Summers Cooking
For New Year’s this year I thought I would try my hand at this dessert. It was a six course meal (served at a friends house), so making ahead of time and easy to get right in someone else’s kitchen was key. I found this recipe from Gordan Ramsay which said you could make and freeze these ahead of time and cook from frozen.
They were perfect and gooey, and topped off a great evening. Shown above served with Vanilla Ice Cream, Raspberries, Raspberry Coulis and Gold Dust.
Roughly inspired by a recipe on http://www.watercress.co.uk, this was a real treat. It perfectly complemented the duck breast with a sweet orange sauce.
We substituted walnuts for the hazelnuts, and caramelized the pears in a pan with some sugar and water on a the stove top instead of grilling them.
So this was a “rustle up what is in the fridge” dinner, I had potatoes, pork fillets, and a pot of cream, some salad and a bunch of herbs in the garden.
In a pan sauté some garlic, shallots, pink peppercorns in olive oil. Then slice the fillets in half (to make them about 10mm (3/8th inch) thick), and brown them on one side with the onions to release some of the juices. Then take the onions off the heat, and cut the pork into neat rounds the size of your stainless steel ring (about 8cm diameter), chopping the cut-off pieces and mixing them in with the onions.
Meanwhile, parboil some thin slices of potato. When the potato is soft (but not quite cooked), strain off the water and put aside.
To assemble the dish, pour some cream into the onion and pork mixture, season and stir well. Then make layers of potato, basil leaves, cream/onion mix and pork layers in the stainless steel ring, topping it off with a piece of pork (browned side up).
The final dish is placed in a 240oC oven for 10 minutes, and served with a salad of Rucola.
Looking back, finishing touches could be a drizzle of Calvados in the cream sauce, and a cored slice of apple in the layers.