Summer Roll

Dipping sauce  ( ¾ cup)

3 tablespoons lime juice (1 fat, thin skin lime)

2 tablespoons sugar

½ cup water

2 ½ tablespoons fish sauce

Optional additions:

1 small garlic clove, finely minced

1 or 2 Thai chilis, thinly sliced or 1 teaspoon homemade chili garlic sauce

Ingredients

Dried rice paper wrapper - soaked till soften

Rice vermicelli - boiled and cooled with cold running water

king prawn (3 halves per roll - panfried with garlic)

chopped fresh mint, coriander, thai basil

lettuce

(whatever u want really) 

Instructions: http://www.chow.com/recipes/10641-vietnamese-style-summer-rolls-with-peanut-sauce

Tom Aikens

To celebrate our one year anniversary :) we went to Tom Aiken's restaurant at Chelsea. 

After watching the Great British Menu for the Comic relief, we really wanted to try it out.  

However, they've decided to stop serving that end of April :(   

really wanted to try his winning Chicken starter dish and the hand dived scallops.  

Oh well.... 

We opted for the 7 course tasting menu instead. 

Canape - chicken skin profiteroles on the side, with pea and mint veloute served in an egg shell. 

Beautifullll presentation :) 

A collection of bread (which we managed to eat them all) 

Freshly baked - warm and soft 

which includes things like onion bacon bread (which tasted very cakey), Polenta bread, Milk bun (very moist) 

served with bacon butter, mushroom butter and butter with seasalt 

First course - smoked eel with watercress emulsion, compressed cucumber, smoked apple cubes and egg yolk crumbles 

the eel is a little oversmoked - too overpowering, covering the other flavours

White asparagus and white asparagus icecream with grated  frozen foie gras mousse on top. 

Doesn't look like a lot of foie gras but you can definitely taste it in every bite. 

 

Baked Scallop with yeast potato, osso buco, toasted bread soup

The flavour of the toasted bread soup was very Japanese I find. 

I thought those were little pearl barley - but it's yeast potato apparently :p

HOUSEMADE RICOTTA green olive juice, honey jelly, pine nuts

This was the most interesting dish.  very light

Thin slices of homemade ricotta with little jelly, cumbly cheese powder in between. 

have never tasted anything like that.

can't remember what fish it was.... 

UDALE LAMB LOIN creamed polenta, cipollini onion, dandelion

love the little polenta croquette.. 

there's also a little "ravioli" stuffed with little small bits of minced lamb

PIGLET braised & roasted belly, baked aubergine, smoked apple

The pork belly was soft and it goes very well with the baked aubergine mousse.  

PISTACHIO parfait, pistachio cake, pistachio praline

we didn't like the coconut dessert so we asked to have it changed.  

layers of pistachio praline, cake and pafait is separated by a thin slice of white chocolate. 

very light and yummm 

such a delight :)  

beautifully presented. 

loveeee them all 

Miso Glazed Salmon ochazuke

Ingredients
1 tbsp miso

1 tbsp mirin
1 tsp (1 inch) crushed ginger
1/2 tsp (1/2 clove) crushed garlic
1-2 tsp vegetable oil
2-3 oz salmon fillet, skinned and pin bones removed
1/2 tsp furikake, optional
2/3-3/4 c steamed rice
1/2-1 c green tea (I used genmaicha tea)



1. Mix together miso, mirin, ginger, and garlic – forming a thin paste like mustard.
2. Coat the Salmon with miso mixture.
    Seal and marinate in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours.
3. Wipe off excess miso mixture with your fingers from Salmon .
     It’ll look a little smeary but you don’t want large blobs
4.  Pan fry the Salmon on the skin side
     Put it onto a baking tray and grill it on the highest rack for 3-4 minutes till cooked.
5. Serve over rice, sprinkle with furikake
    I have also sprinkled a sachet of chazuke crispy seaweed mixture
    Pour hot tea over everything. Makes 1 serving.


Link http://gekiuma.wordpress.com/2012/11/20/%E5%A1%A9%E9%AE%AD%E3%81%8A%E8%8C%B6%E6%BC%AC%E3%81%91-japanese-comfort-food-or-miso-salted-salmon-with-green-tea/

Carbonade

Carbonade

Ingredients
1.25 kg stewing beef , cut into 4cm cubes
400ml Trappist ale such as Leffe or Chimay, or other dark ale  (I used Cider)
3 garlic cloves , finely chopped
2 bay leaves
3 tbsp plain flour , seasoned with salt and pepper
2-3 tbsp olive oil
250g diced pancetta
2 carrots , sliced
2 onions , sliced
1 leek , sliced
1 tbsp tomato purée
350ml beef stock
1 bouquet garni (a small bunch of thyme , parsley stalks, a bay leaf and about 6 peppercorns tied in muslin)
a handful of parsley , chopped

1. Marinate the beef overnight in the ale with the garlic and bay leaves.
2. The next day, drain the beef from the marinade, reserving the marinade.
3. Pat the meat dry with kitchen paper and toss it in the seasoned flour until evenly coated.
    Shake off any excess flour.
4. Heat 2 tbsp of the olive oil in a large flameproof casserole until hot.
    Fry the beef in 3-4 batches for about 5 minutes per batch, stirring occasionally, until it is a rich golden brown all over.
   Remove the meat with a slotted spoon to a plate and set aside.
   Don't worry if the bottom of the casserole is starting to brown, this all adds to the flavour of the finished dish.
5. Lower the heat to medium and fry the pancetta in the casserole for 6-8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until crisp and golden. Scoop the pancetta out with a slotted spoon and set aside with the beef.
6. Preheat the oven to fan 140C/conventional 160C/gas 3.
7. Tip the carrots, onions and leek into the casserole and fry, stirring occasionally, until they start to brown - this takes about 12 minutes.
8. Spoon in the tomato purée and continue to cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
9. Add the beef and pour in the reserved marinade.
    Bring to a simmer, scraping any sticky bits off the bottom of the pan, then add all the beef stock and bouquet garni to the casserole. Season with salt and pepper and bring everything to the boil.
10. Remove from the heat. Cover with a lid and cook in the oven for 2 hours, stirring once halfway through. 11. When the beef is ready, taste for seasoning and scatter the chopped parsley over the top

Link: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1236/

We served it with Rosti :)
yummmm

Profiteroles

I used Gordon Ramsey's recipe
(tried Raymond Blanc a few times and the mixture was too wet !)


INGREDIENTS

For the choux pastry
125ml milk
200ml water
150g plain flour
1 tsp golden caster sugar
½ tsp salt
100g unsalted butter
4 medium eggs, lightly beaten

For the chantilly cream
1 vanilla pod, split
300ml whipping cream
1-2 tbsp icing sugar

For the chocolate sauce
200g good-quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
30g unsalted butter
3 tbsp clear honey
125ml full fat milk


METHOD
1. Preheat the oven to 200@C/Gas 6. Sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Place the milk, cold water, salt, sugar into a pan and set over a low heat. Once the sugar and salt has dissolved add the butter. Once the butter has melted, bring to a rolling boil. Turn off the heat then tip in the flour and beat vigorously with a wooden spoon. As soon as the mixture starts to come away from the side of the pan, stop beating and tip onto a plate to cool.

2. Return the mixture to the pan, then gradually beat in the eggs, a little at a time, mixing well between each addition, until you have a smooth paste. (Alternatively, transfer the mix to an electric mixer and gradually add the eggs while the mixer is running on a low setting).

3. Line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper. Spoon the choux pastry into a piping bag fitted with a large plain nozzle (about 1.5cm in diameter). Pipe a small blob of the pastry mix under each corner of the greaseproof to keep the paper in place. Now pipe about 20 walnut-sized balls onto the baking sheet, spaced well apart. Level the peaked tops with the tip of a wet finger then bake for 18-20 minutes until well risen and golden brown.

4. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before filling.

5. For the Chantilly cream scrape the seeds from the vanilla pod into a large mixing bowl. Add the cream, and icing sugar then whisk together until the consistency of a soft meringue with floppy peaks. Spoon the cream into a clean piping bag, fitted with a small plain nozzle. Pierce the base of a choux bun with the tip of the nozzle and pipe in the cream. Repeat with the remaining choux buns.

6. For the chocolate sauce, break the chocolate into small pieces in a heatproof bowl. Place the bowl over a pan of simmering water and heat. Add the butter and honey stirring from time to time, until the chocolate begins to melt. Gradually whisk in the milk until you have a smooth sauce and warm through. Serve the cream-filled profiteroles with the hot chocolate sauce drizzled over.

Link:
http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/chefs/gordon-ramsay/profiteroles-hot-chocolate-sauce-recipe

To make it my own (and to perfectionize it) :p
I put Ben and Jerry's Caramel chew chew icecream in the middle and Chocolate sauce + Double chocolate cookies crumb on top..
Muahahaha.