Poached sea trout
Ocean greens, spekboom and sea asparagus salsa verde, lime air, cucumber flowers, cucumber oil
Inspired by flavors of the ocean due to the leaves that we recently got as samples from wild peacock, we have been asking and searching for a long time.
“the oyster leaf and ice leaf simply played mind games when tasting them, they literally taste like the ocean, it was evident that the sea trout would best suite these beautiful greens, the cucumber flowers are like micro cucumbers with bold cucumber essence a light burst of acid with this bitter sweet under tone makes for a perfect marriage for the trout”
Archives for March 2018
Baby Potato, Asparagus, Green bean salad with a red onion and anchovy dressing
Potato and anchovy dressing
If we added egg and tuna we would almost have niçoise salad. Potatoes and beans just love anchovies, we added a couple faithful’s into the layers with olives, blanched asparagus and crispy fried capers with radish to finish.
With the salty ness of the anchovy in the dressing we sweetened it with honey and added roasted garlic.
Recipe
400g Asparagus peeled and blanched
400g Baby potatoes cooked and sliced
300g Green beans blanched and cut in half
200g Pitted olives
100g Lentils cooked
3 ea Radishes shaved
50g Capers fried crispy
Dressing
½ Red Onion chopped fine
1 ½ tbsp Anchovies chopped fine
2 tbsp Parsley chopped
90 ml Olive oil
4 cloves roasted garlic mashed
2 Tbsp honey
45 ml lemon juice
Black pepper to taste
Greek Style Roast Leg of Lamb
Greek Style Roast Leg Of Lamb, Photo Credit www.crushmag-online.com
This recipe is done by Chef Jaco who has been with me for many years, currently looking after the Banqueting operation at the hotel. What makes this recipe great the lemon and tomato, giving the lamb that smack for more. We prefer removing the lamb from refrigerator a hour before roasting to bring to room temperature. Adding more garlic is optional and advised. This Recipe was first published as part of an Easter recipe compilation for crushmag-online
Basting Sauce
5 cloves garlic, grated
1 Tbsp rosemary, chopped
zest of 1 lemon
salt & black pepper
1 Tbsp dried oregano
juice of 4-6 lemons
250 ml olive oil
6 tomatoes, grated
Lamb
2-2.5 kg leg of lamb
5 cloves garlic, sliced into quarters
15-20 sprigs rosemary
mirepoix (1 large onion, 1 large carrot, 2 sticks celery, 1 leek cleaned and sliced)
3 tomatoes, diced
10-12 baby potatoes
250 ml water
Preheat the oven to 180 °C
While the oven is preheating make the basting sauce by combining all of the ingredients in a bowl. Set aside until ready to use.
Turn the heat down to 165 °C.
Make small incisions in the flesh of the lamb on both sides. Insert the garlic slices into the incisions.
Season the lamb leg well with salt, pepper and baste.
Place the leg of lamb on a bed of rosemary, the mirepoix and the diced tomato. Roast for 1.5 hours, turning and basting the lamb every half hour.
Scatter the baby potatoes around the lamb and pour in the water. Add a little more water if it becomes too dry.
Finish at 190 °C for about 20 minutes. If you enjoy your lamb a little extra well done, cook for an additional half hour.
When the lamb is cooked, remove from oven and allow to rest for 10-12 minutes before carving.
Photo Credit www.crushmag-online.com
CHICKPEA & BRUSSEL SPROUT SALAD w A LEMON & MINT YOGHURT
Serves 4
Ingredients
300g Chickpeas cooked
150g Brussel sprouts cut into half
1 Tbsp Paprika
1 Tbsp Cumin
2 Cloves garlic chopped fine
30ml olive oil
30ml honey
20ml Cider vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
50g kale fired crispy to finish
200g Lemon and mint yoghurt
Method
Preheat oven to 180
Combine all ingredients in a bowl mix and place in baking tray.
Place in preheated oven and bake for 12 minutes.
Allow to cool place bowl with yoghurt in centre of salad with crispy fried kale on top.
#From The Pass – Prawn Wrapped Smoked Salmon
Prawn Wrapped With Smoked Salmon
Prawn and smoked salmon roll with sauce vierge, capers, salted banana shallots, avocado, mustard emulsion. We have had this dish in many incarnations over the years, the original was here long before I started. We have it on our banqueting menu’s. From the timbale shaped to a ball shaped salmon with filling.
This being the latest is tight roll with salmon smoked locally and Argentinian poached prawns as the filling. The filling is packed a lot tighter than in previous menu’s, made lighter with less mayonnaise and cream cheese. Accompanied by an avocado puree and a tomato vierge that keeps everything clean and fresh.
MIDDLE EASTERN POTATO SALAD
When Kim presented me with this salad it really made me happy because it was the first time in many years that we did something different with our potato salad and it tasted bloody good. Not only is this a great salad, but would work as a hot dish as well.
500g Potatoes Cooked & Peeled
100g Cooked lentils
30 ml olive oil
2 Cloves garlic chopped
2 tsp Coriander seeds toasted and crushed
1 tsp chili flakes
2 tsp turmeric
15ml Lemon juice
20g Coriander chopped roughly
20g Parsley chopped roughly
2 Spring onions sliced
Heat the spices in the oil, add potatoes and toss until evenly coated.
Add herbs and season with salt and pepper.
#From The Pass – Autumn Squash Salad
Autumn Squash Salad
We have used squash in various salads over the years, mostly marrow and patty pans. Last year Dion started playing with more squashy ideas from charred squash to risotto and lots of salads. “In it’s young form during the end on summer into Autumn they are so wonderful they have this natural sweet, gentle sour and bitter under tone, so we decided to shave them dressed with a touch of olive oil, lemon juice and maldon salt” Then Rameez in larder chirps, that in needed some heritage. “So I turn to Rameez and ask him to make me those pumpkin cookies that his ouma used to make for him during his younger days” So they make a puree with those exact flavours with out adding eggs or dairy, later on adding some crunchy textures like freshly toasted nuts, seeds, coconut, and goji berries. “So the end result was this pumpkin puree at the base of the bowl with the dressed shaved squash and this crunch mix scattered on top, we tasted it and almost could not believe that the dish was vegan, it reminded us all of our oumas pampoen koekies.
ROASTED BUTTERNUT, LENTIL & TOMATO SALAD WITH CANDIED NUTS & SEEDS
Ingredients
500g Butternut Roasted
120g Brown lentils cooked
100g Baby Tomatoes, slow roasted
50g Rocket leaves
50ml Olive oil
25ml lemon juice
Salt and pepper
For Sugared pecan nuts
40g Sunflower seeds
50g Pecan nuts
60ml Brown sugar
Method
Add sunflower seeds with Pecan nuts and brown sugar. Allow sugar to caramelise covering nuts and seeds.
Salt and allow to cool, crush and sprinkle over the salad.
Finding Burger Part 15! Top or Bottom.
Top or Bottom
Does it matter where the tomato and the lettuce is placed, does it matter if the lettuce is placed above above or below the patty, where does the chutney work best? For years we have layered our burger with a buttered and toasted bun, ice berg lettuce, aioli followed by the tomato followed by the meat, then caramelised onion, followed by a great cheese and finally some chutney with a buttered and toasted sesame bun on top. We asked the question as one bites through the burger, layers of flavour is exposed and pop one by one, releasing moments of happiness as this happens. We needed an experiment. It is time for change!
I ask these questions after we did a trip to Stellenbosch last week, where I possibly had one of the best burgers to offer in the Western Cape, possibly one of my top ten burger experiences. Bertus a good friend of mine at opened a small burger joint, De Vrije Burger. I studied the assembly of the burger, with a burger patty at the base, followed by cheese, leaves, tomato and thin slices of red onion with slices of cucumber pickle. The sauce was a smoky chili sauce. I liked the idea, as the salad does not get squashed by the patty, the juices do not spoil the salad.
Need to consider a possibility……we did a trial with everything in reverse to what we normally do. After cooking and eating, we like the way it eats, like the look. But the biggest down fall is the juices running into the base making it soggy. This will still need further thinking and tests.
Maybe a burger should be presented in two halves with fresh ingredients on the cap and the remainder on the base, leaving the guest in charge to assemble. This is an option. Perhaps we can leave the lettuce in whole pieces.
In the end of our debate and experiment we walked away only with two things, the possibility of adding red onion and changing our basting for now.
#From the pass – Peppered duck breast
Starting this week on our new autumn menu, is an adaptation from a previous duck starter, with the addition of a beautiful pistachio, duck liver and pear parfait with confit leg, pistachio nuts, duck pancetta, charred and charred poached pears. Initially when Dion proposed the dish I thought it was going to be heavy, but it turned out that the parfait is so light, eating well with the new season poached pears that have been charred on the grill.
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