Beef carpaccio

I’m a bit of a fan of conjuring up an entrée by taking a little from the main course ingredients and serving them in a different style. 

So.... this time I shaved off a little beautiful South African eye fillet, made a tiny salad of grated raw celeriac, finely chopped tomato and lemon salt, added a touch of truffel oil over the beef at the end and seasoned with salt.  Light, zingy and utterly scruffy.  It's so satisfying on many levels.  One enjoys an entrée with a few little bits from what would otherwise just be added to main course.  Zero calorie addition, zero cost but a lovely taster to start a meal.

King fish fillet with Middle Eastern salad and crispy jambon

I usually don't write recipes but I want to remember this particular combination of spice.  It was really seriously very good indeed and super easy......

For two people:

Bulgar wheat salsa:

1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 heaped tsp dried mint (if none leave it out)

1 tbsp ground sumac berries (if none buy some, still if none use the juice of half a lemon)

½ tsp ground allspice berries (if none, use a tiny bit of grated nutmeg)

1 tbsp approx sherry vinegar (if none, use another vinegar variety, mild, not white or malt. Balsamic will do but apple cider vinegar or proper wine vinegar would be better).

2 tsp pomegranate molasses (if none, buy some)

1 tbsp raw dry bulgar wheat (or raw couscous)

5 chopped cherry tomatoes

1 tbsp dried currents

½ clove garlic, crushed 

Salt
1 tsp sugar

Chili flakes

handful chopped parsley

Mix together, leave for a few hours in the fridge, adding the parsley nearer to serving time.  

Fennel:

Shaved fennel bulb mixed with lemon juice and lemon zest

Fish:

2 King fish fillets or other similar fish type (mackerel/sardines/anchovies…)

Garnish:

Fresh parsley leaves, cherry tomatoes, crispy cooked cured ham (preferably jambon Bayonne), strained yoghurt.

Pop some shaved fennel on each plate, top with bulgar wheat salsa and cooked yoghurt.  Place the crisp ham on top of yoghurt and finish with the cooked piece of fish.

Scatter plate with parsley and cherry tomatoes.  Absolutely delicious.

Urad dal and spice crusted kingfish with fennel, pomegranate and fennel tomato sauce

Balanced with a coconut khichdi and yoghurt.  The sauce  of fennel and tomato is from my Rasoi cookbook by Vineet Bhatia.  The idea of the urad dal crust with toasted curry leaf is from Vineet Singh.  Together the flavours and textures of this dish were superb and a beautiful fresh piece of kingfish was the perfect fish type to showcase the strength and subtlety of the different ingredients.  Yum!

Beef fillet poached in soy beef consommé with horseradish

This is based on a Josh Emett recipe from his book 'Cut'.  The beef is poached lightly in a beautiful consommé which has the addition of soy sauce to add the umami depth which matches so well with beef.  I clarified the stock to make it a consommé and therefore a little more elegant than the recipe in the book.

Red cabbage braised with anise, red wine and port added sweetness and acidity with that hint of anise.  Roasted bone marrow, baby purple carrots and red onions roasted separately in the oven and the freshly grated horseradish on top.  An elegant way to serve beef fillet and a dish I would recreate again without a doubt.

Grilled prawns with prawn sauce

Prawn sauce (i.e. a sauce made with the heads and shells of the prawns, a little pernod, a touch of lemon juice and that's it, reduced) served with grilled prawns.  A very simple dish, utterly elegant and compellingly beautiful to eat.  

Sea Bream with chorizo, corn puree, red wine sauce and broad beans....

And absolutely delicious too.  Sweetness of corn, acidity from the red wine, crunch of the cooked down chorizo, freshness of broad bean....it's incredible how red wine sauce matches fish so very well.  The French know their stuff!  

Thai squid with Chinese steamed buns,

The squid was cooked high heat then tossed in a dressing of lime juice, fish sauce, crushed garlic, roasted dried chilli (roasted whole in a little oil then ground for a toasted flavour), fresh green peppercorns, kaffir lime leaf, sugar and a little bit of peanut butter (because I didn't have peanuts).  The salad was simply chopped fresh coriander and chopped tomato.  I added toasted and crushed jasmine rice (to compensate for that lack of fresh peanut).

The little steamed buns were made by moi and they are fun to make and store incredibly well in the freezer (as these had been).  They went beautifully as a light starch accompaniment.  

This is a fresh, crunchy, spicy, sour hot salty sweet mix of deliciousness.  All the usual Thai flavours and textures in the most sublime of combinations.  I could eat this sort of thing all day long.