Salmon Belly Nduja 

Made slightly different to the meaty Nduja version that is stuffed in a sausage casing and smoked. In the salmon belly version, we cure for three days with the belly and trim, seasoned it with garlic and home fermented chili with smoked paprika. All of this is minced twice before shaping with caul into a sausage. We gently cooked this and then smoked it.

In this first experiment it was not as soft as I would have liked, but it was still a fantastic flavour. 

I softened a little with olive oil and served with melba and dried fish skins. 

We also used it in our sole paupiette, which was an absolute winning combination. 

Daily we clean chicken supremes, we trim/clean the humerus bone, this leaves us with a fair amount of fat, gristle and some meat. Up to now I have made chicken meatballs, sausage rolls, terrines, stews, burgers and stocks from the off cuts. This time we tried a snack that everyone likes – chicken nuggets for grown ups. In the crust we used stale sourdough, crisp chicken fat and dried carrot skin/peels. 

The Farce was minced with the addition of cumin, white and black pepper, garlic chili, bicarb, corn flour and mixed together before poaching and crumbing.

For the dipping sauce we made a chicken schmalz garlic type mayo. 

Duck Skin & Trim from cleaning duck breast, this is a very fatty mixture. We have experimented with many seasonings, my favourite being mint stalks, fennel, chili and allspice. In this mix we have not added any bread or egg. Salting the trimmings a day before aids in binding, emulsifying the fat and proteins.

We kept the mix ice cold and put it through the mincer twice. 

We then rolled out used puff pastry thin and spread the mixture on top before rolling it into thick logs that we cut to form pinwheels. These are then baked.

Note – We preferred the pinwheels to the sausage rolls. 

For another day, into the library. We often have small batches left from production, and the more we work on items the more ideas we have. Some are served as specials and go to the library. Seared local Irish lamb loin, with a lamb farce in a seed crust, served with mushroom sauce, king oyster mushrooms and fermented currants.

We wanted a vegan main course, cauliflower allows a beautiful marriage in flavours. 

Cauliflower is seasoned and marinated in light lemon based curry marinade with coriander and curry leaf.

In this feature we have a cashew chickpea sauce. I also use all the trim and discarded bits in the beautification of the dish. With the addition of cauliflower salad and Cauliflower pickle 

When I was working and the Mount Nelson, we were working on a lot of plant based vegan concepts, with so many of the ideas Kirstin was instrumental in this idea. With so many ideas she was the driving force in meticulous recording and doing trail after trial. She made it easy, she was the driving force in the discoveries and excecution.

We were working on ideas for afternoon tea, Kirstin worked on an idea to making a smoked carrot to replace smoked salmon on the tea sandwiches. This was genius, by no way a new idea. She just made it perfect. With a combination of salt baking and smoking, then finally finishing off with some olive oil.

I decided to use the same concept and create a new dish for our vegan guests. With a almond curd, toasted almond, pickled shallots. 

As part of the lunch special, we received beautiful fresh cod. We wanted to do something fresher that did not involve deepfrying as much as we enjoy it. We lightly brined the fillets and roasted them with baby tomatoes, capers, olives, garlic and olive oil with a good splash of fresh lemon juice. This was amazingly fresh with a nice summer feel. 

Call this a fancy pie, we slow cooked the shoulder in Beamish and onion. We then pulled chunks of shoulder keeping most of the muscles intact, seasoned and rolled while still warm, this allows a tighter roll, then cool. Portions are cut and topped with slow braised Beamish braised onions, then covered in puff pastry and baked. Served with soft creamy buttery mash.

Served with beamish gravy and mash

In working new fresh ideas for the pool, we wanted fresh and light creations that were healthy and could resinate with our guest, especially after a breakfast. We cheated a little and used some our grilled chicken instead of mincing chicken. We created this beautiful chopped chicken salad with the addition of mint, coriander, toasted jasmine rice powder, spring onion, lime and fish sauce. It worked, it ticked all the boxes from a kitchenas well as a guest perspective. The first time I experienced a larb, was on a visit to Laos, next to the pool at a sister Belmond Hotel, Luang Prabang.