Pea ravioli with crispy bacon

Either a reverse spherification or in this case a frozen half dome dipped in vege gel. A fun play on the traditional flavours of pea and ham soup. Vege gelatine is seaweed based and has a better mouth feel than leaf gelatine. 1g per 100mls of liquid to set and a dipping temperature of 27c. The bacon gives some texture and balances out the saltyness.

Under Pressure for Stock

The idea of cooking Stock or Jus under pressure seems completely alien to me. From day one in the kitchen we are taught to simmer stock or Jus slowly and gently. The two biggest mistakes you can make are to boil a stock or cover it. Both will make it cloudy and fatty. A regular veal jus in any kitchen will take 24 hrs from start to finish. Its a process of roasting bones, scumming off, simmering and skimming of fat. A white chicken stock could be done in 3 hours as most of the goodness is extracted by then.
Cooking a stock under pressure in a pressure cooker speeds up the process and extracts all the flavour of the ingredients that are added.
The pressure formed inside the cooker prevents the stock from boiling. The down sides are that industrial pressure cookers are expensive. You have to be very methodical with them. Releasing pressure could give off cloudy stock and a face full of steam! Regular recipes containing chicken wings or calves feet need to be adjusted as the extraction of all the nutrients will make the jus really sticky.

Start of your Jus in the normal way. Roast the bones to render the fat and colour the meat. Brown off the vegetables and de glaze the rosting trays.

Cover the bones and veg with water and bring to a simmer. Skim of as much fat as you can and seal the lid on. Pressure cookers have valves that indicate the amount of pressure within. Too much and they will release and your stock will boil like mad. So manufacturers instructions or for our one between the two red lines.

3 hours later for a red wine jus is really quick and the loss of stock is minimal. This can then be passed off and reduced or frozen and skimmed a second time. The days of 24 hr stock pots are over Chefs claim your stove space back!!!

Gabonese Cuisine

I like to travel and combine travelling with eating. There is very little I wont have a go at, nothing I wont try.
For instance Manioc and Bannana Frites took a bit of getting used to but now I can honestly say I like them.
The Gabonese have a french influence to their food, they have some of the best fishing in the world. Not much in the way of agriculture so much is imported from the rest of Africa and Europe. Bread here is really good although humidity gets to it straight away.
Below Linda is holding a 30kg Rouget. One of the Local chefs with a Wild boar. The ingredients here could be combined to make something more contemporary but you would have to work hard on it.
Attunga has a sour citron/avocado flavour to it. Manioc I have grown to like but has an awful texture, really springy. A lot of their bush meat such as Wild boar and Porcupine are now illegal but you can still find it in the provinces.  The Capitane and Gambas a really good and a local Crabe  farci is fantastic when fresh. There is a great selection of red wines here however my favourite beers in the world are brewed here  Castel and Regab. Reason enough to re-locate?

The New Sticky Beef Part 2

So we have the braised Ox cheek and the carrot purée. I want to cover ju at a later date. On the original dish parsnip mash was the accompaniment but mash for large numbers is always poor. A galette potato or pomme Anna using mid potato and clarified butter makes up the starch. Charred baby leeks for a bit of green. The textured crust is a mixture of puffed wild rice, Thai crispy shallots and furikake. Furikake is basically the flavourings from Japanese noodles so full of nori bonito and other stuff that tastes great but better that you don't understand it's origins. The crust lends texture and depth of flavour . Beautiful main course plates help..

Spiced Carrot Purée

To accompany the Ox Cheek we needed something tart to cut the fat or richness of it. The previous dish had braised endive. Bit old fashioned, beige and difficult to plate.
We started by grating all the ingredients to speed up the cooking time and not loose too much flavour. Sand carrots preferred over tasteless donkey carrots. Simmered with veg nage and blended with orange juice gives a clean cumin spiced purée that's a little sharp but not bitter.