...and so finally spring is upon us. The evenings begin to grow lighter and so to, after the cold months of winter, does the food. I always look forward to spring, the promise of warm weather and the day when I lock away my shoes and bring out the thongs draws nearer. We've started with the spring changes on the entre menu and this is the first dish to arrive. It started when I read a post over at
"IDEAS IN FOOD . After reading it I set about coming up with the dish. The flavours are nothing new (crab,avocado, tomato) but I wanted to create some new textures while retaining the integrity of the ingredients. I started with the crab. I'd heard about this great fresh spanner crab meat that's been coming down from Queensland. The company is called Ceas and the spanner crabs the produce was the first to become a sustainable catch in Australia.
http://www.ceascrabpak.com/page/about_us.html. I got a few samples in from my supplier and the product was very good with great flavour. To bind the meat I decided an a yuzu/mandarin mayonnaise to balance out the richness of the crab meat. Next I thought we'd have a bit of fun with the 'crab fingers'. Really the idea came from a childhood favourite of mine, fish fingers but instead of regular breadcrumbs I used squid ink bread crumbs. The contrast in colour looks great.
Next the avocado was chopped and seasoned with some Espellete pepper and again yuzu juice to connect it with the crab salad. A quick freeze and I had a workable sheet to cut to the shape I wanted. Eventually I decided on a strip after trying a few different shapes. We had some beautiful piquillos peppers that i made into a puree and dehydrated to get the wafers.
The plate is dressed with a beautiful gel made from tomato syrup and another gel made from coriander. The fingers are pan fried and served warm and the salad cold for a contrast in temperatures as well as textures. We finished the dish with some micro coriander. The dish looks very bright and cheerful and the colours just shine out spring, spring, spring.
...and so finally spring is upon us. The evenings begin to grow lighter and so to, after the cold months of winter, does the food. I always look forward to spring, the promise of warm weather and the day when I lock away my shoes and bring out the thongs draws nearer. We've started with the spring changes on the entre menu and this is the first dish to arrive. It started when I read a post over at "IDEAS IN FOOD . After reading it I set about coming up with the dish. The flavours are nothing new (crab,avocado, tomato) but I wanted to create some new textures while retaining the integrity of the ingredients. I started with the crab. I'd heard about this great fresh spanner crab meat that's been coming down from Queensland. The company is called Ceas and the spanner crabs the produce was the first to become a sustainable catch in Australia.http://www.ceascrabpak.com/page/about_us.html. I got a few samples in from my supplier and the product was very good with great flavour. To bind the meat I decided an a yuzu/mandarin mayonnaise to balance out the richness of the crab meat. Next I thought we'd have a bit of fun with the 'crab fingers'. Really the idea came from a childhood favourite of mine, fish fingers but instead of regular breadcrumbs I used squid ink bread crumbs. The contrast in colour looks great.
Next the avocado was chopped and seasoned with some Espellete pepper and again yuzu juice to connect it with the crab salad. A quick freeze and I had a workable sheet to cut to the shape I wanted. Eventually I decided on a strip after trying a few different shapes. We had some beautiful piquillos peppers that i made into a puree and dehydrated to get the wafers.
The plate is dressed with a beautiful gel made from tomato syrup and another gel made from coriander. The fingers are pan fried and served warm and the salad cold for a contrast in temperatures as well as textures. We finished the dish with some micro coriander. The dish looks very bright and cheerful and the colours just shine out spring, spring, spring.
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