' 53 deg . C . LAMB SOUVLAKI in GRAPE LEAF .'

53 degree C. Sous vide cooked Tassie Royal Lamb Souvlaki in Grapevine Leaf served with Minted Greek yoghurt , Preserved lemon , Salted capers , Black garlic paste , Fried parsley and fresh oregano.

                  During the week I visited my favourite independent grocers 'food fantasy' after work. I love going to this humble little food hub and its been a few weeks now that I had paid a visit to the store. A different delicacies were on offer, I picked up a pack of brined grapevine leaves ( good,big,green ) about a dozen in total for $2.20 AUS. While I was in the store foraging I came across fresh Kalamata olives and when I asked one of the staff what was involved in the prep of the olives, he went out the back and got the little old Italian lady. Familiar with my face she talked me through the four week process of brining the olives while hand selecting me a half kilo into a bag that I'd requested. The olives were $6 a kg. costing me $3 AUS. for my Kalamata olives. So I guess the trip to the 'food fantasy' and the butchers for the quality piece of free ranging grass-fed lamb from greener pastures of Tasmania have been the inspirations of this Mediterranean flavoured cuisine.                                                          
                 This was a very simple dish to make I began by marinating the lamb overnight in the fridge in a vacuum sealed pouch containing butter, dried oregano, smoked paprika, dried thyme, salt, white pepper, a pinch of cumin and a little garlic paste. The next day I set the sous vide machine to a water bath temperature of 53 degrees C. and cooked the pouch of souvlaki marinated lamb for one hour. during this time I prepped the accompaniments firstly the minted yoghurt was a mixture of greek yoghurt, fresh mint from the garden finely chopped, a little garlic paste, drizzle of olive oil and a squeeze of lime juice before being lightly seasoned with salt. To make the black garlic paste I simply blended black garlic with a little olive oil to form a puree. The preserved lemons was an earlier prep, I mean way earlier, like this time last year or earlier. These are simply preserved over time in jars packed with salt and filled with lemon syrup. Over the time the skins soften and the pulp turns to the preserving liquor it is the skins that are scraped back and rinsed before being added whole or diced into dishes to give an up lifting citrus element to the dish. The capers were store bought but have been drained and mixed with himalayan pint salt in a container in the fridge for a number of months now. Once the lamb was ready I removed the lamb from the pouch and straight into a hot pan with the juices of the pouch poured over the lamb while it quickly seared on both sides of the fillet. Once the outside of the meats proteins had caramelised I removed the fillet from the pan placing it straight at the bottom of a spread brined grapevine leaf on a cutting board. The lamb was then rolled in the leaf and returned to a hot pan with a little olive oil to cook the outsides of the leaf, while this was cooking a placed some sprigs of parsley in the hot oil to crisp up. Both the parsley sprigs and the rolled lamb were removed once cooked and left to rest for 3-4 minutes. The parsley was then seasoned with smoked cypress sea salt.                  
                I presented this plate by making a series of random swipes with the minted greek yoghurt. I then sliced the grapevine leaf wrapped souvlaki lamb in to various widths and strategically arranged them around the plate displaying the beautiful perfectly evenly cooked lamb contrasted by the dark green vine leaf. I then added the accompaniments of salted capers, preserved lemons, black garlic paste, the crunchy fried parsley and to finish the dish fresh micro oregano leaves from the garden.

' tea smoked SEA SCALLOP with WAKAME SALAD .'

Tea smoked Wild caught Sea Scallop with Wakame salad , Compressed Asian pear & sake , Pickled Baby Bitter melon , Water cress , Black garlic puree & wild rocket flowers .

                     With this dish I've used some Asian inspired ingredients to lift and accompany this succulent wild caught off the coastlines of the US sea scallop. I chose to cold smoke the mollusc using a tea smoking boat with the scallop on a rack over a bowl of ice to keep the temps down. Bitter melon plants went in late for me this year and are just coming on now with my 3 vines producing plenty. When small these melons are very concentrated and bitter but when pickled with vinegar, sugar and salt, this mellows and almost tastes like a cross between gherkins and capers.
                     To make this dish I first started with the compressed nashi fruit, for this technique I used the vacuum food saver sealer . Cutting the pear into brunoise, I placed them in a bowl and covered them with sake. After 5 or so minutes I drained the diced pear and placed them and a little frozen pear juice in to a food grade plastic pouch and vacuum sealed twice. This was left to compress and burst the cell walls of the fruit and release extra flavour while marinating in the sake, for about half an hour or so. In the mean time I made the wakame salad by simply mixing in a bowl wakame seaweed, sesame seeds, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, sake, chilli flakes and a little salt this was then chilled until plating. To pickle the bitter melons I placed equal parts of water and rice wine vinegar, enough to cover the melons in a saucepan on a medium heat together with some sugar and salt. This was brought to a slow simmer for about 15 minutes until the melons were soft and tender to touch. I then drained them before plunging into an ice water bath to stop the cooking process, these were then drained and chilled for serving. After the half an hour was up I removed the asian pear pieces from the vacuum packaging, rinsed them quickly under cold water and dressed them in olive oil and black sea salt. The black garlic puree is just simply mashed black garlic piped through a plunger. The final component was the sea scallop of which I first seared very quickly on a hot skillet before rubbing in salt and brown sugar. In a foil boat I placed a mixture of some jasmine rice, jasmine tea leaves, brown sugar, black pepper corns and orange peel zest. This was placed into the smoker and was the vessel was filled and the boat was smouldering, I turned the flame off waited a little and with the scallop on a rack above a bowl of ice, I placed the bowl in to the smoker and cold smoked the scallop until fully cooked before removing from the smoker ready for plating.
            To plate I placed the smoked scallop on top of a bed of home grown water cress, this was topped with some wakame salad, a little black garlic puree, micro bitter melon and an edible wild rocket flower. I arranged the compressed asian pear pieces, wakame salad and pickled bitter melon with the black garlic puree and edible flowers to accompany.

' GARLIC & SOUR CREAM .'

De-hydrated garlic butter sponge , Black garlic , Sour cream , White wine poached garlic , Garlic aioli , Lemon zest and garlic chives.

               In the back of everyones mind right now their thinking, 'the breath after this dish, can't do this one theres way too much garlic, pungent' . Well surprisingly this dish is full of techniques applied to garlic that brings out the under notes of a garlic clove rather than its raw pungent state. While out browsing the shelves after work this week I came across the black garlic you see. I've heard of this before but never seen or used garlic in this state. Black garlic sometimes wrongly referred to as 'black fermented garlic' is garlic which has been heat treated in its skins whole for several weeks resulting in the black cloves and not subject to microbial influence at all. Losing its pungent flavour in the process, black garlic parts flavours of tangy, sweet and syrupy with hints of balsamic vinegar or tamarind paste. Another application Garlic was used was poached in white wine also giving sweet flavours although contrasting to that of the black garlic. Two other preparations in this dish using garlic were the aioli and the garlic butter sponge and I brought in some colour and a fresh ingredient by using garlic chives to garnish. The change up and accompaniment is sour cream and a little lemon zest.  
              To make this garlic tasting I started by making the sponge first. In a bowl I beat some eggs until frothy and added some sugar and smoked salt, whisking again. In another bowl I melted a little butter with some de-hydrated garlic granules, this was then cooled and added to the eggs with some cold milk and a little baking powder, this was beaten until foamy. To this I worked in some self raising flour to form a batter, this was poured into a lined baking tin and baked at 160 deg.c. for about 20-25 minutes. Once the sponge was ready and sprang back to form when pressed, it was removed and allowed to cool before being torn apart for presentation. The poached garlic was simply simmered with a lid on low heat in a mix of butter and sweet white wine until soft and tender. The garlic was then removed and allowed to cool before being sliced thinly for plating. To make the aioli I placed egg yolks, crushed garlic, salt and sherry vinegar in a blender and blended to a creamy pale consistency, with the blender still running I trickle fed olive oil in slowly to form a creamy garlic aioli.                          
              To plate I placed a generous dollop of sour cream in the centre of the plate placing a chunk of torn garlic butter sponge to one side and some sliced poached garlic on top of the cream. In front of this display I placed whole cloves of the black garlic and a smaller dollop of the garlic aioli which was garnished with strips of lemon zest. A few lengths of garlic chive were arranged on top of the sponge and sour cream display to finish the plate off.