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.