Indian with a twist

The basics of this dish are taken from my Rasio cookbook by Vineet Bhatia.  He serves it as a tasting dish - wild mushroom khichdi laced with truffle oil, makhni tomato ice-cream, roasted field mushrooms, fresh herb chutney.

I have served the dish previously as per the recipe and it was delicious.  This time however I decided to serve it with the addition of lamb backstrap and a duck egg ravioli.  

I KNOW!  Sounds a bit odd but seriously it was stunning.  I coated the lamb with freshly ground coriander, star anise, fennel seed and black pepper and cooked it to rare.  The addition of the duck egg ravioli with the cold spicy tomato ice-cream and rich mushroom khichdi was sublime.  

Textures, temperatures, beautifully balanced use of spice are typical of any of Mr Bhatia's dishes.  This however was absolutely transformed to a different level with the oozy yolk and spiced backstrap.  

Chinese 5 spice duck breast, soy ginger sauce and slow cooked duck egg

I took this recipe from the book Heston at Home.  Heston Blumenthal serves it with pak choy.  I had beetroot so swapped it out.  Otherwise this dish is as per his version with the addition of a slow cooked (70 deg, 20 mins) duck egg.  

I thought the addition of the duck egg made this dish.  The unctuous yolk with the soy ginger sauce and 5 spice.....yum.  Shards of raw leek soaked in ice water makes a super crispy mild onion addition.

It's the first time I've used duck egg.  They are really delicious. 

Beetroot cured salmon, wasabi cream, leaks with Japanese dressing, crispy salmon skin

Yes my new favourite way of preparing salmon is still beetroot cured.  I took it in a Japanese slant by cooking some leeks until tender, tossing them in a simple dressing of sesame oil, ponzu, finely diced pickled ginger (squeezed of excess juice) and shichimi togarashi.  I mixed some strained yoghurt with wasabi paste for the wasabi cream and crispy cooked the salmon skin.

It looked better in life than in this photo.  The taste was utterly sensational.  A beautiful entree.

  

Pumpkin ravioli with beurre noisette (again!)

This time with beetroot cured warmed through salmon, parmesan crisps and local spinach.  The cauliflower puree and sautéed pieces do bring this all together in my opinion.  It's a dish worth the effort and any excuse to have noisette butter is good enough for me!  

Pigeon, pigeon jus, turnip puree, beetroot and 5 spice

I love pigeon.  I have eaten it in some pretty high ranking restaurants.  I have high standards for my pigeon.  It is my absolute preferred protein with wings.

They are hard to come by here.  Not sure why as they are a Middle Eastern favourite. When we first moved to Dubai they were commonly available but now it's rare so when I see them I cannot resist.

The farmed birds I get are 350gms each and for a main course one each is required.  I take time and care with my pigeon as I hold them in very high esteem.  I therefore like to spend time over butchering to enjoy the whole bird.  This time I fully deboned two wings, keeping two wings as is, I took off the breast fillets, removed the legs and thigh bone, frenching the little leg bone so for each person I had two breasts, two boned french legs, one boned out wing and one wing bone in.

My jus was made with the carcass and like the boning this takes time.  Chopping the bones and roasting them in the oven for an hour is the key to developed flavours.  I used duck fat to help it along as well, then deglazed with red wine and port, added water, cooked it for another hour on the stove top then refrigerated it to take off the fat layer, strained it through a new cloth, reheated to reduce to sauce consistency adjusting with good sherry vinegar, salt and sugar at the end.  This was a serious sauce that I'm pretty sure most cooks would be proud of.

I dusted the pigeon with Chinese 5 spice and salt and roasted the wings in the oven, adding the little legs near the end as they only took 10 minutes to cook.  I wanted the bone in wings to cook until crispy.

The breasts and the deboned wings were done in a pan with duck fat.  Pigeon breasts have a very small window of perfection.  In my opinion once the skin is rendered they should be turned over, removed from the heat and left to rest.  No more cooking than that.  This results in sweet tender perfectly rested rare meat that is melting.  Even taking them to medium or the slightly rarer side of medium will result in a livery taste which is unpleasant and you'd be left wondering why anybody would like them.

Beetroot and pigeon work very well together.  I roasted some beetroot off, fried some sage leaf until crisp and made a smooth creamy turnip puree.  The result was a sublime balance of slightly bitter/sweet/creamy turnip, rich deep jus with the right balance of acid vs sweet, earthy beetroot, sweet pigeon, crispy skin and sage.  It was a show stopper even for me and I am so SO critical on myself.

  

Beetroot cured salmon with wasabi cream

This time I tried curing salmon in beetroot (raw beetroot blended with some salt and sugar).  The colour is stunning.  I left the skin on and once the salmon had been cured rinsed, dried I cooked it high heat for a few seconds skin side down.  Therefore the salmon was still a cured result but with a crisp skin.

The wasabi cream was simply strained yoghurt, a touch of wasabi mayo and some wasabi paste.  Topped with simple shaved cucumber and pickled ginger.  Superb.

Pumpkin tortellini, beurre noisette with sage, cauliflower puree, roasted pumpkin seeds...

I had never made tortellini before but having tried them now I will make them again.  They are more robust to handle than ravioli and therefore easier to cook and plate.  You need to work with thin pasta otherwise the result will be too heavy.  I took it to number 6 on my kitchen aid.

Keep the filling amount small otherwise they will be impossible to seal.  Half a teaspoon for the size I was making was plenty.  I cut rounds (you can do squares too).  Put the filling on one half and use a little water to seal them well.

Yummy.  Seriously.  I mean you can't really go wrong can you?  Beurre noisette is just so utterly delicious.  The addition of cauliflower and scattering of parmesan gave this dish almost a cauliflower cheesy taste but with the sweetness of the tortellini and the great crunch of the pumpkin seeds.  This was a knockout.  Note to myself - I cooked the sliced cauliflower and used the same pan to make the beurre noisette.  Once the butter was completely browned and nutty added the sage, poured it into a dish and then deglazed with a little white wine and added that to the butter rather than lemon juice stated in most recipes.  The wine gives enough acidity without too much in my opinion.

Baby carrots and leeks along with cauliflower slices were my garnish and on tasting the dish the leeks in particular are essential to give that sweet soft onion flavour.  As I said, YUM.

Cured salmon, salmon skin, corn and beetroot purees with salt and vinegar jelly

The salmon for this dish is cured with cardamon, salt and sugar for 24 hours.  The result is a softly perfumed cardamon flavour (very subtle) and that beautiful dense texture of cured salmon.

I cooked the skin separately (tip - cut the skin into the portions with scissors and put on a plate in the fridge uncovered overnight.  This dries out the skin sufficiently so that when you cook with a weight on top it only takes a short time. )

The standout of this dish in my opinion is the salt and vinegar jelly.  Made with good Spanish sherry vinegar, tabasco sauce, sugar syrup and salt with gelatine leaf to set.  It's a gutsy punch of flavour and one that would be a standout to many fish dishes.

This entire dish is served cold, making it a perfect dinner party entree.

Naan bread

I wanted to use some whey from all the yoghurt I strain and found a recipe for naan bread using whey.  I tried twice.  Both times the whey seemed to kill the yeast.  No idea why so I tried using an Atul Kochhar recipe with the traditional yoghurt and milk.  Perfect!  Yay fluffy fresh naan with dinner tonight.

Fresh local Mackeral

 I'm just skiting now but it's just a pleasure to have fish so fresh it's still in the rigour mortis stage.  Makes filleting a little different.  Who needs to buy "sushi fresh" when local fresh is this good.  The eyes tell the story!