' PUMPERNICKEL - Imbisse drie Wege .'

Pumpernickel - Snacks three ways. (Toast with Cod liver, horseradish, cucumber, red lumpfish caviar & fennel frond.) (Ravioli filled with Pork brawn served with whole seed mustard, sauerkraut, pea greens & pickled cucumber sauce.) (Sauce served with pulled pork bundle, stewed apple & sage leaves.)

                   Pumpernickel bread has a strong childhood nostalgia with me as there was pumpernickel in our house every that I can think of growing up. Pumpernickel was dads thing and he had it for lunch every day of the week with good butter, cheese and various cold cuts like salami, mortadella, brawn or bloodwurst. I used try it a bit with cheese and salami but for kids in the 80's you can't go past a slice of white vienna instead. It wasn't until later in life that I acquired the developed taste receptors for the complexity of the malty dark rye used in the making of pumpernickel. If beer were white vienna then pumpernickel would be the stout. For this exercise I wanted to capture that essential pumpernickel flavour and present its base in different preparations that are not normally associated with the flavour of pumpernickel for example pumpernickel pasta or pumpernickel sauce.                                                    
                     Below are a detailed description of the three different preparations and the methods I used in making the various snacks you see above.                                                                                            
PUMPERNICKEL TOAST- ( Cod liver, horseradish, cucumber, red caviar & fennel frond.)
This was a very simple no fuss presentation, also the one presented to start the diner off allowing them to capture the pumpernickel in its pure form, only toasted to enhance the flavour. On top of squares I cut from thinly sliced pumpernickel and toasted, I placed a spoonful of minced horseradish. The next ingredient has come under critics eyes over the last decade or so and thats cod liver and the famous cure all colds and flu of the past cod liver oil which is now manufactured by farming an algae which produces the essential beneficial part of cod liver oil, the omega oils that the body can't produce. There are claims to waters being polluted where cod are being harvested therefore poisoning the livers and ours. Back to the liver itself it took me a while to get my head around trying one as I also vividly remember the taste of cod liver oil as a child. To my surprise, it tastes nothing of that and more like that of a sardine in oil and was quite nice by itself but even better with the accompaniments. On to of the liver I needed a platform to hold the red caviar so I opted for a thin slice of cucumber giving a crisp, cold element to the snack, cutting a bit of the richness of the livers but also giving me the flat surface to place the caviar and fennel frond to finish.                                                                                                      
PUMPERNICKEL RAVIOLI- ( Pork brawn, whole seed mustard, red sauerkraut, pea greens & pickled cucumber sauce.) I have seen pumpernickel pasta done before in different ways, and by now there would be much that hasn't been formed into pasta. So I do stress this is no ground breaking experience but what I have found that no one has detailed how they came about there finished product, so in that respect this was a new experiment for me. I started making the dough the night before by first soaking crumbled slices of pumpernickel bread in hot water and let stand for 30 minutes to soften the kibbled grains in the bread and for all the water to soak into the bread. I then pureed this mixture until it was smooth, this was then run through a strainer and I collected 160ml of the puree. In a bowl I placed 2 cups of wheat flour and 2 tbsp of the black cocoa powder and to this I gradually added the puree to form a dough. I then kneaded the dough a little on a floured surface before rolling out thin, flouring and leaving out at room temperature covered over night for the flavours to mature and the pasta become a dark brown colour resembling what its made from. To make the pickled cucumber sauce I juiced a deseeded cucumber with its skin, placing the strained cucumber juice in a small saucepan I added some rice wine vinegar, sugar and a little salt. This was brought to a boil and reduced to a simmer for 5-1o minutes before removing a few spoonfuls to mix with arrowroot flour to form a paste. This paste was returned back to the simmering sauce, whisking until the sauce thickens and I removed the sauce from the heat and chilled in the fridge overnight. The next morning the pasta was re-rolled out on to a floured surface to about 2mm thick and circles were cut out from the pasta using an upturned glass. I then used these rounds to make ravioli filling each one with minced pork brawn. The edges were pinched sealed using the end of a fork and the ravioli were cooked in salted boiling water for 3-4 minutes. I served the ravioli with whole seed mustard and red sauerkraut along with the pickled cucumber sauce.                  
PUMPERNICKEL SAUCE- ( Pulled pork, stewed apple & sage leaves.)                                              
The process of pureeing pumpernickel lead me to think of sauces and with that I came up with this pumpernickel infused gravy to be served hot with pulled pork and apples. The sauce was simple a puree made like above but this time from chicken stock instead of hot water. Once the puree was made I placed this into a saucepan and reduced this down with a splash of soy sauce until the pumpernickel gravy was thick and velvety. I served this with a bundle of pulled pork tied with a garlic chive, this was accompanied by a round of apple stewed in a syrup of water, sugar and lemon juice until soft and tender. I placed a sprig of fresh sage leaves from our veggie garden to finish the dish.

' DIVER SCALLOP, WINTER CITRUS & CRESS .'

Pan seared Wild caught Diver Scallop, Parsnip puree, Kumquats, Meyer Lemon, Imperial Mandarin, Fresh Watercress and Horseradish bubbles.

               This little taster dish has zip and zest, tantalising your taste buds with each mouthful. Using the winter citrus fruits made available at this time of the year, to accompany the sweet tasting diver scallop paired up perfectly and that slight pungency from the horseradish bubbles along with the peppery notes from the cress gave the dish a great complexity of flavours. This dish was a bit of a throw together from the left over scallops from the other days ceviche and the fruit a ha picked up at the local markets to do the miracle berry tasting. I had seen similar pairings done before and more recently by a chef from the U.S.                                                                                                                                  
                 To put this together I made the puree first by boiling some parsnips in salted water until they were soft and tender. I then placed the parsnips with a little melted butter and some cream into a blender and blended to form a puree which was then corrected for seasoning and set aside. I prepared the citrus fruit next, by thinly slicing the cumquats and segmenting the other fruit these were then set aside. Just before plating I foraged the backyard garden for fresh water cress. The cress was washed and dressed in a little olive oil. I then prepared the horse radish bubbles by juicing some fresh horse radish placing into a wide mouth tumbler adding some rice wine vinegar, water, salt, sugar and soy lecithin. With a stick blender, I  then mixed the liquid on high to form the bubbles. Heating a small skillet on a medium high heat I seared the sea scallop on both sides in a little butter for 45 seconds or so, just long enough to turn the flesh opaque and form a caramelised crust.                                                                                  
                 To plate I made a swipe on the plate with the parsnip puree arranging the citrus on top. I then placed the scallop adjacent and top with the horse radish bubbles. I then garnished the dish using the dressed watercress and seasoned with smoked sea salt and cracked black pepper.

' CUCUMBER and MELON TERRINE .'

Terrine of Cucumber, Watermelon & Honeydew with Horseradish , Persian cucumber , Melon balls , Lime slice , Water hyssop , creme fraiche , fennel fronds , wild rocket flowers ,  lime vinaigrette & cypress black salt. 

                      This is another classic pairing, the summer fruits of cucumber and melons, this little dish served ultra cold makes a perfect refreshing appetiser. This dish gets the gastric going and the saliva flowing with hints of zesty flavours from the lime vinaigrette, the salty sweet taste of the different melons and the little bite from the radish, rounded off well with the delicate flavours of fennel fronds and water hyssop herb. Melons are in full season at the moment as are cucumbers and I wanted to incorporate the two in a dish that was light, colourful and refreshing. The herbs come from the garden but the rest of the ingredients come from the Italian grocery store I frequent in the inner suburbs.
                     I started preparing this dish the night before beginning with the terrine, which consisted of first chopping, deseeding and pureeing separately in a blender cucumber, honeydew and watermelon. Placing each puree into a separate bowl, they were seasoned with salt and pepper and measured out before being separately simmered in a small saucepan with 1% agar agar, whisking to dissolve the agar. Each was removed and layering one at a time beginning with the cucumber I poured the mix into a greased plastic mould. Placing the mould in the fridge between layers to set them faster I then followed with the watermelon and in order honeydew, watermelon and cucumber last. The whole terrine was then placed in the fridge over night to fully set before being turned out and sliced the next day. To make the cucumber spirals I simply sliced a thin strip of cucumber using a peeler, trimmed the ends and rolled it up tight before pushing from the bottom using the back of a spoon to unravel the roll into a spiral, filling the bottom with a dab of creme fraiche to hold it together and dressed with vinaigrette. I cut the melons simply using a melon baller and these to were dressed with vinaigrette and finished with a sprinkle of black cypress salt. To prepare the the horseradish I just peeled them before thinly slicing and dressing them in the vinaigrette and sprinkled black salt for contrast. The vinaigrette was a simply blend of lime juice with extra virgin olive oil. The additions to the plate also were creme fraiche, fennel fronds, a lime slice, fresh water hyssop and tiny little yellow edible wild rocket flowers.

' OX HEART , RED WINE & PIGS BLOOD .'

Beef Heart pan seared , Parsnip & Horse radish puree and a Bloodwurst & Shiraz reduction (red wine & pigs blood).

               This ones bound to raise a few eyebrows being so vivid in presentation, but believe me once you know what your eating on your plate is a beautiful rich sauce made of pigs blood sausage and sweet, spicy shiraz wine . This rare offal cut scene on the household table, has fantastic strong beef flavours and paired with the sauce and the sweet, earthy and pungent puree its a match of delicacy. I've seen this dish done by a Pennsylvanian chef before using the actual wine named 'Bulls blood' and the dish had the edition of some marrow of which I've unusually run out of.                                                                    
               I first made the puree by peeling and chopping some parsnips. In a pot of water I brought the parsnip pieces to the boil before reducing the heat and simmering the parsnip until soft and tender. The parsnip was then drained and placed in a blender with a little cream and horse radish paste, this was then blended to a puree, spooned into a bowl and set aside to plate. Next was the reduction sauce of which I cut up a bloodwurst sausage and fried off cubed pieces of the pigs blood and pork fat three parts to one, in a little butter until completely broken down. To this I added some good quality shiraz, some sugar and salt simmering on low stirring until reduced to a thick dark blood red syrup. This was then removed from the stove poured into a small glass and set aside for plating. Last was the heart of which I rinsed and pat dried before trimming into a 12 mm thick, 4 cm square steak. This was then pan fried in a very hot pan with a little olive oil, cracked black pepper and sea salt for about 2-3 minutes each side. the heart steak was then rested for 5-6 minutes before being cut into wedges to be plated.      
               To plate this a spooned some puree just off centre of the plate, placing the two wedges of heart on top of that and finishing the plate to resemble splattered blood I flicked and dressed the plate and the heart fillets with the pigs blood and red wine sauce. The heart of an ox and the blood of a pig.