Rib of Beef, Broccoli and Barkham Blue Cheese Puree, Roasted Onions and Truffle

On Bank Holiday Monday, The Medicine Garden hosted our first food festival. The weather held off for a while and there was a good turn out from local suppliers and customers.

I had a little chat to most fo the stall holders to try to build relations for the up and coming opening of the new restaurant.

I had quite a lengthy chat with the ladies on the Send Hill Farm meat stand and tried to sweet talk them into leaving me a couple of samples at the end of the day. When I looked in the fridge the next day there was a nice chunk of rib of beef!

I cut the eye of the meat into two large steaks for the owners to take home and eat,  was left with quite a large piece of the surrounding meaty off cuts that cover the rib. I trimmed it up and was left with a nice piece of meat marbled with beautiful white fat.

I will list the garnishes that I served with the beef below;

Broccoli Puree – I wanted to keep this a green as possible so trimmed down the stalks and cooked in butter, then cream to make a thick white broccoli puree. I then blanched the tips of the broccoli in salted boiling water until soft, refreshed and drained. I then added the cooked tips to the puree with a couple of cloves of roasted garlic and a small chunk of Barkham Blue cheese I had left over from my cheese feast the other night. It turned out bright green and a really warming complex flavour that worked well with the beef.

Roasted Garlic Emulsion – The remaining cloves of roasted garlic were removed from the skins, mixed with a soft-boiled egg, mustard powder, vinegar, salt and pepper then blended to a fine paste. I then drizzled some organic Hampshire rapeseed oil to emulsify.

Roasted Onions – I left a couple of shallots in the skin and a couple of spring onions (the ones with the massive bulbs) then covered in tin foil, rapeseed oil and Cornish sea salt and roasted for 1 hour at 180 degrees. Once cooked I removed the skins of the shallots and cut in half to make small bulbs of shallots and little shallot cups. The spring onions were trimmed and cut in half too.

Sauteed Potato and Radish – I blanched them both in boiling water until they were half-cooked, removed and cut the potato into thick slices and the radishes in half then cooked in a little butter until golden and crisp.

Salad garnish – Sliced Radish, Watercress, Baby Cos leaves, Roquette Salad and a few toasted hazelnuts ( I love the nut and meat combo at the moment and had them there to be used from the last dish!)

Split Jus – I used a couple of spoonfuls of chicken jus, split it with rapeseed oil then added the pan roasting juices from the beef and finished with some really pretty thyme leaves to give it a light floral note.

The beef was fantastic, 28 day matured, full of flavour, cooked to perfection and melt in the mouth consistency.

I love playing with ideas and cooking new things and the last couple of weeks have been really positive for me and an ideal opportunity to take a step back and really think about the direction I want to be focusing on at work over the next six months. The whole local seasonal thing is exciting and im looking forward to the challenges ahead.

 

 

Roasted Chicken, Turnip, Nastrutium Leaves and Jus Gras

I have spend the last couple of weeks writing the menu’s for the new Hot House and decided to try out one of the dishes tonight at home and have a taste with one of my house mates.

I roasted a couple of chicken breasts in a pan with lots of butter and a couple of sprigs of rosemary then cooked some small turnip fondants which should of been taller but I forgot my cutters at work so had to cut them out by hand.

I made a turnip puree out of the off cuts and then made a quick jus gras with the chicken wings and finished with a dash of cabernet sauvignon vinegar and some rapeseed oil.

I garnished the dish with a few roasted hazlenuts and some beautiful nasturtium leaves from The Medicine Gadrden and it was finished.

A really good dish, a well balanced plate of food that was light, earthy and warming for a (hopefully) sunny day. I was left wanting more which is always a good sign if your having a three course meal.

I have recently been thinking about using Nasturtium leaves and they are really powerful in flavour, like a cross between watercress and roquette with a strong peppery punch. They also look cool and something different to the usual micro cresses.

This is going to be a starting dish on the new menu and im looking forward to getting started!

Happy cooking and watch out soon for more updates

 

 

 

Hot House – The First Dinner

This is my first blog post from the Hot House Cafe @ The Medicine Gardens in Cobham.

I have started here as Head Chef to help launch the new restaurant in the Victorian glass house that is just in the process of being refurbished. The building is stunning as are the gardens and i instantly fell in the love with the idea of working in such an idyllic part of Surrey with nice people producing fantastic food from local and seasonal produce.

Last Saturday I was asked to cook a dinner for the directors as it was their birthday recently. This was a bit of a challenge as there was no gas, equipment or even electricity! I worked out of the small kitchen across the court-yard and had to adapt the menu because of this.

Excuse the photo and presentation on this dish as i forgot to take one of the dish with all the excitement so had to make a dish up with some of the left overs but the dish doesn’t look anyway near as good as it did!

Confit Chicken Ballontine, Truffle Vinaigrette, Herb Salad and Chicken Crackling (something I saw on Great British Menu last week) crackling made this dish, it added a lovely aroma and texture to the dish and must have been lovely to eat with the salad and ballontine.

This photo is a little dark as we were working under candle light and a small lamp! Poached Salmon with Saffron and Vanilla Emulsion, Fishcake, Braised Baby Fennel, Keta Caviar, Asparagus and Parsley Cress.

For me this was the dish of the evening, you may of seen a previous blog entry with an idea I was playing with last year. It would have looked a lot better if it was on a bigger plate.  De- constructed Trifle, it consisted of – Vanilla Panna Cotta, Raspberry Mousse, Chantilly Cream, Raspberries, crystalized Mint Leaves, Raspberry Fruit Leather Tuille, Raspberry Coulis, Madeira Sponge, Popping Candy and Olo rosso Sherry Caramel!

I was chuffed with it, could have been spread out a bit more on the plate but it must of been gorgeous to eat…… Look out for it in the super-market or wine merchant and drink instead of port with cheese! Its stunning

Massive thank you to Glenn and Neil for thier help that evening and there will be a new twitter feed for the Hot House coming soon.

A full update on my new position soon!

Happy Cooking

Spiced Chicken, Tablouleh, Sultana Dressing, Parsley Cress

I was having a pretty boring day at work earlier this week, the sun was beaming through the kitchen windows and I wanted nothing more than to be at home in the garden with a cold beer and something nice to eat for lunch.

I decided to cook a spicy chicken dish for the staff as a bit of a treat and went to the walk-in fridge to see what I could find.

I gound some chilli, ginger, garlic, coriander, cumin, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper in the pestle and mortar until it was roughly ground down to a paste. I toasted some sesame seeds in pan and added them to the mix while they were still hot to release some of the oils into the marinade. I would of used a bit of tahini if I had it but was out of luck.

I marinaded the chicken breast in the mixture with some sliced limes for a couple of hours making sure that the marinade was evenly rubbed behind the fillet and covered the whole area of skin.

I sealed them in a pan until crisp and finished in the oven when just cooked though and left to rest.

Tablouleh is an Arabic salad made from bulgar wheat with plenty of chopped herbs but I used cous cous instead with some diced tomato, cucumber, pepper and chilli to give it added texture. I finished it with loads of olive oil, lemon juice, parsley, mint and coriander.

The salsa is made from sultanas that have been re hydrated in hot water, drained off then mixed with olive oil, vinegar, shallot, chilli and coriander. It add a nice sweetness to the dish and very refreshing on a hot sunny day!

Got to go, busy at the moment with closing current venue and opening another! More details to follow once I sign on the dotted line!

Happy cooking

Menu Tasting – Friday 24th March 2012

Some of you may of heard that im in negotiations to help open a restarant/cafe in a secret location in the near future. As part of the process I went to cook a sample menu tasting for the directors last Friday.

I have uploaded the photos from the tasting, im not going to write about the dishes in detail, if you hold the cursor over the pictures it should show a description of the dishes.

I will go into detail during the week but its my only day off today, the sun is shining and I have a BBQ to fire up!

Enjoy the beautiful weather and I will keep you updated!

Happy cooking

 

The Pork Belly Hater Challenge

 A mate of mine Paul,  recently described his hatred of one of my favourite cuts of meat, Pork Belly. He had recently been to a dinner party and was served what sounds like an undercooked, poorly prepared, over sized, soggy, bland piece of pig which he struggled to eat. It was described as being disgusting, fatty, horrible etc etc!

I love a challenge and said that I bet him that if I cooked him (and his Mrs Claire) a portion of pork belly, im 100% sure that he would like it. He didn’t sound convinced but knowing that I can pull a cheeky dish or two out of the bag he reluctantly agreed.

Most people have some sort of food from their childhood that they think is repulsive. They main problem I think this stays with them through to adulthood is because that food, whatever it maybe was poorly cooked. Such as Pork Belly.

I have fond memories of Pork Belly. Mum used to cook it as a Sunday roast. Crispy skin, soft meat, layers of fat in between the meat that cooked down until it was soft, loads of apple sauce. I loved it, my favourite roast and even now I buy it for myself every now and then, its stupidly cheap, it tastes amazing but it has to be cooked properly!

In the case of the Pork Belly for his dish, i was thinking about what style to garnish the dish with. I knew that Paul didn’t like the fattyness of the meat so I knew that the garnish had to be clean tasting, no fat in the garnishes such as creamed cabbage or fondant potato so I settled on somethng clean and spicy.

I made Kimchi which is a type of pickled vegetable from North Korea. I cut the veg into small pieces with some chilli and coriander and left to marinade over night. I also made a spicy apple, chilli and ginger puree to tie in with all the other flavours of the dish and to compliment the pork. It needed a bit of starch so I soaked some noodles, drained off the water, added some egg, chilli and coriander and gently fried to make a crispy noodle cake.

I cooked the pork in my normal method, sealed the skin then placed in a large pot of stock, chilli, ginger, garlic, peppercorns, coriander, onions, cinnamon etc etc and left to slowly braised for 3 – 4 hours. I removed the Pork, pressed over night and cut into portion sized pieces.

The leftover pork liquor I reduced to intensify the flavour and set with a bit of gelatine to form a jelly. This would be the final element to the dish that would be a palete cleanser when eaten as it was super strong in flavour and would compliment the pork as it had been cooked in the same liquor.

Nervously I was being watched as I cooked the Pork, Paul’s beady eyes looking intrigued as the I turned the pork getting it crispy and rendering down the fat. It turned out to be a pretty little dish with lots of colour and we all sat down to try it.

I tucked in and enjoyed every mouthful of it. Claire loved the Kimchi, and snacked away on everything. I didn’t take long for Paul to wave the white flag and surrender, he scoffed the lot, even eating an extra piece I had in the kitchen. He said that it was amazing, but would get it that good unless it was in a Michelin starred restaurant.

It was pretty tasty though, Kimchi is lovely and goes with pretty much anything and combining all those flavours made a lovely fresh elegant dish with loads of bold flavours to clean your palate.

Next post is going to be something sweet and cakey, not sure yet but I have a cook off on Friday so need to come up with something exciting!

Happy cooking

www.benparrisprivatedining.com

 

Mothers Day Dinner

I invited Mum over for dinner last night for Mothers Day.  I did offer to take her out somewhere but she decided that me cooking was a better idea!!!

The dish above was the starter;

Ballontine of Poached and Smoked Salmon – I cut a perfect rectangle of salmon and rolled tightly in cling film to form a cylinder. I ran it under the hot tap in the kitchen for 20 minutes until it was cooked through. I probed the hot water from the tap and it was 58 degrees. This is a perfect temperature for a water bath, not the most economic version but it worked a treat and eventually the salmon was cooked to perfection. I left the Salmon to chill and covered in a sheet of smoked salmon, re rolled and set in the fridge over night.

The garnish was cauliflower ‘cous cous’. I took a very sharp knife and shaved the top of the cauliflower to remove the tiny little tips. Once you break it up with your fingers it resembles cous cous. I cooked it in a pan with a little bit of water and butter and seasoned with a touch of Cornish sea salt and pepper. It looked great, just like cous cous but different once you tasted it.

The rest of the floret of cauliflower was used to make a roasted garlic and cauliflower puree and I garnished it with a few fried garlic chips and roquette leaves.

I cooked a Duck dish for the main course which was equally nice but the picture didn’t come out too well so I will have to cook again and retake at some point.

Mum enjoyed the meal, better than any restaurant nearby and a nice way to thank her for all her support over the past 12 months.

I’m still waiting for a decision regarding my next move, hope to have it in writing by the end of the week so I can pass out the details.

 

VIP Canapes Part 2

Another week and another request for VIP canapes from our General Manager, she was entertaining some friends again in the restaurant.  I liked the pickled mouli with the lobster that I  had cooked the week previous but i wanted to change it slightly. This time I filled them with a mix of picked Crab claw meat, diced mango, chopped coriander and mint, lime juice, chilli and mayo to bind together.

I bundled some cress together and spooned some of the crab mix on to the pickled mouli strips, rolled and tied with blanched chive. I think they look pretty cool. Might try something with duck next time???

The second photo if steak tartare with Tuscan poached Quail egg. I love steak tartare when its done properly, it’s a bit like sushi to me in the way that it’s a really clean flavour. Factor in the mustard, gherkins, tabasco etc and it’s quite an intense dish, but the one thing I never got was serving it topped with a raw egg yolk! Who eats a raw egg, not me. It just doesn’t mae sense to me, so I formed some little patties in a ring and poked a small dip in the top so that the Quail egg would sit firmly without falling off once complete.

The key to a good tartare is a good bit of Beef fillet. It needs to be handled quickly, use a perfectly clean board and knife, mix, season, form and put back in the fridge asap. I had all the seasonings ready beforehand, chopped the meat, mixed, seasoned, tasted and formed into shape in a matter of 5 or 6 minutes. That way you can be sure not to put anyone at risk of making them ill.

The Tuscan poached Quail eggs are so easy to make and they look really odd once cut out of the cling film. Just make a double layer of cling film, season with salt and cracked black pepper, a drizzle of truffle oil then crack the egg on top. Gather the edges and twist until its tight then tie it with either a piece of string or a strip of cling film. I cooked these for 1 minute then plunged them straight into iced water, leave them to cool then cut them out gently with a pair of scissors. They look perfect, taste amazing and are much better than a dodgy raw egg yolk to eat with steak tartare!

The last photo is Tuna Tataki. One of my old head chefs at the Oxo had a Japanese wife and used a lot of Japanese ingredients in his cooking in the restaurant and this was part of one of his signature dishes.

You need to use sushi grade A+, super fresh centre cut Tuna loin…Not cheap but well worth it! I cut the tuna into long square blocks about 1 inch square, be super careful, one slip of the knife and it will cost you £££’s! I then oiled and seasoned the Tuna and seared it on all sides in a super hot pan then put it in the blast chiller, if you havent got one of those at home then the freezer is a good idea, you need to get it cold as soon as possible to stop it cooking any further.

I then made a marinade of soy sauce, chilli, ginger, coriander, rice wine vinegar, fish sauce and garlic. (at the Oxo we used to add bonito flakes, a dried and smoked tuna that is shaved into really thin pieces which adds a nice fishy flavour) I thin sat the tuna in the marinade for about 4 hours then patted dry and rolled tightly in cling film.

Although the Tuna doesn’t look like its been in a marinade it tastes incredible, as the Tuna was rolled so tightly it leaves a perfect shape and the ring of cooked tuna around the edges are a lovely looking contrast to the blood-red raw tuna in the middle. If you left the Tuna out after sealing or didn’t cool down quick enough then that effect would be ruined.  I served it with a simple garnish and the Tuna speaks for itself.

Next post will be mothers day dinner, got to look after my Mum! She is going to be my guinea pig for a new duck dish!!!

Trifle Meets Eton Mess

This is an idea that I was playing around with a while back, trying to do something different for a private party I was catering for.

I set a vanilla panna cotta in a bowl, but left the mix as soft as possible so that it set but only just. Normally a panna cotta is turned out so it needs enough gelatine to hold its shape but as I was leaving it in the bowl there was no need to make it so solid.

I garnished it with a raspberry cream, just cooked fresh raspberries with a vanilla pod cooked down in a pan with sugar until they breakdown. Pass through a sieve, chill and add to some semi whipped cream.

The other garnishes were some mini meringues piped into little blobs, crystalized mint leaves, raspberry jelly, cubes of Genoese sponge then a long tube-shaped meringue sprinkled with freeze-dried raspberry powder.

The dish was lovely, something to work on for the future. I have an updated version I am working on that I will try out soon. I need to get it perfected in time for the strawberry/ raspberry season!

This would work really well with the short season for wild strawberries as they are so small and dainty. I have also used a couple of odd berries that I tasted from one of my old suppliers.

Strasberries - Look like a strawberry but with out the tiny pips and more of a dimpled skin and a really delicate flavour.

Pineberries - Look like a whites strasberry, meant to taste like pineapple, personally I think they are a bit gimmicky and over rated.

Search the names on google for more info and pictures, worth a try if you ever see them around!!!

Pretty pleased with it for a first attempt but will look at refining one or two things. The textures and flavours worked well and were well-balanced just need to have a think about the presentation.

1000+ views on my Food Blog

Today I reached my first real milestone on my food blog as I reached my 1000^th view, seems as though all the updates , pictures and info are paying off so I’m going to keep it going over the next couple of months.

As you may have seen last week I launched my new website www.benparrisprivatedining.com

I have a few functions booked for later in the year and in the process of getting new business cards and some brochures printed so that I can do a few leaflet drops in some local areas, hopefully the phone will start ringing soon!

I have been pretty busy over the past couple of weeks and had a number of interesting leads that I’m waiting to hear back from, one in particular I am excited about, fingers crossed that I get positive news. Until then I’m going to keep tight lipped as I don’t want to get my hopes up in case it doesn’t happen!

It’s been a very uplifting and positive couple of weeks and now I feel I have some direction in what I want to do in the next few years. I am now registered as self-employed; I’m also looking to do some freelance work as well as the agency keeping me busy in the meantime.

A massive thank you all for taking the time to read my blog, I will continue to push the boundaries and create new innovative dishes.

Another massive thank you to all the people who have re-tweeted, and shared my website details on Facebook and Twitter. Spread the word and follow me on Twitter for more info, daily updates and pictures.

I have a few more canapé’s to add soon and hoping to give you all an update on my next project as the current one comes to an end.

I have another 2 ½ weeks at my current post, with my final weekend being the busiest of the past three months, A plated wedding breakfast for 100 people in the marquee. Looking forward to that!!!

I will take pictures and update my blog in due course.

In the meantime happy cooking!