavours with texture, freshness and depth.  Yum....

Iberico bellota, green capsicum jelly, turnip and beetroot crisp

When we were in Pamplona early this year we ate breakfast that served up gorgeous bread with chargrilled green capsicum and Iberico Bellota ham.  Nothing else was in that sandwich but by god it was good.  Spain has a way of understanding flavours and textures that simply don't exist in a traditional sense in the rest of Europe and the land Down Under (referencing to Auckland so no layabout when it comes to food and yes, I include you, Australia!).  I mean, who would think of pairing the bitter pungency of charred green capsicum with the most sublime ham in the world and it to hold it's own?  It does.  I partnered it with some dry roasted beetroot and turnip to give this entree a textural element as it didn't have the crunchy sourdough bread that would be served in Pamplona.

Green capsicum jelly, Iberico Bellota ham, crunchy turnip and beetroot

King fish, purple basil puree, braised tomato and shrimp.

The med on a plate.  Baby asparagus and leeks oven roasted.  A simple puree of purple basil provides a beautiful sauce with a deep colour.  Sweet tomatoes braised with a little garlic, salt, chilli, a touch of sugar and lemon juice with baby fresh shrimp added at the end just to heat through.

Fresh as daisy king fish fillets pan fried and  a simple assembly job of basil puree on the plate, asparagus and leeks,  fresh chervil and basil leaves, the tomato shrimp braise and topped off with king fish.  Light and absolutely delicious.

Grilled salmon, roasted capsicum and tomatoes, crunchy sourdough, basil

Simplicity at it's best.  Capsicum chopped with some sweet cherry tomatoes.  Rubbed with garlic and pepper and salt and oven roasted.  Chop up some sourdough bread (a day or 2 old preferably) and rub with crushed garlic, pepper and salt.  Chuck that in the oven too and roast until very crunchy on a low heat.

Grill some salmon, mix the roasted vegetables together with a little oil and vinegar (I used a sumac dressing I make with sumac water, pomegranate molasses, lemon juice, a touch of honey and garlic), add some steamed greens if you want and lots of fresh basil.

Crunchy, sweet, salty, acidic and rich from the salmon.  A sheer delight on the palate, healthy, light and very very easy.

Poussin, celeriac, pea, leek

I french trimmed the leg and wing, boning them out in the centre and wrapped in cling film which is a great way to cook chook.  Quick 10 minutes in a boiling pan, removed from water and cling film off.  I made stock with the bones and reduced it, made a pea jelly, very similar to what I've done in the past with poussin.

Here I've served it with a cereriac puree with celeriac crisps.  I can't fault this dish.  Textural from the celeriac crisp, creamy from the puree, punchy with the jus and highly seasoned pea jelly and sweet from the gorgeous poussin.

Poussin with pea jelly, celeriac puree and leek (pre jus and celeriac crisps)

As above with jus and crisp celeriac

Cured grilled salmon with corn yellow capsicum sauce

By curing salmon lightly you are able to impart a soft flavour while firming up the flesh and drying the skin.  It's a great method if you want a really crispy skin with little cooking under the grill.  This means you have no frying pan, no kitchen smells, just pop it on some foil, salted with skin side up and grill it for a couple of minutes.

I cure usually in orange juice, orange zest and salt.  For a 150gm portion of salmon I put it in the fridge in this mix for two hours, take it out, wash off the cure and dry it.

Lightly salting the skin, no oil is necessary, then under the grill as above.

This step is not necessary of course, you can just grill or cook it any which way you please.  This is a super simple midweek dish, light and delicious.

For the sauce I cook some yellow capsicum (I put in in the microwave in a dish, skin on) and cook a some sweetcorn kernels.  Blitz together with a touch of water, salt, sugar, cayenne pepper and lemon juice to taste then heat it up just before serving under the salmon.

Trust me this is more than the sum of it's parts and takes all of 10 minutes in prep time.

Grilled salmon, yellow capsicum and corn sauce with asparagus.

Pork fillet with pea and fennel

I cooked the pork as I had done before, tied in cling film and in boiling water.  I had cut the fillet in two pieces so I had two parcels, each weighing about 140gms.  They took 6 mins 30 secs, and I rested still in their wrapping for 10 full minutes before untying and portioning into three each.

The pork was cooked to PERFECTION.  Tender, cooked through, still pink and almost melting in texture.  Really exquisite.  An exceptional way of cooking pork.  I served this with a red wine reduction sauce.  In the future I would stick with a simple chicken, duck or quail jus for sweetness as I thought the red wine sauce overtook the delicate nature of the beautiful pork.

Iberico Bellota, apple, turnip and parmesan

Just four ingredients, a simple combination of flavours and textures.  Turnip puree and crisps, crisp apple slices, iberico bellota ham, parmesan wafer.  Clean and precise.

Confit salmon with passionfruit sauce

I had a stunning piece of salmon and wanted to preserve it's colour and texture as much as poss...the way I knew to do this was confit at just below 40 deg C for about 10 minutes.  I cured it first for 2 hours in some orange juice, orange rind and salt (in the fridge) then rinsed it and dried it.  I used duck fat for the confit but have had just as successful results in the past using olive oil.

I had never tried passionfruit with salmon before but had seen reference to it.  I blitzed the pulp and strained it then sweated a little garlic, added the passionfruit, salt, a touch of vinegar and honey.  Brought it to a sauce consistency, added some butter at the end and strained it again.  The result was a lovely balance of acidity and sweetness.  Not overwhelmingly "passionfruit" in flavour, more a lovely sharp sauce to complement the salmon.

A little beetroot puree, parsnip, mustard cress and fennel.  A lovely light delicious meal.