Some stuff I Made
Michelle is off for a few days so I wanted to whip up something nice for our last dinner together. I also thought it might be fun to push my creative culinary skills a bit more than usual.
So here are a few of the things I whipped up (I did 6 courses all up). I'll give you the breakdown or recipes (as much as I can remember) if you are interested.
Deconstructed BLT - Tomoto and fire roasted red-chilli soup, fried feta crouton, crisp pancetta chips, cos lettuce
Char Siew, champagne jelly served on truffled multigrain toast
Prawn, raisin and bacon dumplings in a toasted curry and spiced-dried apricot creme emulsion
Custard, fried sage and rosemary, Canadian maple syrup and Sam Mason's raisin paper
The other two course: #3 tuna sashimi salad and #5 dates wrapped in sesame oil seared peppered beef with a balsamic galzed shitake I forgot to take pictures of as I was too absorbed in eating.
That is truly phenomenal, I'm very impressed (and envious).
Posted by: dave | November 13, 2005 at 09:04 PM
Thx Dave, it was lots of fun as well.
Posted by: Sean | November 15, 2005 at 12:28 AM
yowza¡
screw going out to brunch on sunday - howzabout you give me cooking lessons?!
Posted by: estee | November 15, 2005 at 04:00 AM
Fantastic stuff! Michelle is one lucky gal!( and i hope has high basal metabolic rate.. because at this rate... :P) Just curious about the champagne jelly, what gelling agent did you use? gelatin or pectin? cheers.
Posted by: Bangalow Sweet | November 15, 2005 at 09:08 AM
I used gelatin (but only because I had gelatin) which I disolved in a little hot white wine (instead of water) I added the champagne while it was hot and put it straight into the fridge hoping to trap some bubbles (which worked but not to the degree that I'd hoped)
Cheers,
Sean
Posted by: Sean | November 15, 2005 at 04:29 PM
Hi thanks Sean for the explanation, another question I have: what is Sam Mason's raisin paper? Did you make them yourself or?
cheers
Posted by: Bangalow Sweet | November 20, 2005 at 07:03 AM
The raisin paper is a crispy paper made of raisin puree.
It's pretty easy. Soak about 4 cups of raisins in water overnight then blend the softened lot with one egg white (I added some cinnamon too). Spread the mixture really thinly on a baking sheet (thinner than mine would be ideal) and bake for 3 hours on about 100.
Posted by: Sean | November 21, 2005 at 01:41 AM
Hmm, so just egg white and raisin, no flour? that's somewhat surprising, because I thought flour would make it crunchy, like corn flakes. dont see how egg white can do that (more texture of fried eggs?) here is a recipe to something not dissimilar http://www.recipesource.com/desserts/cakes/21/rec2104.html
does that look like your raisin paper?
Cheers,
Sweet bangalow
Posted by: Bangalow Sweet | November 21, 2005 at 08:03 AM
well I think it winds up crispy because the low temp oven dries the mixture rather than baking it. The egg white is just a bonding agent.
Anyhow it works a treat.
Posted by: Sean | November 21, 2005 at 05:57 PM