Great British Menu is an annual competition between the UK's top chefs. All of the recipes they make must make use of British ingredients and is really a celebration of how great and plentiful food is in the UK. The amuse bouche was my idea - another homage to spherical ravioli. Unfortunately, there is no picture of it.
Starter - my first time home-curing fish. I thought it turned out pretty nice.
Main - I couldn't get my hands on caul fat, so I wrapped it all up in pancetta. I wish I had been able to get it a little crispier. On the plus side, every one ate their sweetbreads!
Pre-Dessert - Vanessa made this and it has delivered before. The key to ANY SORBET, is boiling the sugar syrup for 4 MINUTES. It has something to do with the density of sugar in the water which you achieve after 4 minutes boiling. What is gives you in the end is a very smooth, very scoopable, velvety sorbet stright out of the freezer.
Dessert - From start to finish, this turned out as well as I had hoped. It was my favorite part of the meal and nice to have it come at the end. Sticky Toffee Pudding is not something most Americans have tried of or even heard of. You MUST try some. Pound for pound, it's my favorite dessert from the UK.
This took me two days to throw together and I am pretty happy with the result. The menu:
Amuse Bouche: Mango Ravioli with Rum and Ginger, Cucumber, Mint Sugar and a Mint Crisp
Starter: Cured Slices of Salmon Trout with Onion Confit and Smoked Bacon
Main: Canon of Lamb with Black Pudding, Minted Pea Puree and Wild Garlic Potato Cakes with Lamb Sweetbreads and Rosemary Gravy
Pre-Dessert: Bombay Sapphire Gin and Tonic Sorbet
Dessert: Sticky Toffee Bread and Butter Pudding
Here we go:
Starter: Cured Slices of Salmon Trout with Onion Confit and Smoked Bacon
1 kg side of salmon trout (sea trout), with skin, pin bones removed
200 g rock salt
50 g caster sugar
grated zest and juice of 3 limes
12 thin rashers of smoked bacon, preferably Cumbrian
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
salt and pepper
ONION CONFIT
50 g unsalted butter
3 small white-skinned onions, preferably new season's, halved and cut into 3mm slices
1 bay leaf
1 sprig of thyme
Lay the fish flat, skin-side down, on a tray with raised sides. Mix together the rock salt, sugar, and lime zest and juice. Press this mixture all over the flesh side of the fish. Cover with cling film and refrigerate for 8 hours. Don't leave for longer than this or the fish will over-cure and become solid.
Scrape off the salt and rinse the fish thoroughly under cold running water. Now put the fish in a large bowl, cover with cold water and leave in the sink with the cold tap trickling gently for 20 minutes. Lift the fish out and dry thoroughly with a cloth.
Remove the skin from the fish with a sharp knife. Cut the fish into thirty-six 1 cm-thick slices, working from the tail to the head end. Arrange the slices, slightly overlapping in six groups of six, on a baking tray lined with baking parchment. Cover and keep in the fridge.
To make the confit, heat the butter in a large pan until it melts and starts to bubble. Add the onions and herbs, and season with a good pinch of fine salt. Cook over a medium heat for about 10 minutes or until the onions are very tender and have caramelized to a deep golden brown. Stir frequently and add a teaspoon of water from time to time, to prevent the onions from catching on the bottom of the pan. Remove from the heat, discard the herbs and keep the confit warm.
Preheat the oven to 200C/fan 180C.
Line a baking tray with baking parchment. Lay the bacon rashers in a single layer on the tray and cook in the oven for 6-8 minutes or until crisp. Remove the bacon and keep warm on kitchen paper.
Drizzle the slices of trout with a little olive oil and warm in the oven for 5-6 minutes.
Meanwhile, make a simple dressing by whisking the 4 tbsp olive oil with the
vinegar and a little salt.
Season the fish with a light sprinkling of sea salt and a twist of pepper, then lay six slices neatly on each plate. Make a quenelle of the onion confit and place next to the fish. Place two rashers of bacon on the confit and finish with a drizzle of dressing.
Main: Canon of Lamb with Black Pudding, Minted Pea Puree and Wild Garlic Potato Cakes with Lamb Sweetbreads and Rosemary Gravy
LAMB
4x150 g boneless loins of lamb
6 tablespoons rapeseed oil
200g black pudding, preferably Pat O'Doherty's
100 g caul fat, soaked in salted water for 4 hours, rinsed and dried
POTATO CAKES
800 g floury potatoes, such as Dunbar Standards, peeled
100 g wild garlic leaves, finely chopped (see note on page 142)
PEA PUREE
200 g freshly shelled peas
4 sprigs mint, leaves only
SWEETBREADS
200 g lamb sweetbreads
salt and pepper
GRAVY
300 ml red wine
1 tablespoon roughly chopped rosemary leaves
1 tablespoon roughly chopped thyme leaves
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
300 ml brown beef stock
4 tablespoons redcurrant jelly
60 g chilled salted butter, diced
Season the lamb. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a heavy frying pan until very hot Add the lamb and sear over a high heat for about 2 minutes until browned on all sides. The meat should still be very rare inside. Place the loins on a wire rack and allow them to cool to room temperature.
Remove the skin from the black pudding. Soften the pudding in a bowl, then spread a thin layer on top of each lamb loin. Wrap each loin in caul fat, then in cling film, and put in the fridge to firm up.
To make the potato cakes, finely grate the potatoes into a bowl. Season and add the chopped garlic leaves. In a heavy frying pan, heat 1 tbsp oil until it is just beginning to smoke. Press one-quarter of the potato mixture into a 10 cm round, add to the hot pan and cook over a medium heat until golden brown on each side. This should take 8-10 minutes in total. Repeat with remaining mixture to make four cakes altogether, adding more oil as needed, and placing them on a baking tray as they are cooked.
Meanwhile, cook the peas in boiling salted water for about 5 minutes or until soft but still vibrant green. Drain and puree in a blender until smooth. Add the mint and puree a little more. Rub the puree through a very fine sieve into a clean saucepan, to remove the pea skins. Set the potato cakes and pea puree aside in a warm place.
For the gravy, pour the red wine into a pan and add the rosemary, thyme and garlic. Bring to the boil and reduce by two-thirds. Pour in the stock., bring back to the boil and reduce by three-quarters, Add the redcurrant jelly and stir until melted, then strain the gravy into a clean pan. Finish by whisking in the chilled butter, a piece at a time, for a high gloss. Set the gravy aside.
Blanch the sweetbreads in boiling salted water for 2 minutes. Drain and refresh in iced water, then lift the sweetbreads out and remove the outer skin with a very sharp knife. Set the sweetbreads aside in the iced water.
When you are ready to serve, preheat the oven to 200C/fan 180C.
Remove the cling film from the lamb and sear the loins in a very hot pan, rolling
them over, for about 2 minutes or until the caul fat is browned on all sides. Transfer the loins to a baking tray and roast on the top shelf of the oven for 5-8 minutes, according to how well done you like your lamb. Remove and allow to rest for 2-3 minutes. Turn the oven temperature down to 160C/fan 140C.
While the lamb is roasting and resting, heat 2 tbsp oil in a heavy frying pan. Drain, dry and season the sweetbreads. then pan-fry over a medium heat for 3-5 minutes or until lightly browned. At the same time, quickly reheat the potato cakes in the oven, and the pea puree and gravy on top of the stove.
To serve, carve the lamb into neat slices. Put a potato cake on each plate and top with slices of lamb. Garnish with the sweetbreads and pea puree, and pool the gravy on the side of the pancake.
Pre-Dessert: Bombay Sapphire Gin and Tonic Sorbet
150 ml Bombay Sapphire gin
500 ml tonic water
250 ml water
250 g caster sugar
Zest of 1 lemon and 1 lime
Juice of 1/2 lemon and lime
Mix the water and sugar together in a small pan and over a low heat bring up to boil until the sugar dissolves. Allow the stock syrup to boil for 4 minutes, remove from heat and cool. Combine the tonic water; gin, lemon and lime zest and juice together and then add this to the cooled syrup mixture.
Churn in an ice cream machine until thick and slushy. Place into a container and freeze for at least 1 hour before serving.
Dessert: Sticky Toffee Bread and Butter Pudding
200 g stoned Medjool dates
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
6 slices white bread, crusts off
75 g softened butter
3 whole eggs
3 egg yolks
1 vanilla pod, split lengthways
75 g caster sugar
500 ml double cream
Demerara sugar
pouring cream to serve
SAUCE
100 g butter
100 g golden syrup
100 g soft dark brown sugar
100 ml double cream
100 g stoned Medjool dates, finely chopped (optional)
Place the dates and bicarbonate of soda in a saucepan and just cover with water. Simmer gently until the dates break down.
Butter the bread, then cut each slice in half to make triangles or cut out rounds. Alternately layer the bread and dates in four buttered 150ml ramekins or a buttered 25 x 20cm baking dish, starting and finishing with a layer of bread.
Beat together the whole eggs, yolks, seeds scraped from the vanilla pod and caster sugar in a bowl. Heat the cream to scalding point, then pour on to the egg mixture, mixing well. Pour over the bread and dates. Leave to soak for at least 20 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 175°C.
Set the ramekins or baking dish in a roasting tray of water. Bake for 16 minutes for the ramekins or 25 minutes for the large dish or until the custard has set.
To make the sauce, simply combine the butter, syrup and sugar in a saucepan and bring to the boil. When it's all smooth and dissolved, remove from the heat and stir in the cream and optional dates. Keep warm.
Sprinkle the top of the pudding evenly with Demerara sugar and caramelise under the grill. Serve a good portion of pudding with the sauce and pouring cream.
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