october offerings' PICKLED LAMBS TONGUE .'

Pickled Organic grass-fed Lambs tongue with Sous vide Baby beetroot in raspberry sauce, Sheep's milk Curd snow, Apple & German chamomile oil and chamomile leaves. 

                 The third instalment of the 'october offerings', this dish is a variation of one that was getting around the tables of L'Enclume a few years back. The sheep's milk curd snow is very light and delicate but refreshing against the earthy sweetness of the raspberry sous vide beets and the apple infused oil. All giving way to the acidity of the pickled tongue and its strong lamb flavours. The pickled tongue underwent a 3 week brining and pickling process listed below, before it was sliced thinly to be served.        
                 After the tongue was detached and removed from the sheep head, I rinsed the tongue under cold running water before placing the tongue into a glass container. I then prepared a brine of salted water, covering the tongue with the brine and refrigerating overnight covered. The next day I rinsed the tongue under cold running water again before this time simmering the tongue on a medium heat in a  brine of water, apple cider vinegar and salt for about 2 hours until the tongue was tender. The tongue was then rinsed again and the outer membrane was removed. In a saucepan I brought to the boil some water, vinegar, salt, sugar, mustard seeds, fennel seeds, cumin seeds, coriander seeds and peppercorns. I then placed the tongue into a sterilised jar and covered the tongue with the cooled pickling liquid, securing the jar with a lid, the the tongue was placed into the fridge and allowed to mature for 3 weeks. To make the curd snow, I first made the curd as per earlier posted this month. Only once the curd was drained of all its whey, I formed a ball with the curd and placed it into the freezer to freeze solid. Once the curd was solid, using a grater I shaved the frozen curd to form a powdery snow. In a small saucepan I gently heated some olive oil with a few strips of apple peel and some german chamomile leaves. The oil was then removed from the heat and allowed to stand and infuse until cool. The oil was then strained through cheese cloth and ready to be used. The last application was the beets of which I simply peeled, quartered and placed into a food grade plastic pouch with some frozen raspberry sauce. The pouch was vacuum sealed and placed into a 84C water bath for an hour. The beets and sauce were then removed from the pouch and chilled before being served.

' CORNMEAL CRUSTED LAMBS BRAINS .'

Cornmeal crusted Organic grass-fed Lambs brains with a Golden peach & Sweet corn salsa, Lemon Balm and a Sherry Vin gastrique.

                    This dish is a continuation of the 'october offerings', with the brains used here coming from the sheep head given to me buy a good mate. As butchering is not something I do all he time, I wasn't quite sure on the approach to removing the brains from the skull without a band saw. So with some unsuccessful googling, I picked up the head and went downstairs. With the head laid out upright, wrapped in plastic and wedged between to big rocks and now my 3 year old son Levi as audience. I took to the head with a tomahawk, seven blows later I split the skull directly down the middle and managed to keep the brains intact, as my son watched on with an excited curiosity. With this dish the peach and corn salsa gives a sweetness as the acidity of the sherry vin gastrique cuts the richness of the crumbed lambs fry.                                                                                                                                        
                   After removing the brains from the sheep skull, I rinsed them thoroughly before trimming any fatty tissue. The brains were then soaked in fresh ewes milk for about an hour, before being coated with cornmeal and shallow fried in pork fat. The crumbed brains were then removed, drained on paper towel and seasoned with salt. To make the salsa, I lightly sauteed some diced peach and corn kernels in some olive oil and seasoned with a little cumin, paprika, salt and pepper. As the peaches just started to leak their juices, I removed the salsa from the stove and allowed it to cool before serving. The vin gastrique was made by gently reducing sherry vinegar and a little sugar until thick and syrupy.

' 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.