Venison, golden beetroot, potato croquette, Jerusalem artichoke puree, beetroot puree

The main course of the evening we had simply billed as a mystery ‘A Surprise for the Senses’. A mystery that wouldn’t even be revealed until the plate was delivered to the table. We had organised for the waiting staff to hand out blindfolds and I would then explain to the guest that this course was to be savored and enjoyed using only the sense of taste and smell and of course touch. 

This worked well, with some people and others just couldn’t adjust to sitting in a room full of strangers, blindfolded and trying to work out what they were eating.

What this did achieve was a room full of nervous excitement and a great buzz throughout the dining room. We have done many blindfold dinners at the Merchant hotel, but never to the scale of 90 diners in one go. I think all will agree, whether they loved it or hated it, it definitely gave the room something to talk about.

Ingredients;

For the venison;

1kg wild venison loin, trimmed of all fat and sinew

1tblsp juniper berries

50g rosemary leaves only

250g blackberries

1tsp Maldon salt

For the beetroot;

2 large golden beetroot washed well

1ltr water

100ml red wine

50ml red port

50ml sherry vinegar

40g sugar

Seasoning

For the beetroot puree;

400g beetroot trimmings

3tblsp olive oil

2 sprigs fresh thyme leaves only

Maldon salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

For the Jerusalem artichoke puree;

500g Jerusalem artichokes, peeled
500ml whole milk
30g butter

1-2tblsp double cream

For the potato croquettes;

1kg Maris piper or Desiree potatoes, peeled

20g butter

1 egg beaten

Maldon salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste

100g wild mushrooms, cooked in butter and drained

100g softened butter

2 eggs lightly beaten

1cup plain flour

1 cup dried breadcrumbs

Maldon salt to taste

To serve;

Red wine jus

Method;

For the venison;

Cut the venison loin in half each weighing 500g each.

Place the juniper berries and rosemary into a mortar and bash to a coarse paste with a pestle. Add the black berries and salt and mash again very lightly. Lay the venison onto a tray and rub all over with the paste that has just been made. Place the venison into plastic vac pak bags and seal in the vac machine to remove all of the air and force the marinade into the meat.

Leave the meat to marinade for 24 hours.

The meat will be cooked in the bags in a water bath at 42c on the night of service.

For the beetroot;

Place the beetroot, water, red wine, port, sherry vinegar and sugar into a medium size pan.

Bring to the boil and reduce the heat to a simmer, simmer the beetroot for 1½ hours or until tender when pierced with a knife. Remove from the heat and allow the beetroot to cool in the stock. When cool enough to handle peel the beetroot. Cut the beetroot into even dices all the same size. Keep all of the beetroot trimmings for the puree.

For the beetroot puree;

Place the beetroot into a food processor and blend to a purée, slowly trickle in the oil to emulsify. Add the thyme and the seasoning and set aside. Cool and store in the fridge.

For the Jerusalem artichoke puree;

Cut the Jerusalem artichokes into chunks, and then put them in a pan with the milk. Bring the milk to a simmer and cook the artichokes for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they are very soft.

Strain the artichokes, reserving the hot milk, and transfer to a food processor.

Add the butter and blend for a few minutes until smooth, adding a splash of the milk, if necessary. Push the purée through a fine sieve back into the pan and season well. Stir in the cream and heat gently until you have a thick purée. Keep hot.

For the potato croquettes;

Place potatoes in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil over medium heat and cook 15 to 20 minutes or until tender. Drain and place through a ricer. Stir through butter, egg and seasoning and mix until smooth; set aside to cool

Coarsely chop the mushroom and mix with the softened butter. Put potato mixture into refrigerator and chill until firm.

Place egg, plain flour and breadcrumbs in separate shallow dishes.

Roll the potato mixture into small oval croquette shapes and dip each croquettes into egg, then flour and then into breadcrumbs.

Cook croquettes, in a deep fat fryer in batches, for 3 to 4 minutes or until golden. Drain on absorbent paper and season to taste with Maldon salt and keep hot.

To serve;

Place a water bath on at 42c or this can be achieved with a pan of water , probed at 42c. Place the venison into the water bath for 1 hour.

Place a pan large enough to hold the two pieces of venison over high heat. Add a little olive oil. Remove the venison from the vac bags and drain well. Seal the venison all over very quickly in the pans, remember the venison will be cooked to perfection in the water bath; we are only trying to seal the meat and cook all over until golden brown. Remove from the pan and keep warm.

Place a pan over medium heat and add a little olive oil, season the beetroot squares with salt and pepper and roast until golden in the hot oil.

Spoon the cold beetroot puree onto the top of the plate. Spoon the hot artichoke puree onto the bottom of the plate.

Slice each venison into 9 slices and place three slices per plate in-between the purees.

Cut the croquettes in half and place two halves per plate, drizzle with a little red wine jus.

Place 4 golden beetroot squares into the purees.

Give your guest a blindfold and serve.

Don’t tell then the flavours and let them all try and guess, it’s great fun.

Pea Soup, Spiced Black Figs, Ibérico Ham and Goat’s Cheese

After the drama of the first three courses of the evening of Pop up Belfast, the soup would be the course to simply deliver on taste and texture without any dramatic effects.

We placed a bowl with half a grilled sweet spiced fig, some crisps Ibérico ham and some crumbled St Tola goats cheese into a bowl and garnished them with a little rocket cress. The chefs then walked around the tables behind the waiters and we poured the fresh, simply flavoured pea soup, fresh and vivid green in colour into the bowl.

As the hot soup hits the spiced fig the smells of all of the spices that the fig had been marinated in are release and the dinner gets a sense of the flavour to come.  

This soup is a very simple dish to make at home and well worth the effort, all of the flavours from the soup and the marinated fig are pulled together with the salty goat’s cheese and Ibérico ham a truly great combination!!

Serves 10;

Ingredients;

For the vegetable stock;

2 onions

1 leeks

2 sticks of celery

3 carrots

1 bulbs of fennel

4ltr water

1 head of garlic, sliced in half

4 star anise

2 bay leaves

1tsp white peppercorns

1tsp pink peppercorns

1tsp coriander seeds

1 cup of mixed coriander, tarragon, parsley and basil

½btl of white wine

For the soup;

1tblsp extra virgin olive oil

25g butter

1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped

1 garlic clove, peeled and minced

1kg frozen peas

1ltr vegetable stock

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

For the fig;

2 cloves

1 star anise

1tsp 5 spice powder

1tsp cinnamon powder

1tsp ground ginger

5 very ripe plump black figs

To serve;

250g St Tola goat’s cheese crumbled

5 slices of Ibérico ham cooked until crisp and golden

Small punnet of rocket cress

Method;

For the vegetable stock;

Chop all the vegetables into a rough dice and place in a large pan, cover with water and add the garlic, star anise, bay leaves, peppercorns, and coriander seeds. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10mins. Add the herbs and simmer for a further 3mins, now add the wine and remove from the heat, allow to cool. When cold place in the fridge. Leave the stock to marinade for 2 days in the fridge. Then strain and reserve liquid ready for use. This will make more of the vegetable stock than needed for this recipe, but any left over stock can be kept in the freeze ready for anther use.

For the soup;

Gently heat the oil and butter in a large saucepan, add the chopped onion and cook on a gentle heat for 10 minutes or until the onion is soft but not brown. Add the garlic and cook for a further 3 minutes. Add the 1ltr of stock and bring to the boil.

Place the soup and frozen peas into a blender in batches depending on the size of your blender and blend the soup, until you have a very smooth, vivid green puree.  Pass the soup through a very fine sieve and store in the fridge ready for use.

It is important not to cook the peas in the soup as they will discolour; we are looking for a very fresh taste of pea from this soup with a very deep green colour.

For the figs;

Place the cloves and the star anise into a mortar and grin to a powder with a pestle. Add this powder to the other spices and mix well.

Cut each fig in half and place onto a tray, sprinkle over a little of the spice mixture, wrap the figs in cling film and leave to marinade in the fridge for 1 hour.

Remove the figs from the fridge and brush with a little oil. Heat a ridged grill pan and when hot grill the figs on the cut side only for 4-5mins. This will intensify the spices and draw out the sweet nature of the fig. keep figs hot ready to serve.

To serve;

Place the soup into a pan over high heat and bring to the boil.

Place 1 half of fig into each bowl, crumble over the goats cheese and the crisp Ibérico ham, garnish with a little rocket cress and bring the bowls to the table.

Pour the soup into serving jugs and pour over the prepared bowls.

Eat and enjoy!!!!!!

Organic Glenarm salmon:-tea smoked, tartar, Ballotine and blinis & salmon eggs

The third course of the evening.

This dish again was designed to create a dramatic effect with a box of salmon being presented at the table, lid removed and a cloud of tea scented smoke filling the room. We knew from the start that this dish would be smoked tableside; we just hadn’t worked out how to do this for 90 people at once. I had been looking around for weeks to try and find anything that would work as a smoked and that wouldn’t cost us a small fortune at the same time. Then I had been in the wine cellar talking to Marco the hotels food and beverage manager, when I saw in the corner a magnum of champagne in a large wooden box, this would be exactly what I needed to smoke the salmon at pop up Belfast. I got on the phone to James Nicholson and before you knew it we had 10 perfect boxes. The boxes again where sent over to Stuart and within a day he had transformed then into a home smoker.

All we needed now would be to find the perfect smoke mixture. Walter Ewing our fish supplier for the hotel, is renowned for his famous smoked salmon, so after a quick phone call to him he had sorted us out with the oak and we mixed it with Lapsang Souchong which has a very distinctive, Smokey character and would work beautifully with the dish.

So below is the salmon 4 ways course, it is a very adventurous dish to recreate at home, but even if you just want to try some of the elements individually, you will still have a great course for a dinner party at home.

Serves 10

Ingredients;

For the Ballontine;

1 side of salmon skinned                                                                                                                                                                           

2tblsp Maldon salt

250g parsley and chervil very finely chopped      

For the tartar;

250g very fresh salmon skinned, pin boned and all brown flesh and belly fat removed

4 shallots peeled and finely diced

50g capers very finely chopped

250g parsley and chervil very finely chopped

Juice and zest of 1 lemon

Maldon salt and freshly cracked pepper

For the Blinis;

70g buckwheat flour

70g plain flour

⅓tsp baking powder

⅓tsp dried yeast

175ml warm milk

1 egg separated

125g melted butter plus 1tsp extra

For the poppy seed vinaigrette;

5g Dijon mustard

50ml white wine vinegar

50ml balsamic

200ml hazelnut oil

200ml olive oil

Seasoning

6 cloves of garlic crushed

6 sprigs of thyme

Chervil and tarragon

30g poppy seeds

To serve;

Wooden wine boxes or other boxes you can smoke the fish in

10 white Chinese style serving spoons

10 x 50g portions of lightly smoked salmon

1 Aladin smoker

1tblsp oak wood shavings

1tblsp Lapsang Souchong

10tsps salmon eggs

Baby coriander cress to garnish

Method;

For the Ballontine;

Trim the salmon, remove the tail and the top piece to leave the salmon in a perfect rectangle shape, remove all of the fat and brown flesh from the belly and all of the pin bones. Split the salmon fillet into two lengthways and sprinkle each half with a little salt. Place one piece of salmon on top of the other, season with Maldon salt and roll into perfect barrel shape in cling film, making sure it is very tight, allow to set for 2 hours. Place the salmon into a water bath set at 42c and cook for 1min for every 100g of the salmon weight, plus 20mins extra. Remove from the water and chill overnight.

The next day remove the salmon from its cling film covering and cover with the chopped herbs, season again lightly and re roll the salmon in cling film. Store in the fridge until ready to use.

For the tartar;

In a large clean cold bowl add the salmon. Add the diced shallots, capers and chopped herbs and mix well, making sure all ingredients are evenly distributed. Add the lemon juice and zest and season to taste. Try to make the tartar just before serving as the lemon juice and the salt start to cure the fish and this will change the texture of the overall tartar.

For the Blinis;

Sift the buckwheat flour, plain flour and baking powder together. Mix the dried yeast with the warmed milk, then separate the egg and add the yolk to the yeast mix.

Next whisk this into the dry ingredients to make a smooth batter. Stir in the 1tsp melted butter.

Whisk the egg white to stiff peaks, and then gently fold into the batter, keeping as much volume as possible. Clarify some butter by gently melting it in a pan, then pour off the clear yellow liquid to use (throw away the white bit left behind in the pan). Heat the clarified butter in a frying pan and drop in dessertspoons of the batter. Cook until the surface starts to bubble, then flip over and cook the other side.

Cut the blinis with a small cutter about the size of a 2 pence coin.

For the poppy seed vinaigrette;

Mix the mustard and vinegars together.

Mix the oils together, then slowly add the oil to the vinegar mix, add the seasoning, garlic and herbs and leave in a warm place to infuse for 3 hours. Strain through a fine sieve, add the poppy seeds and store ready for use.

To serve;

Get the wooden box ready to serve. Place 10 spoons in the box.

Heat a large pan over high heat and add a little olive oil, pan fry the smoked salmon pieces until just golden brown on the service side. Remove from the heat. Flip the salmon pieces over and allow to warm in the residual heat of the pan. Keep the salmon pink in the centre.

Place the salmon portions onto each spoon in the box. Working quickly place the wooden shavings and the Lapsang Souchong tea into the top of the smoker and using a blow torch light the shavings. The smoke will be released through the smoke tube. Place the tube into the box and allow the box to fill with smoke. Shut the lid quickly and allow the smoke to sit in the box while you plate the rest of the dish.

Cut 10 slices of the Ballotine and place onto each serving plate.

Warm the blinis and place onto each plate just beside the Ballotine.

Using two spoons shape the tartar into quenelles; place a quenelle of tartar just above each portion of Ballotine.

Drizzle the plates with a little of the poppy seed vinaigrette and garnish with coriander cress.

Serve each dinner a plate each and bring the box to the table, remove the lid and the smoke will fill the room, guest can then help themselves to a smoked salmon spoon each.

Carpaccio of Organic shorthorn beef, Herring roe, crispy quail eggs and parmesan

This course, the second course for pop up Belfast, again was designed as a sharing platter. Gary Bell had given us this dish and showed us a bone that he usually would serve this in. Johnny and I thought this would be a great idea until the day all of the bones arrived into the kitchen and the realisation of the mammoth task at hand became apparent. All of the bones had to be removed of marrow, scrapped spotlessly clean and scrubbed. Then boiled in salted vinegar water, cooled, scrapped again and this process repeated. Finally after two days they were then buffed and smoothed by Stuart who restores all of the hotels antiques.

The hard work was well worth all of the effort that Johnny and the team put in as now we have 100 perfectly cleaned bones to use as we wish!

The beef carpaccio was a great choice for the second course, light, full of flavour and well balanced, also because it was served cold it gave the team time to regroup after the scallop course.

The quality of the beef is the most important thing in this dish. Good local Northern Irish beef from a good butcher will do the trick. I would recommend Hannon’s just outside Moira.

This is a great dish and can be simply served on a plate at home without the entire dramatic hay and bone garnish.

Serves 10 people;

Ingredients;

For the beef;

500g beef fillet cut from the centre of the fillet and left in one piece

Maldon salt and cracked black pepper to taste

1tbslp Melted bone marrow or olive oil

For the parmesan crisps;

1 cup Parmesan cheese finely grated through the smallest holes on a box grater.

For the quail eggs;

10 soft boiled quail eggs, each cut in half

2tblsp chopped fresh parsley

2 eggs beaten

3tblsp flour

3tblsp fresh breadcrumbs

For the horseradish aioli;

2 egg yolks
1tblsp lemon juice
300ml of half rendered marrow bone fat and olive oil or all olive oil
3tbsp. prepared white grated horseradish, or to taste
3 garlic cloves, minced or to taste

Maldon salt and pepper to taste

To serve;

1kg sterilized hay or artificial hay

10 cleaned out bones (optional)

20 baby gem lettuce leaves, kept whole

50g Herring roe

1tblsp olive oil

Maldon salt

Cracked black pepper

Method;

For the beef;

Lay the beef onto a work surface and season all over with salt and pepper. Make sure you season well as the beef will be served cold. Place a pan large enough tom hold the beef over high heat. Add the melted marrow or olive oil; add the beef to the pan and brown very quickly on all sides, until golden brown. Remove the beef from the pan straight away and leave to cool.

When cool enough to handle wrap the fillet in cling film tightly to form a perfect cylinder. Place the beef into the freezer and freeze over night.

For the parmesan crisps;

Line a non stick tray with either parchment paper or a nonstick silicone baking pad. Using a tablespoon measurement, drop even mounds of parmesan cheese on the baking sheet. Use your fingers to pat the cheese into a thin circle about 3 inches across in size. Make sure none of the circles are touching. You should get 10 parmesan crisps in total.

Bake five minutes, or until golden and crisp. When the crisps are still warm, cut them through the centre and leave to cool.

For the quail eggs;

Lay 3 small trays onto the work surface. In the first place the flour in the second place the beaten egg and in the third place the breadcrumbs. Dip each egg into the flour, then the beaten egg, and finally the breadcrumbs.

Heat a deep fat fryer to 180c or heat a small pan of oil to 180c. Working in batches, fry until golden brown all over and heated through.

Drain on kitchen paper.

For the horseradish aioli;

Place yolks and lemon juice into the bowl of a blender. Mix lightly. Combine oils and add drop by drop to yolk mixture. As sauce thickens, oil can be added in a very thin trickle. (Avoid adding too much oil at one time, or eggs and oil will not blend.) Add horseradish and garlic, season to taste.

Chill before serving.

To serve;

Remove the beef from the freezer and slice into 30 thin slices.

Place the hay onto a large serving board and place the 10 bones on top. Place two baby gem lettuce leaves into each bone. Place three slices of beef per bone on top of the lettuce. Spoon the aioli over the beef. Spoon 5g per portion of the herring roe on top of the beef. Drizzle all of the bones with olive oil and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Garnish each bone with two parmesan crisp halves.

Serve in the middle of the table for all of your guest to share.

Seared scallops, aubergine caviar, toasted almonds, spinach and saffron air

This was the first course for our very first Pop up Belfast, set in the decaying structure of the Titanic drawing rooms.

We wanted to make an impression with this course because it was to lead the way into this unique dining experience and let the customers (who had followed and trusted us in this secret event), know that they were in for a something completely different throughout the night. The saffron air was proably the most asked question when people where talking about the Pop up Belfast menu. What is saffron air???? They would say confused. Well the saffron air was to be a dramatic effect with dried seaweed, saffron and dry ice put into a bucket. When the tray arrived at the table boiling water was added and a stream of air engulfed the table, bringing with it the smells of seaweed and saffron, an effect that I think worked really well and got the crowd talking.

The recipes created for pop up Belfast are not straight forward and are not the easiest things to create at home, but I really wanted to add these recipes to the blog, just encase anyone on the night might like to recreate this experience at home.

Ingredients;

For the aubergine caviar;

2 aubergines

2 cloves of garlic cut in half

4 sprigs of thyme

1tblsp olive oil

Maldon salt and cracked black pepper to taste

1 red pepper, roasted, skinned and deseeded

Juice from ¼ of a lemon

4 large leaves of basil very finely sliced

For the saffron foam;

5kg of fish bones, soaked in cold water and guiles removed

5ltrs of cold water

2 onions, diced

2 leeks, diced white part only

2 sticks of celery diced

12 white peppercorns

4 bay leaves

1btl white wine

50g mixed chervil, parsley, tarragon and coriander

1 onion finely diced

2 cloves garlic crushed

200ml white wine

200ml Noilly prat

250ml double cream

1tsp saffron

 

For the toasted almonds;

1tblsp almond flakes

For the scallops;

10 medium Irish scallops, White meat only, trimmed off all coral

Salt and pepper to taste

1tblsp olive oil

25g butter

Squeeze of lemon

For the spinach;

50g spinach, washed and picked

10g butter

To serve;

Cream gun with 2 gas canisters

Seaweed and netting

1 Wine bucket

100g Dried seaweed

1tsp Saffron

200g dry ice

Method;

For the aubergine caviar;

Pre heat an oven to 200c.

Slice the aubergines in two lengthways, and then score the flesh with the tip of your knife in a criss-cross pattern. Rub the garlic halves over the scored sides of the aubergines and stud two halves with sprigs of thyme. Drizzle over the olive oil and sprinkle with Maldon salt and pepper. Sandwich together, with the garlic halves, and wrap tightly in foil to resemble a Christmas cracker. Repeat with the other two halves. Place on a roasting tray and bake for 35-40 minutes. Allow to cool slightly.
Remove the foil from the aubergines, discard the herbs and scrape the flesh and garlic on to a chopping board. Chop to a coarse paste.

Finely chop the red pepper and add to the aubergine. Add lemon juice and basil and adjust seasoning to taste. Set aside ready for service.

For the saffron foam;

In a large pan sweat the vegetables over medium heat until translucent. Add the peppercorns and bay leaves and pour in the wine, reduce until almost evaporated. Add the bones and herbs and cover with water, bring to the boil and reduce heat to a very gentle simmer. Simmer for 20mins, remove from the heat and allow to settle for at least 2hours. Skim the stock well and ladle the stock through a muslin lined sieve. Try not to disturb the bones to much as this will make the stock cloudy. Do not be tempted to try and get all the liquid from the pan. At this point the stock for the pop up Belfast would have been reduced by half and put over fresh fish bones and repeated one more time. This will add a very deep flavour to the sauce and also adds natural gelatine to help hold the final foam.

For a simpler version at home reduce by half and add two softened gelatine leaves.

Cool and store in the fridge over night. The next day remove all the fat from the surface of the stock.

Place a medium sized pan over high heat and add the oil. Add the onions and the garlic and cook until translucent, add the white wine and reduce until almost all has evaporated. Add the Noilly Prat and reduce to ¼ its volume. Add the fish stock and reduce by ¾. Add the cream and bring to the boil, turn the heat to a simmer and continue to simmer for 5mins. Remove from the heat, add the saffron and keep warm.

For the toasted almonds;

Place the almonds in a heavy, ungreased non stick pan. Place the pan over a gentle heat and stir often until golden brown, remove from the heat and allow to cool. When cool store in an airtight container ready for service.

For the scallops;

Place a large none stick frying pan over high heat. Add a little olive oil. When the oil is hot, season the scallops with salt and pepper and panfry over high heat for 1½ minutes. This should give the scallops a lovely golden caramelised surface. Turn the scallops over and add the butter. Allow the butter to melt and spoon the butter all over the scallops; cook for a further 45seconds or until just cooked through and no more. Add a squeeze of lemon and remove from the heat and keep warm.

For the spinach;

Cook spinach on medium heat with 5g butter in a small pan. When the spinach has just wilted remove from the pan and place on a clean kitchen towel. Remove as much moisture as possible, season to taste, keep warm and set aside.

To serve;

Prepare a large tray with some seaweed and netting, leaving a space for the wine bucket and the water jug. Warm the scallop’s shells and place on top of the seaweed.

Place a little of the spinach into the bottom of each shell. Warm the aubergine caviar and place on top of the spinach. Place a scallop on top of each shell.

Pour the warm saffron velouté into a cream gun. Add two gas canisters to the gun to create the foam.

Point the cream gun at the scallops and cover the scallops with the foam.

Place the wine bucket onto the tray and add the dried seaweed and dry ice. Place a water jug filled with boiling water at the bottom of the tray and carry the tray to the table.

Pour the boiling water into the wine bucket and this will release the air all over the table.