' food plays' WALDORF SALAD .'

Contempory Waldorf salad of Crisp Granny Smith apple, Roaring Forties Blue cheese, Roasted walnuts, Tender Crisp celery, Watercress and Blue cheese dressing. 

                    The waldorf salad is a classic salad that has endless possibilities of a reconstructed contempory twist to its presentation. The salad is traditionally made of apple, celery, walnuts and mayo on a bed of lettuce and was first created in the 1890's by Oscar Tschirky at the Waldorf Hotel in NYC. The are many variations using chicken, dates, grapes, sultanas etc. and the recipe I've chosen to recreate comes from a english restauranteur and owner of The British Larder. This variation uses the addition of the blue cheese through the mayo and as a crumbled accompaniment, which really stands up against the tang of the apple and the pepperiness of the watercress. This waldorf version delivers a diversity of textures and flavours that pack punch and harmonise collectively.
                   To make the salad I simply cored an apple slicing thinly into 2-3mm slices, these were lightly dressed in olive oil and lemon juice before being reassembled into an apple shape and chilled. Next I sliced the celery into 2-3mm matchsticks and reserved some young yellow leaves also dressing these in the oil and lemon juice before chilling. In a 180C oven I placed some walnuts on a flat tray and roasted them for about 10 minutes until nicely toasted and starting to release nut oils which intensify the flavour of the nut, these were then cooled, chopped roughly and set aside ready for plating. To make the dressing I creamed 1 egg yolk, 1/2 teaspoon of Dijon mustard, 50g of Blue cheese, 1 tbsp of lemon juice, a pinch of sugar and salt, until smooth. Slowly I then added 50ml of olive oil and 100ml of sunflower oil while slowly whisking the mayo to form an emulsion, adding a tbsp of warm water if the mayo became to thick. The mayo was then chilled for half an hour before serving.                                    
                   To plate I placed the reassembled sliced apple in the centre of the plate, topping with young celery leaf, celery matchstick, sprig of watercress and a small thin tile of blue cheese. Around the apple I placed dollops of the blue cheese dressing at 12, 3, 6 and 9 0'clock, topping each with a different accompaniment. Next I arranged the matchsticks of celery, young celery leaves, watercress and crumbled blue cheese around the apple, scattering the roasted walnuts and seasoning the dish with a little cracked black pepper.                                      

 

' ALPINE POTATOES .'

Fingerling Potatoes in a progression of textures & temperatures, - Baked Potato skin, Potato salad, Raclette potato, Juniper roasted potato, Potato soup and Crispy potato spoon & bowl.

                  First of all I must apologise to the followers of this blog for the lack of posts lately, as I have
just had surgery on my foot I haven't been able to make it into the kitchen or the backyard having said that, which is where my inspirations come from. Anyway here it is the first post for winter for this year and for a fitting kick off 'the humble potato'. This dish exposes the diner to the many ways the potato can be served. I've used the alpine theme with the likes of pine needles, conifer and juniper berries to act as the main component in flavouring the potatoes. The berries, like the needles, have a clean, bracing botanical flavour. This plate takes the diner on a progressional journey of textures, temperatures and techniques, making the boring old spud look a bit more enticing. Below I've highlighted each prep and its respective technique, these are not in any order of execution but for a tip letting the puree for the 'Raclette potato' hydrate over night does help with this technique.                                                                
BAKED POTATO SKIN- (hot, cold) Juniper, creme fraiche, caviar.                                                          
This is a taste of earth, sea, pasture and forest. To begin with I made a juniper oil by blending juniper berries with olive oil and straining the oil through a mesh sieve. I then baked the potato in a 170 deg. C. oven until tender. I then cut the potato into wedges, scooping out the pulp, the skin was then rubbed with the juniper oil and placed back in the oven to go crispy. Once removed, I placed a dollop of creme fraiche on to the skin and topped with black caviar, serve immediately.                                                        
POTATO SALAD- (cold) Pickled 83 deg. C. sous vide potato, mustard mayo, pine snow.                    
83 degrees is the optimum temperature for sous vide vegetables. Cooking the potatoes in vinegar and salt pickles them as they cook and the pine needle snow gives a refreshing jolt against the spice of mustard and the earthy potatoes. Thinly sliced potatoes, a dash of white wine vinegar and a pinch of salt were placed into a vacuum sealed bag and placed in to an 83 deg. C. sous vide bath for 90 mins. Once the potatoes were tender, the potatoes were removed from the bag and chilled in the fridge until cold. To make the pine snow I blended washed, finely chopped pine needles with water and a little glucose. This was then passed through a cloth lined sieve an poured into a plastic container and placed into the freezer. At the same time I placed a metal bowl in the freezer to chill. Once the the pine water was frozen solid I grated the ice into the metal bowl and placed the bowl of snow back into the freezer until I was ready to serve. For the mustard mayo I mixed two parts prepared mayo with one part wholegrain mustard and seasoned with a little honey and salt, this was also chilled to serve.                          
RACLETTE POTATO- (warm) Potato puree, Raclette cheese.                                                              
Raclette means both a type of cheese and also the name of a traditional Swiss winter meal where a round of cheese is placed by the fire and then the melted part of the cheese is scraped onto plates and accompanied with potatoes, gherkins and other fare. Raclette cheese has fantastic melting properties and is perfect for this technique. I used methocel for this preparation which forms a firm gel when heated and reverts back to its original state (in this case a puree) as it cools. But for best results it should be hydrated over night. I started this prep by boiling potatoes in salted water until tender. I then pureed the potato with a little melted butter, milk and a pinch of salt. I then added 5g methocel to 100g of water and blended with a immersion blender for about 2 minutes, this was then mixed into 160g of puree and placed covered in the fridge over night to hydrate. The next day I preheated the oven to 120 deg. C., I then filled a mould with the puree (in this case I used an eggshell for the mould), this was then baked for 8-10 minutes. Once firm the hardened potato puree was un-molded on to a lined baking tray, I then placed a thin slice of the raclette next to it and placed the tray back in the oven to melt the cheese. The cheese was then scraped from the tray lining and draped over the potato, smoothing the cheese to form a skin. With a strong brew of coffee paste and a small paint brush, I added some markings to resemble the potatoes imperfections and eyes. The potato was then lifted and plated to be served immediately.          
JUNIPER ROASTED POTATO- (hot) Coffee oil, juniper berries, sea salt.                                                  
With this I roasted the potato in juniper berries, the virgin coffee oil  rounds out the woody notes of the berries nicely. I simply roasted the potato in a 180 deg. C. oven with crushed juniper berries and a little olive oil, once tender the potato was served hot on a bed of conifer and the potato was topped with a drizzle of virgin coffee oil and a sprinkling of juniper berries and sea salt.                                        
POTATO SOUP- (hot) Smoked potato, blue cheese, gin.
Comforting, creamy earthy potatoes with the complexity of smoke, combined with the tang and bite of blue cheese with a kiss of gin. I first boiled potatoes in salted water until tender, once cooled I smoked the potato lightly before blending to a puree. In a saucepan I heated a little butter, milk and blue cheese until the cheese and butter had melted, to this I added the smoked puree and a splash of gin, seasoning with salt and pepper this was served hot.                                                                                
CRISPY SOUP BOWL & SPOON- Potato.                                                                                                
The final prep I carved a bowl and spoon from two larger potatoes, rubbing with a little olive oil and seasoned with sea salt I then roasted the potato spoon and bowl in a 180 deg. c. oven until crisp and crunchy. To ensure the soup bowl didn't leak soup everywhere, I prepared a water gel with a little gellan gum and lined the inside of the bowl. A great way to finish.                                                          

 

' UNSEASONAL OFFERINGS .'

King Island Diary Roaring Forties Blue cheese with Olive Caramel sauce, Salt cured Baby Roma tomatoes, Melon confit, Smoked Black Muscat grape, Young Celery leaves and Baby coriander.

               I'm not a real fan of blue moulded cheeses and I put it down to that first experience. I can recall mine vividly as my German father was born in Tilsit he would some times be giving by his german friends or buy himself Tilsiter or Cambazola. I was the the later also known as 'blue brie' needed to be vacuum sealed, locked up, frozen or something, when that came out of the packet the two cats ran away. The smell was of rotten socks and vomit and my dads breath after eating the tiniest piece, can't be described here, this kind of put me off blue mould cheese. Until this one popped up from this respectable cheese maker, its creamy and mild with a sweet nutty aftertaste and no repulsive odours. So this was marked down the other day and I picked up a wedge, to do some pairing exercises.

Now what was I to pair with this cheese and I foraged through the fridge. When you have children your fridge tends to store some unseasonal items, such as the rockmelon that Caleb our 6 yo. takes to school every day despite it being nearly the start of winter. Or the baby Roma tomatoes, or the black muscat grapes at the bottom of the crisper. Its quite insane the world our kids are being brought into if you really look into it. The children of today don't know seasonal foods as they see their favourite bright coloured sweet fruit or vegetable, supplied almost all year round in our supermarkets. Will this in time bring about whole new food pairings in the cooking of the future. Anyway it happens to be that these ingredients are well known match makers with cheeses and so I set out to make an 'unseasonable offerings'. Wanting to incorporate olives in the dish, I decided to go with a sauce I had seen done before

infusing olives in a caramel sauce.                                                                                                              

               Most of the preparations in this dish required about the same time so these can be done in any order . Below I have listed the preparations for this dish.                                                                                

Smoked Muscat grape- I put together a boat from aluminium foil and placed some dampened hickory saw dust into the boat and waited for my smoker to heat up. I then placed the boat in the bottom of the smoker and waited until the smoker was full of smoke. Placing a grape on baking paper over a metal bowl of ice and into the smoker on a wire rack above the boat. I smoked the grape with a low heat on the burner for about 5-6 minutes and then switched the burner off and continued to smoke the grape for another 5-6 minutes before removing and cooling at room temperature.
Salt cured tomatoes- For these I first got a saucepan of salted water on the boil, then making a tiny cross incision with a paring knife, so just the skin was cut. These were then put into the boiling water for about 2 minutes, the skins were just starting to come away from the flesh. I removed them from the saucepan and placed them into a chilled water bath before removing the skins with ease. the skinless tomatoes were then drained and placed into a bowl of kosher salt covering them partially. They were then placed into the fridge to cure for around 30-40 minutes before being rinsed under a slow trickle of cold water to wash off the salt, they were now ready to serve.                                                                         

Melon confit- To make this I set the sous vide water bath to 53 degree C. and in a vacuum sealed plastic pouch I placed melon shavings about 2m thick and frozen rockmelon juice with a little rice wine vinegar, this was cooked at set temperature for 30 minutes before being removed from the pouch. The shavings were rinsed under cold water to remove the juice and then rolled into a scroll and dressed in a little olive oil and seasoned with salt.                                                                                                                 

Olive caramel sauce- This sauce was adding 2/3 cup of white sugar with about 3 tbsp. of water to a heavy based sauce pan on a medium heat until all the sugar had dissolved and there was a cloudy syrup, being sure not to touch the pan up to this stage. When the sugar starts to bubble I turned the heat up to high and while stirring cooked the caramel until it was a beautiful amber colour. I then added 1/4 cup of black olive puree stirring with a wooden spoon to incorporate, the olive caramel was then removed from the heat and I added a touch of water to form a more sauce consistency. This sauce is served at room temperature.