Nourished

Recent Vegetarian Recipes

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A Few Thermomix Recipes

James Martin

James Martin’s Passion fruit soufflé with passion fruit jelly and ice cream

Ingredients

For the ice cream
400ml/14fl oz milk
8 free-range egg yolks
200g/7oz caster sugar
400ml/14fl oz double cream
8 passion fruit, seeds scooped out


For the jelly
200g/7oz caster sugar
200ml/7fl oz water
6 passion fruit, seeds scooped out
6 gelatine sheets, soaked in cold water until softened

For the soufflé 
25g/1oz butter, softened
4 tbsp caster sugar
4 free-range egg whites
175ml/6fl oz ready-made vanilla custard
4 passion fruit, seeds scooped out
1 chocolate-coated honeycomb bar, crumbled

Preparation:

For the ice cream, bring the milk to the boil in a heavy-based pan.
Remove from the heat immediately.

Place the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and whisk until pale and fluffy. Pour the warm milk over the egg yolks, whisking well until smooth and well combined. Pour the mixture back into the pan and return to a low heat.

Whisk in the cream and passion fruit seeds. Cook for a further 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the mixture has thickened enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. (Do not allow the mixture to boil.)

Remove from the heat and set aside to cool. Once cooled, pour the mixture into an ice cream machine and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Transfer the churned ice cream to a freeze-proof container and chill in the freezer until needed. Take the ice cream out of the freezer about 10 minutes before serving to soften slightly.

For the jelly, place the sugar and water into a saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 2-3 minutes, or until the mixture has thickened, then stir in the passion fruit seeds. Remove from the heat.

Squeeze out any excess moisture from the soaked gelatine and whisk into the warm sugar mixture until dissolved. Pour the jelly mixture into the prepared baking tray and chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour, or until the jelly has set. Using a 7.5cm/3in round cutter, cut out four circles of jelly. Place onto a tray lined with cling film and place back into the fridge until needed.

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.

For the soufflé lightly grease 4 large ramekins with the butter, then dust with half the caster sugar.

Whisk the egg whites in a large clean bowl until soft peaks form. Add the remaining caster sugar and whisk until stiff peaks form.

Gently fold in the vanilla custard and passion fruit seeds until just combined. Spoon the mixture gently into the prepared ramekins and place onto a baking tray.

Bake the soufflés in the oven for 10 minutes, or until golden-brown and risen.

Meanwhile, start plating the dessert. Place a jelly round on one side of each serving plate. Top the jelly with some of the crumbled chocolate honeycomb bar, then place a scoop of ice cream on top of the crumble. Remove the risen soufflés from the oven and place alongside the jelly. Dust with icing sugar and serve immediately.

Serves 4

Original BBC Recipe Link

Paul Heathcote

Paul Heathcote’s fool proof hot raspberry soufflé

Ingredients

250g/9oz raspberries
4 eggs, whites only
100g/4oz caster sugar
juice of half a lemon
½ tsp cornflour, lightly dissolved in a few spoonfuls of water


Preparation method


First, evenly butter and sugar ovenproof moulds for the souffles and place in the freezer.

For the coulis, add half of the sugar to the raspberries. Place in a hot pan and cook quickly for 2-3 minutes with a good squeeze of lemon juice.  Liquidise with a hand blender and pass through a sieve to remove the seeds.  Place 2 tsp of coulis in the bottom of the soufflé dishes and thicken the remaining coulis with the moistened cornflour.

For the meringue, ensure the whisk and bowl are free from grease by scalding in boiling water.  Place the egg whites in the bowl and start to whisk.  Gradually add sugar until a smooth soft peak is obtained.  Add a good squeeze of lemon juice at the end.

For the soufflé, take a third of the meringue and whisk into the thickened coulis.  Lightly fold in the remaining two thirds. Do this gently so the air is not knocked out of the mix.  Divide the mix between the dishes.  Smooth the surface of the souffli and trim edges with your thumb.

When ready to bake, space out on a tray and bake in a medium to hot oven (180C/350F/Gas 4) for approximately 10-15 minutes depending on the size and dish.

Dust with icing sugar, place a raspberry on top and serve immediately.

Serves 2

Original BBC Recipe 

Cinnamon

Ollie Fararr’s Iced raspberry soufflé with a cinnamon straw

This is Ollie Fararr’s dish from Master Chef : The Professionals.  This is a no-cook version of a classic soufflé, which is set in the freezer to create an icy sweet treat.


Ingredients
400g/14oz raspberries
150g/5oz caster sugar
250ml/9fl oz water
3 free-range egg whites
50ml/2fl oz double cream
For the cinnamon straws
250g/9oz ready-made puff pastry
1 free-range egg yolk, beaten
3 tbsp caster sugar
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
To serve
Fresh mint sprigs

Preparation method
Wrap a strip of acetate around the outsides of four ramekins and secure with tape. Alternatively use a strip of lightly oiled greaseproof paper.

For the soufflé, reserve 12 raspberries for the garnish and set aside. Place the remaining raspberries into a food processor and blend until smooth. Pass the raspberry purée through a fine sieve into a bowl and set aside.

Place the sugar and water into a pan and gently heat until the sugar has dissolved, then bring to the boil and cook until the temperature of the mixture reaches 115C/239F (check using a digital thermometer).

Meanwhile, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form when the whisk is removed. Once the sugar has reached the correct temperature, slowly pour the hot sugar syrup into the meringue while whisking continuously. Whisk until all of the sugar has been incorporated and the meringue is smooth and glossy.

Whisk the double cream in a clean bowl until soft peaks form when the whisk is removed. Gently fold the whipped cream into the raspberry purée, then fold in the meringue until just combined. Spoon the mixture into the prepared ramekins, then place into the freezer until set.

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.

For the cinnamon straws, roll out the puff pastry as thinly as possible, then brush with beaten egg yolk. Mix the sugar and cinnamon together, then sprinkle over the pastry. Cut the pastry into 1cm/½in wide strips, then gently twist each onebefore placing onto a baking sheet.

Bake the cinnamon straws for ten minutes, or until the pastry is golden-brown and puffed up. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool.

To serve, carefully remove the acetate from the outside of the ramekins, place onto a serving plate and arrange two cinnamon straws alongside. Garnish each serving with three fresh raspberries and a sprig of mint.

Blackberry Soufflé

Tony Fleming’s Blackberry Soufflé

This is Tony Fleming’s blackberry souffle dish for the TV series Britain’s Best Dish. Tony and I discussed souffles at length following the show, and in part my mini souffle project is inspired by those conversation.

Ingredients

For the blackberry purée:
350 g blackberries
35 g caster sugar
For the blackberry and elderflower granita:
225 g blackberries
250 ml elderflower cordial
Juice of 2 lemons

For the blackberry soufflé base:
1 tbsp blackberry liqueur, such as crème de mûre
10 g cornflour
100 g caster sugar
For the pastry cream:
250 ml full fat milk
½ vanilla pod, split lengthways and seeds scraped out
50 g caster sugar
3 medium egg yolks
25 g plain flour

For the blackberry soufflés:
3 medium egg whites
30 g caster sugar
Icing sugar, for dusting
8 blackberries, to decorate
For the almond brittle (optional):
125 g butter
150 g caster sugar
50 ml double cream
1 tsp pectin
50 ml liquid glucose
175 g flaked almonds, chopped

For the cranachan (optional):
70 g honey
70 g oatmeal
200 ml double cream
½ vanilla pod, split lengthways and seeds scraped out
3 tbsp whisky, preferably blackberry
3 tbsp malt whisky
15 blackberries
For the blackberry sauce (optional):
25 ml blackberry liqueur, such as crème de mur

Preparation:

For the blackberry purée:Put the blackberries and sugar together with 25ml of water into a pan and bring to the boil. Break the blackberries down with the back of a spoon, then simmer on a low heat for 8–10 minutes until the blackberries are well cooked and mushy. Transfer to a food processor and blend until smooth, then push through a sieve and chill.

To make the blackberry and elderflower granita:Put the blackberries, elderflower cordial and lemon juice into a food processor and blend until smooth. Pass through a sieve and pour into a shallow metal tray, then freeze. Fork through the granita at 30-minute intervals to ensure even freezing.

For the blackberry soufflé base:
Put 250g of the blackberry purée into a pan and bring to the boil. Mix the blackberry liqueur and cornflour in a small container and then mix in 1 tablespoon of the hot purée. Tip it back into the pan and simmer for 5 minutes until thick. In a separate, very small pan, gently heat the caster sugar with 50ml of water until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil and continue to cook until it reaches 120°C (hardball stage). Pour half of this into the blackberry purée (making smaller quantities of the sugar solution makes it difficult to check the temperature). Combine and chill in the fridge.

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4 and generously butter six 130ml soufflé moulds and line with sugar. Brush the butter in an upwards direction from the base of the dish to the rim. This will encourage the soufflés to rise. Chill the moulds in the fridge and, once the butter is hard, paint lines of blackberry purée inside each mould and return to the fridge.

For the pastry cream:Boil the milk with the vanilla pod and seeds and leave to cool slightly. In a bowl, whisk together the sugar, egg yolks and flour. Whisk in the infused milk and return to a clean pan. Remove the vanilla pod and cook gently for 5 minutes until thickened and then chill in the fridge.

To make the soufflés:Whisk the egg whites and caster sugar in a bowl until soft peaks form. In a separate bowl, combine 50g of the blackberry soufflé base with 100g of the pastry cream. Beat in 1 spoonful of the egg whites and then gently fold in the rest. When folding in the last lot of egg whites, do this thoroughly but very carefully so as not to knock out any air.

Divide the soufflé mixture evenly between the six moulds; run your thumb around the rims to clean them and this will help the soufflé to rise straight and evenly. Bake for about 6 minutes until risen and golden.

To serve:Remove the soufflés from the oven, dust with icing sugar, place a blackberry on top and put on plates. Add the blackberry and elderflower granita. The chef suggests serving this dessert with cranachan and almond brittle (methods follow).

To make the almond brittle (optional):Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4 and line 2 baking sheets with silicon mats. Put all the ingredients except the almonds, into a pan and warm through. Stir in the almonds until well combined and then spread onto the prepared baking sheets in a thin layer and leave in the fridge for about 30 minutes to set. Place the baking sheets in the oven and bake for about 10 minutes until golden. Remove from the oven, leave to cool slightly and then cut the brittle into triangles and wrap each triangle around a ramekin to curve until set.

Meanwhile, prepare the cranachan. Toast the oatmeal until golden. Boil 30g of the honey and add toasted oatmeal, continue to cook for 1 minute and spread on a tray to cool. Whip the cream to soft peaks with the vanilla seeds, remaining honey and 2 tbsp of each whisky. Chop the blackberries and mix with 1 tbsp of the blackberry purée and remaining whisky.

Spoon a little of the blackberry mix into the bottom of four shot glasses then add a layer of the pastry cream and sprinkle with oatmeal. Keep layering it up until the glasses are full. Finish with a little blackberry mix and oatmeal to decorate.

To make the blackberry sauce (optional), heat 50g of the blackberry purée in a pan. Then add the liqueur and mix through.

Makes 6

Parmesan

Truffled Parmesan Galettes

Another little truffle trick for canapes is to pimp a parmesan crisp (or galette).

I have a bit of an umami obsession, and last time I made them I had that ‘taste’ very much in mind…

Ordinarily these crisps are made using ground parmesan, sprinkled onto a baking sheet, and baked in the oven for 5 mins or so until golden.  

These really are yummy, but in a little culinary epiphany, as the crisps were cooling I brushed them with a tiny quantity of good truffle oil.  The scent and taste operated almost at a subliminal level – do try them!

Alan Murchison

Mr Murchison’s Truffle Odyssey…

Here we have a mixture of the earthy depth of Perigord truffles and artichokes, the heady scent of white truffle oil, the softness depth of risotto and an incredible umami hit with the Parmesan.  Continuing our truffle theme, and courtesy of the very lovely Alan Murchison:

Jerusalem artichoke & Perigord truffle risotto, white truffle and artichoke velouté


Ristotto Rice
50g shallot brunoise (very finely diced)
25g garlic purée
100g butter
150g arborio risotto rice
100ml dry white wine
450ml vegetable nage
75g Jerusalem artichoke purée
50g crème fraîche
50g Parmesan cheese

Garnish
12 cooked poivrade baby artichokes
50 slices of fresh Perigord truffle (yikes!)
100g pea shoots

Preparation
To make the risotto, sweat the shallots and garlic purée in the butter.  Cook for 4-5 minutes without colouring.  Stir in the risotto rice and cook for a further 2 minutes.  Add the white wine and reduce by half.  Add half the vegetable nage and simmer over a gentle heat for 12 minutes, adding more nage as required.  Remove from the heat when the rice still has a little bite.  Pour onto a tray and spread out to allow the rice to cool evenly.  Cover with cling film and set aside.

To finish the dish, gently heat the cooked risotto, adding the artichoke purée.  Cook for 3-4 minutes, until the rice is tender, then add the crème fraîche and Parmesan and season to taste.

For the artichoke velouté, heat the purée and add the steamed milk and truffle oil.  Season and add the lemon juice.

Spoon the risotto rice into large metal rings.  Carefully remove the rings, add the artichokes and sauce, then top with copious amounts of sliced truffle.

Other Components:
Jerusalem artichoke purée
1kg Jerusalem artichokes
600ml vegetable nage
400ml whipping cream
salt and pepper to taste

Method:
peel the artichokes and chop into even size slices about 1cm thick.  Place in a pan and cover with the vegetable nage and cream.  Bring to the boil and simmer until very soft.

Lift the artichokes from the liquor and put in a Thermomix (or blender*).  Blitz until smooth, adjusting the consistency with the leftover cooking liquor.  Season to taste.

Vegetable Nage
2 large onions
3 sticks celery
1 bulb fennel
1 large leek
2 whole heads of garlic
100ml olive oil
750ml dry white wine
3 star anise
12 black peppercorns
6 white peppercorns
1 sprig rosemary
2 sprigs thyme
3 bay leaves
12 pink peppercorns
bunch of flat leaf parsley
bunch of tarragon

Method:
Finely chop all the vegetables and seat down in the olive oil for 3-4 minutes without colouring.  Add the white wine and reduce by half.  Cover with water and bring to the boil.  Simmer for 15 minutes, then add the herbs and spices and simmer for a further 5 minutes.  Remove from the heat and allow to infuse and cool.  Strain and set aside.

Cooked Poivrade Baby Artichokes
3 lemons
2 litres of water
5g ascorbic acid
6 large baby poivrade artichokes with long stalks
1 large banana shallot, roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic
10 ml olive oil
100ml white wine
50 ml white wine vinegar
3 sprigs thyme
2 bay leaves
6 black peppercorns

Method:
Squeeze the lemons into a large bowl and add the water and the ascorbic acid.

Start preparing the artichokes by snapping off the outside leaves as close to their bases as possible.  Keep removing outside leaves until you reach the lightest in colour and the most delicate inner leaves.  Prepare all six artichokes to this stage.  It is important to work quickly to prevent discolouration.

Peel the rough green skin from the artichoke head and stalk.  Once the creamy white flesh has been exposed and there is no green left, submerge it in the acidulated.  Repeat until all the artichokes are prepared.  Cut the remaining leaves away to just expose the choke.

Lightly colour the shallot and garlic in a little olive oil.  Deglaze the pan with the white wine and vinegar, and add the herbs and peppercorns.  Place the artichokes in the pan and just cover with the acidulated water.  Season to taste.  Bring to the boil and simmer for three minutes, then allow to cool in the liquor.

* If using a blender, please note that hot liquids should not be blended with the lid tightly on, as a vacuum will be created, and the contents of the blender will end up all over your kitchen!

Please do buy Alan’s brilliant book – you can read my review of it here, and see more photo’s of his amazing dishes

Journal

Truffles and Potatoes…

For many years I’ve read one particular Roux recipe with a combination of awe and longing*. The recipe involved carving a hollow into a potato, into which you would insert a truffle. The potato would then be put back together again to be cooked – when ready it would be sliced into 1/8 ths, a little like a boiled egg. I looked at the photo – I could smell the truffle, I knew what a fantastic combination it would make, but I certainly didn’t have a truffle big enough lying around to make this dish – I would have to dream about it for a while…

Fast forward several years and I was given a lovely little truffle as a gift. In additional to scenting some risotto rice (which is an essential part of having a truffle – that, and scenting eggs for the best scrambled eggs ever!), I looked again at the Roux recipe. I concluded it just wouldn’t work unless you were able to be incredibly generous with the truffle – it’s really something you’d need to be able to give to someone individually, or at most to share with one other person. Perhaps that’s just being greedy, but as a generous host, I just don’t feel that I could divide it up between many people :0( So. How to achieve the same results on a much more meagre quantity of truffle?

I thought in the first instance I would try it as a Pommes Anna… There are two quite closely related dishes which produce very different results. In my head Pommes Anna was the creamy gratin, in which layers of finely sliced potato are layered in a dish and covered in a creamy sauce. Of course that’s a dauphinoise gratin, from the Dauphiné region of France.  Pommes Anna is simply layered potato with butter, which results in a crisp potato gratin. So, approaching the dish with the wrong process in my head, I layered fine slices of (cooked) potato a little le creuset dish with layers of black truffle and a thickened cream. The result was absolutely delicious, especially when you lift the lid and receive a waft of truffle scent – amazing…

This summer I noticed that Mister Truffle had English summer truffles on his web site, and I thought it would be fun to try them, especially as they are a little cheaper than winter truffles.  I ordered a fairly large truffle, and the lovely Mr Truffle very generously sent me an enormous one. Now we were talking!  I’d ordered it for a celebratory dinner I was cooking for friends and family, and I thought I would scale up the size of my gratin this time. Whilst the flavour of the creamy dish was lovely, I thought the crispy Pommes Anna would suit the nature of a truffle better, and not swamp the truffle with too many other flavours. So, armed with my huge truffle, I began layering fine layers of raw potato and truffle into a dish, dotting each layer with butter.

The final dish looked fabulous – I brushed the top of the gratin with some truffle oil, and the scent as you ate the dish was amazing.  I also warmed the truffle trimmings in the butter before lining the dish, and this increased the scent-load.

I still look at the Roux recipe with longing, but I’m not sure in this economic climate that one could really use truffles in this way. With winter Alba truffles running at £2,900 odd per kilo – truffles remain a rare extravagance. Indeed, at a recent dinner in Ducasse they were charging £36 per plate for tiny quantities of Alba truffles. However if you want to try small quantities of truffle, Mister Truffle will sell you from as little as 1g. If you buy an white truffle though – absolutely don’t cook it like this – it should be finely shaved over a dish at the last possible moment.

* Recipe is from:

Eggs

Truffles and Eggs…

Typically a truffle will last for around a week in normal kitchen conditions, and during that time you can maximise it’s impact by infusing it’s scent into other ingredients.


You should store it in a glass container, rather than a plastic one, but typically this is what I do :

This allows me to have truffle scented risotto, and even better, the best scrambled egg imaginable.  The egg shells being porous allow the truffle to permeate the egg.  You could also make a very luxurious eggs Benedict.

If you are going to poach your eggs, the most efficient method I’ve found to date is the Marcus Wareing one – instead of putting vinegar into the pan, you put a tiny amount into a little bowl (or wipe the bowl around with the vinegar) and crack an egg into it.  This causes the egg white to coagulate and when you tip it into the water, you’ll end up with a beautiful poached egg!  Don’t forget to season your water too, for the perfect egg.  Poached Eggs

Another magnificent eggy dish is the Michel Roux’s recipe for:

Truffled Eggs en Cocotte

4 eggs
60g fresh black truffles
6tbsp double cream
30g softened butter
salt and freshly grated papper
60g Emmenthal or Comte, grated

Pur the eggs in an airtight container with the truffles and keep in the fridge for at least 24 hours or 48 hours if possible to allow the aroma of the truffles to permeate the eggs.

Slice the eggs as thinly as possible [if you don’t have a truffle slicer, do use a mandolin, carefully].  Bring the cream to the boil in a small saucepan, then immediately drop in the truffles and turn off the heat.  Stir the truffles into the cream with a spoon, cover the pan, and set aside until almost cold.

Preheat the oven to 170oC / Gas 3.  Brush the insides of 4 cocottes or ramekins, about 8cm in diameter and 4cm deep, with the softened butter and season with salt and pepper.  Put three-quarters of the grated cheese into one cocotte and rotate it to coat the inside.  Tip the excess cheese into a second cocotte and repeat to coat all 4 dishes.

Didvid the cooked cream and truffle mixture between the cocottes,  Carefully tip an egg into each one, sprinkle on the remaining cheese, and bake the eggs until cooked to your liking.  The cocotte can be cooked by putting the dishes into a greaseproof paper lined baking tray.  Fill the pan with boiling water up to half the height of the cocotte and put in the oven for around 10 minutes.  The egg white should be just set, with the yolk still loose…  Put a cocotte on each plate and serve.

You can find this recipe and many more in:

Restaurant

Roganic, Marylebone

With what has rapidly become the hottest London restaurant on Twitter, Roganic is something of a joyous enigma. Chef Patron Simon Rogan, Head Chef Ben Spalding and his team are able to turn out extraordinary food in what is essentially a tiny and cramped site. But the genius of the restaurant is that it recognises this restriction and has managed to turn it to its advantage.

Very few dishes are served hot, and as a result a number of the dishes are very pure, and incredibly scented. Where others use herbs as a garnish, here we were able to truly smell and taste the individual elements. This is also the first tasting menu I’ve ever managed to get through without feeling faintly ill – a number of the elements are raw, soused, or barely cooked – the resulting menu is fresh, full of texture and flavour. Some ingredients, such as the chenopodiums, hyssop, sweet cicely, lovage and wood sorrel are sourced by a forager, others from their own Howbarrow Farm, located close to their parent restaurant, L’Enclume. Remaining ingredients are sourced as closely as possible, and only from the British Isles. For example the kitchen uses rapeseed oil, instead of olive oil. Such fresh and local produce does have a fantastic impact on the menu. The kitchen also intends to change the menu every six weeks to make the most of seasonal ingredients.  Although there is a six course menu, I would urge you to go for the 10 course, if you have enough time.
The restaurant itself is behind a discreet French grey facade, and is feels like a minimalistic seaside joint – the French grey is continued on one side, with a cream opposing wall and a moody oil abstract that I immediately wanted to steal! To go with the more organic feel, the butter is served on stones collected by Ben and his family, the place-mats are coloured like a stoney beach, and the water glasses are an intense sea green. It’s a serene and relaxing room. The staff are attentive, and well informed. The more I questioned them, the happier they were to tell me where ingredients were sourced, the temperature of the water-bath, how long items were de-hydrated for, etc.
We began our evening with a glass of apricot and vodka fizz, with a couple of shards of dehydrated apricot in the glass. The fizz is dispensed at the table in a creamer (and uses just one gas canister). It’s a very lovely variation on a Bellini, and I think actually preferable – but I love a vodka martini, and this was also a very good and clean variation on that.
The bread is served warm, and we were offered pumpernickel, spelt, and buttermilk & potato. The butter is brought in from a farm and whipped with Maldon sea salt in the restaurant – this results in a light and voluminous concoction.
Chickpea wafer, ox-eye daisy puree, microleaves and flowers

As an amuse we were offered a chickpea wafer with ox-eye daisy, aioli, red amaranth, and edible flowers – a lovely combination of sweetly sour and floral scent. The closest comparison I can offer is that of cream cheese. But really lovely cream cheese with spiky herbs and very light garlic in the aioli – a difficult balance to strike, but effortless here.

Broad beans and hyssop, with fresh curds and beetroot
The first course was a tiny plate of broad beans and hyssop, with fresh curds and beetroot. The beetroot came diced at the bottom of a beetroot purée – a slightly salty sour velvet. The hyssop is a light and green puddle into which the broad beans sit, with the fresh curds. The dry flavour of the broad beans is offset by the slightly tart curds, and that rich beetroot. The resulting dish is light, very fresh.
One of the nicest parts of this menu is that the dishes begin delicately, and gradually build into an incredible crescendo of cheek-sucking umami-ness. As a result, very delicate flavours like the hyssop aren’t lost in the menu – your taste buds adapt and the later intensities don’t destroy that taste memory.
The next dish was a scarlett ball turnip baked in salt, smoked yolk, sea vegetables and wild mustard. The smoked yolk is achieved by cooking the egg in a water-bath for 40 minutes at 63ºC, then sitting the separated yolk in it’s shell with some smoking oil for a few hours. This results in a yolk with the texture of lemon curd, and a smoked velvet intensity. The turnip is soft and tender, and delicately scented, and our samphire echoed that with its customary salty kick. The wild mustard serves as a green and intently fragrant smear under the dish. I do like to taste those additions on their own, and this is delicious – would be amazing with fish!

We followed this with the now famous Seawater cured Kentish mackerel, shoots, broccoli and warm elderflower honey. I’m not a massive fan of mackerel, it’s always rather an overpowering flavour for me, but here it was delicate. Once cured, a small amount of sweetness intensifies that saltiness. A shard of crispy skin sat on top of this moist fish, and under that was a layer of delicately soused onion rings – is this a nod to the Scandinavian counterpart? If so it was executed perfectly and served to highlight the fish, and not swamp it! The honey, sourced from Regent’s Park in our case, not Hyde Park as in others’ reviews, added a sweet contrast and was filled with tiny speckles of broccoli. The purée allows you to scoop up the fish and smear it with fragrant green.

Next on the table is the shredded ox tongue, pickles and sourdough paper. I think this is perhaps my favourite dish. On the plate are a few soused, raw and barely cooked elements – a halved grape, tiny cauliflower florets on cauliflower purée, barely raw strips of carrot wrapped around a purée, a radish intact with its leaf… In the centre are two shards of sourdough paper (made a little like Sardinian Carta da Musica) into which is pasted a mound of the intense ox tongue. I’ll be honest – I could have eaten platefuls of the veg!

Flaky crab and mallow cream, young squid and cucumber. The squid is raw and diced to the same size as the cucumber, then mixed in with the crab. It reminded me of a much better textured ceviche or tartare, the effect is the same, lightly spiked and clean. The texture is offset by the inclusion of the squid ink croutons, and the smooth mallow cream. My own dish didn’t have a courgette flower (clearly the season has passed, and this photo is from a few weeks ago). I did have stonecrop in my dish though, which added that dryness in the mouth, offsetting those other silky flavours. There were also tiny mallow flowers decorating the dish, and adding further fragrance.
Next is one of the signature dishes of l’Enclume – Heritage potatoes in onion ashes with wood sorrel, and lovage. In our dish the heritage potatoes were Sharpe’s Express, a variety first introduced in 1900. The onion ash is produced by cooking down the onions and then dehydrating them. The result is then whizzed until an oil can be produced from it, and this is then mixed with maltodextrine. The dish is assembled with a shallot purée, a lovage purée, the cooked Sharpe’s with a mound of the ash, shards of dried and crispy potato skin and adorned with a scattering of wood sorrel. I hadn’t eaten wood sorrel on it’s own before, and it’s a complete revelation – an intense citrus flavour which cuts through the richness of the shallots, and that intensely onion ash. I absolutely loved this dish, but I can imagine others would not. We laughed with the staff about the ‘marmitiness’ tag that seems to have been linked with a number of the dishes – for my part, I though this was actually quite addictive. I could imagine putting that ash onto popcorn, or any number of other foods – but I do like savoury flavours!

Cornish monkfish, chicken salt, surf clams, rainbow chard and mushroom purée. Now we really are (literally) getting to the meat of the matter. Following that intense ash, the menu steps up and gives you a good whack of umami. The intense mushroom purée really packs in that savoury punch, which the chicken salt steps up again! The Hubby wanted much, much more of this, and we literally sat at the end sucking our cheeks – it’s an incredibly intense set of flavours. The menu has in the past carried brill, ours was monkfish, but to be absolutely frank, the fish is merely a foil for all the other flavours. This isn’t a criticism – I’d choose those flavours over the fish any day!

Now we’re on a roll and the end is in sight. As I said earlier, the joy of this menu is that it gradually builds to a crescendo, so your taste buds don’t feel overwhelmed – the freshness of the earlier dishes ensure that you reach these few hot dishes with your appetite intact and raring to go. So, as they brought out the Cumbrian hogget, with artichokes and chenepodiums, we were getting excited. Hogget is lamb which has reached maturity, generally at the one year mark. The lamb is intense, with a lamb jus, and artichoke purée with tiny crispy sweetbreads. As a combination you do get sweet, sour, salt and savoury – and the bitter is included through the addition of the chenopodium leaves. Extraordinary things – you pop the leaf in your mouth and it takes rather nice, but after about 10 seconds it interacts with your saliva and adds and incredibly bitter note – a fabulous contrast!


How do you follow this? With Sweet cicely and strawberry, buttermilk and verbena of course! The dish is constructed with macerated strawberries, sweet cicely ice cream, very creamy buttermilk custard and verbena syrup. After the last two meaty dishes, this acts as a very food palate cleanser! It’s served with shards of dehydrated strawberry scented with cicely – this adds a very moreish anise flavour to the shards, echoed in the main dish. Again there is very real emphasis on the herbal and fresh nature of the ingredients – and I think this is what keeps your appetite up during the 10 courses – there’s so much to spike your interest.
Warm spiced bread, salted almonds, buckthorn curd and smoked clotted cream. The crunchy cube of brioche is toasted with cinnamon and cardamon. The cardamon offers and incredible scent, and one of those – there’s something else in there, I know that taste, what is that? – moments. It sits on the buckthorn curd. The clotted cream sits to the side with the salted almonds. I can understand why people might have trouble with some elements of the dish: the buckthorn curd gives you that sense of dryness in the mouth, and the smoked cream is so unusual, but if you combine them together again you get that sense of umami-ness – which is incredible in a dessert.

Two final things – cherry soda with a shard of Douglas fir flapjack and a very lovely fresh raspberry mini victoria sponge. Both restore your mouth to it’s normal and more mundane existence… What could be more normal and familiar than a little cupcake?

I think if you’ve actually made it to this point in this insanely long review, you’re more than likely to be a future diner at Roganic. I have a question – why haven’t you picked up the phone yet? For £80 a head for the 10 course menu, I can’t imagine being able to get such an interesting and varied tasting menu at that price anywhere else in London. Get on with you – the information you need is:

19, Blandford St

London W1U 3DH

 

These photographs are by Paul Winch-Furniss

 

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