Ginger is the new black

As you might know from my earlier bog post, my brother and I are in Brighton for a couple of days. Obviously we did a little research on our way there, so we decided to try the Gingerman's tasting menu for dinner - we nearly walked passed it.

Before I go any further I have to declare that I forgot to take a picture of the main course. But more on that later...

To start with we had a cocktail each (not part of the tasting menu). My brother had a G&T with Brighton Gin. The guys at the restaurant asked how we knew about Brighton Gin and we had to admit that the whole of our knowledge was based on an advert we saw on a bicycle...

Either way it was great. When I was having dinner at the Kensington Quarter, I got introduced to Espresso Martini, so when I saw that this was available, I had to go for it...

Both were a great way to start the evening... (I am enjoying the "..."s today)

But then it got serious. We started with an "off menu" appetizer of a Salmon Fish Cake with a Wild garlic Veloute.

At that point we started to be impressed - we just loved it.

Next was "Frozen Goats Curd with Beetroot & Orange"

Well, I am no fan of goaty things, but this was lovely.

Next was a "Crab Roulade, Beignet, Charred Sweetcorn, Avocado, Cucumber, Quails Egg and a Bisque:

The flavors were amazing! The only down side was that mine (not my brother's) had a little shell in it. But honestly, not only did the flavor make up for it, the "front of house" guys, Jamie and Faye, dealt with it beautifully.

To follow was the Sea Trout with wild asparagus, Jersey Royals, sorrel, broccoli puree and a hollandaise sauce.

The fish was cooked perfectly and the whole dish was a joy to eat. My only comment would be that the wild asparagus was kind of hidden. I think it needs to be shown, so I did a separate picture of it.

And now to the main course of Saddle and Balllotine of lamb, Tabbbouleh, Asparagus, Broad Beans and Mint Oil. I had two problems with this, but they came with two solutions.
The first one is that it took a little too long to arrive, but Jamie topped up our wine when the dish arrived, so we were happy.
The second is that I was then too keen to devour this delicious dish, that I forgot to take a picture of it. The solution to this is that Faye suggested to mail me a picture of the dish. I will update the post when I get the picture.

The last course was "Raspberry Souffle with White Chocolate Ice Cream". Well, I am no great fan of deserts and I really do not like White Chocolate, however, I just loved this. The souffle was super light and tasty and the pairing with the white chocolate ice cream was brilliant.

It just shows that tasting menus challenge you to try things, which is always a good idea. We finished the evening with an Espresso.

All in all we had a super evening. Thank you to Jamie and Faye - they even didn't mind (too much) posing with my brother for a finishing snap shot.

What a great find. The Gingerman is now firmly on my "must visit" list for Brighton.

Afternoon Snack - Scallops in Brighton

Lovely afternoon snack in Brighton...

Seafood always tastes best at the sea front!

Lovely little french "Bar Del La Mer"

Cape Hake with Jersey Royals and a Parsley and Bacon Sauce

I haven't done any cooking with Regal's great fish products since December, so it clearly was overdue. Last nights dinner was Cape Hake with a Parsley and Bacon Sauce. According the the kids the fish was perfect and the sauce was "mega".

I simply steamed the fish in a parcel of aluminium foil in the oven with a little olive oil, lemon juice, four bay leaves and a couple of parsley storks at 180C for 20 minutes. Whenever I steam fish like this I salt it to firm up the flesh. It only takes a few minutes and really makes a difference. You sprinkle salt evenly on both sides of the fish and let it stand for about 10 minutes and then rinse the salt off.

for the sauce I chopped two slices of bacon and fried them off in a sauce pan with a little olive oil. I then took the bacon out, making sure the olive oil and bacon fat mix stayed in the pan. That is then the perfect base for a white sauce. So I added flour to make a rue and the I added half a pint of milk and half a liter of vegetable stock. At this point I added the finely chopped storks of the parsley and half a finely chopped onion and returned the bacon. Once this had come through the boil I let it simmer for 10 minutes. I did this quite early in the, so I just took it off the flame and covered it with cling film. If the film is directly on the sauce it prevents it from forming a skin. Letting it stand for a few hours allows the flavors to mature. Just before the fish was ready I re-heated the sauce and at the last minute I added the roughly chopped parsley leaves.

Seeing as the Jersey Royal season has just started they just had to be used. So I served with Jersey Royals and steamed asparagus.

Ketchup Leather the Experiment

Following on form my last post:

http://marcsfoodadventures.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/ketchup-leather.html

I have now done the experiment and I think it really works! Have a look at:

https://youtu.be/IMQIMXUPPdo

Lovely stuff - let me know what you think

Ketchup Leather

I just found this on the web page of the German broadcaster ARD:

http://www1.wdr.de/verbraucher/ernaehrung/ketchupleder-100.html

Sounds absolutely brilliant - basically you spread ketchup (normal commercial version or self made) about 2mm thin on a silicon sheet and dry it out in the oven for 3-4 hours.

The result can be used in in burgers and slightly melts with the heat of the burger releasing its intensified flavor.

The idea is from Ernesto Uchimura of the Plan Check Restaurant in LA. He developed the Ketchup Leather to stop burger buns from getting soggy.

I've got to try this! I am sure the kids won't mind testing ;-)

EDIT: Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMQIMXUPPdo

Wow - this is different

Well, as you might remember, in February I had a go at doing my own Sauerkraut. The other day we did some red slaw and had some red cabbage left over, so I thought it might be worth a try to treat that in the same way.
Obviously for Easter it's a great idea to have lamb and so we did. Here in the UK is is customary to have pickled red cabbage with Sheppard's Pie. So I thought that 'Red Sauerkraut' would work as well and it certainly did! We loved it!!!

Home made Macaroons

The company I work for is headquartered in Paris, France. As such I go there quite frequently and the family love it when I bring back Fauchion Macaroons.
You might have worked out from this blog, that we do love our food. The eating and the making. My wife kept on saying "I wonder how you make these". We live near Windsor and when we had a trip to the Windsor Daniel's department store, I found a cheap copy of Stephane Glacier's DVD "macaroons".

Ever since it has been a family joke to ask Rhona (my wife) - "when will you do macaroons???".

So when our 9 year old son was pushed for finding a Mother's day gift, he searched on Amazon and found Mad about Macarons! by Jill Colonna (obviously macroons and macarons are supposed the same thing -  let me know which spelling you prefer).

Now Rhona really got the bug and after reading the book a few times, she gave it a go. Apparently the quick reference section at the back of the book giving you the measurements for different quantities numbers of macro(o)ns was incredibly helpful.

In her own word, Rhona's piping skills need improving. So the sizes of the macaro(o)ns in her first attempts were varied. Practice no doubt will help on that, but we all agreed that (particularly for a first attempt) the result was a triumph from a flavor and a texture point of view.

I just can't wait for the next few tries...