Lamb Salad; Liquorice Cured Saddle, Pickled Tongue, Globe Artichokes, Mozzarella and Apricot

When I'm looking for ideas for a new menu I find they come from all sorts of areas. I've noticed recently on certain menus around town that the good old duck ham is making a comeback. I can remember the first time I came across this technique and being thoroughly impressed at the effect salt can have on a piece of meat. I guess this was the beginning of a fondness for curing and all other fantastic things you can achieve by just adding salt to things. So I began to think of other meats I could cure. Spring is in the air and the first thing that came to mind was lamb. I ordered in a few saddles and set about salting them. 24hours later and they were hanging in muslin in the cool room. As I waited I started to think about what to match with my saddles. I was doing a bit of research on the Internet and came back across the Food Pairing site. I was browsing through the different food items and came across the pairing tree for mozzarella. I flicked over it and then the dish started to unfold before me. I'd been playing with mozzarella Spheres for a while and had eventually come up with a solid recipe for reverse spherification. I wasn't really sure what I was going to do with them but putting them with the cured lamb saddles made good sense now. The next flavour that caught my attention was liquorice. It's always been a combination I'd wanted to try for myself after reading about a dish the Roca Brothers we're doing at El Cellar de Can Roca, but hadn't really got to it. I had some liquorice powder in the store ( Bras style; almond, dried olive, brown sugar and anise) So I un-wrapped the saddles and rolled them in the liquorice powder before wrapping them again. 2 days later they were ready.
I added some beautiful tongues which had been cooked sous-vide for 27.5 hours at 70 degrees C in a fragrant pickling liquor. To add a crunch to the dish some beautiful baby globes we're added. I dresses the plate with some spots of dried apricot puree and a little lamb jus/jerez vinaigrette. A few leaves of celery cress finish the dish. The liquid mozzarella brings all the elements together. I find it a nice light meat entree for the spring season.

Rib of Milk Fed Veal, Artickokes: Stuffed Globes and Smoked Jerusalem, Caper & Raisin Puree.

With the new Veal dish we've decided to bring back a bit of the old fashioned theatre to the dinning room. We cook the ribs sous-vide and colour them to order. The waiter then carves the rib from the bone table side and plates it for the guest. I think its important to keep some of the traditional techniques alive as they can so easily be forgotten in today's modern society.
The picture above is of the garnish which we plate in the kitchen. We smoke the Jerusalem artichokes, over vines and wine casks, after they are cooked and then puree them. The caper and raisin puree is a favourite of mine and the sweet, salty, sour flavours are necessary to cut through the richness of the meat and the puree. The stuffing for the globes is made from sweat breads, bone marrow, almonds, lemon zest, shallot and a little garlic and is well balanced against the sharp artichokes. The sauce is brought to life with a little jerez vinegar and brings everything together nicely.

Seared 'Hervey Bay' Scallops, Crunchy Globe Artichokes, Truffle infused White Asparagus, Smoked Speck Crumbs and Liquid Gel

As I mentioned last week the Australian truffle season has just begun. We received our first shipment of 'Manjimup' truffles from Western OZ on Tuesday and set to work to finding new dishes for them. We've decided to offer a 5 coarse truffle menu this season as well as using the truffles in our regular dishes. This is the second coarse in the truffle menu but also available on the a la carte menu (significantly less truffles). The globe artichoke season has just started as well so we've paired them together here. I love globes but I find that all to often they just tend to taste like lemon juice or what ever other anti-oxidation method has been used in their preparation. This season we've decided to cook the artichokes sous-vide with a little ascorbic acid and water. Its working really well and because of the sous-vide cutting out oxidation we need only use the minimal ascorbic acid. This allows the true flavour of the artichoke to come through. I've opted also for a different method for finishing the artichokes for service. Usually I would pan fry the cooked globes but this year i have decided to dust them with potato starch and deep fry them. Using this technique gives the interesting final result of crunchy globes but with little or no colour. The asparagus is cooked sous-vide too. We add just a touch of truffle oil and beautiful french butter to the bag before we seal them tight and then cook them at 83 degree C for about 1 hour. I find white asparagus benefits from long slow cooking as opposed to blanching them quickly. The result is a firm spear that just melts in your mouth. To add a little textural contrast when the customer eats them we coat the bottom of the spears in smoked speck crumbs. With the skin and trimmings from the speck we make a beautiful rich stock. Once its passed and seasoned we thicken it with a little xanthan and finish it with chopped chives. The scallops from Hervey Bay are so sweet at the moment and they bring the rest of the earthy elements together. The discs of fresh truffle pick up the flavour in the asparagus and everything comes together nicely. This is a nice light dish but with some big flavours all balanced well. I'll post the whole truffle menu later in the week. Later