Terrine of ham hock and broad beans with pea puree

Fresh is best. This takes time to press and set so I made it around 23 hours before serving.
The Sunday night function had rolled straight into the new week - a new Monday - just after midnight. I suddenly remembered the ham hock. You have to strike early out in the Cotswolds for ham hocks. Eventually I took the diced ham hock from Collins in Broadway and poached that for 4 hours in court bouillon.

Most people discard the onions, leek & carrot from the court bouillon once it's cooked. But as they have so much flavour I like to add them in to the terrine (like I do now with the salmon rillette too). There was harricot bean puree too (below), broad beans, parsley and cumberland sauce and the terrine was wrapped in leeks. Once it is up to room temperature it's just so good.

This was served at the same time (for the non-vegetarians) as the roast asparagus with tahini dressing.

It's almost as good as the ham hock and foie gras version - I would do that if anyone wanted to pay a supplement for the foie gras.

Related posts

Chicken and foie gras terrine
Beer baked beans
Smoked salmon and king prawn terrine

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Vegan chocolate tart with vegan ice cream

Vegetarians and vegans I feel always get the short end of the stick in restaurants. What I like about the way I work is I know dietary requirements in advance, so I can plan things so everyone can have the same meal - if that is what they want of course.

When it came to the chocolate tart dessert I served at Littleton Manor on Saturday, it was just a matter of altering the recipes a little. For the pastry base I swapped butter and lard combination I normally use for pure soya margarine. I made 2, just in case of breakages, in round tins, rather than the fluted tins I normally used so they wouldn't get mixed up in transit.

For the chocolate filling I found this recipe (I liked it because unlike the other vegan recipes I looked at it didn't contain tofu). For the ice cream, I looked at so many recipes, until I realised I could adapt my normal crème fraîche ice cream recipe - swapping crème fraîche for soy yogurt, and the normal milk for soy milk. And

the result was pretty impressive.

Related posts:

Chocolate tart

Vegan lemon cheesecake recipe

1001 Kitchen tips #4 - A hole in none - How to get rid of the holes in your pastry cases

Candied zest

1001 Kitchen tips #46 - Which one is no dairy/ vegan/ no nuts etc

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Seared scallops with jerusalem artichoke puree and champagne sauce

Parsnip puree? Done that.
Pea puree? Done that
Asparagus and tiger prawns? Done that, and it's not asparagus season yet.
Celariac puree? Did that once last year as a special request, but there was roast celariac with the main course.

When I was looking for something to go with scallops for this year's Valentine's Day menu, I remembered I had really neglected Jerusalem artichokes this season, and the season was just about to end. You can't miss something like this. I had to try really hard to find these ones:

They really are vegetable royalty - there's just nothing else like them. If you haven't tried them before don't be confused with globe artichokes - the taste and textures are quite a long way apart - but both are wonderful.

Jerusalem artichokes always remind me of pink fur potatoes, which incidentally, if you are thinking of growing anything you should grow these because they are so hard to find in shops, and when you do are astronomical in price.

I used the same cooking method as my fondant potatoes in chicken stock and butter. By the time the liquid is reduced they are soft - if not, you add a little more liquid and let that reduce again. The syruppy gloop of the chicken stock and butter is added to the puree - that's where the flavour is. If you want to roast them, you can pop them in the oven instead at this point to finish.

Champagne sauce

Related posts:

Other scallop dishes we have made

Valentine's Day individual beef en croute and seabass with mussell paella

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Chef in Venice #4 - Aubergine caviar

Cut your aubergine (I used the local variety) in half, then score down to the skin (taking care not to actually cut through - you don’t want to dice it).


Drizzle generously with olive oil (aubergines really soak it up) and season with salt, pepper, and any spice if you want to - cumin is nice. As we had rosemary in abundance I studded it with these, pushing them down in to the flesh, so as they cooked it would impart the flavour. You can also use whole garlic cloves. These roasted for around 45 minutes or so at 180 oC.
Once cooked you can take a dessert spoon, and run it along the skin to scoop up the roasted flesh. Then chop it, mix with crème fraich/ or marscapone/ yogurt (depending on what you have), olive oil, lemon juice and season. Ideally you add chopped fresh coriander too.

What else to do with aubergine puree

• If you want a strong roasted flavour leave them uncovered - if you want a lighter taste and colour cover the tray of aubergines in foil while they are cooking.


• You could puree the cooked aubergine in a food proccessor and add the resulting puree to you red wine sauce.


• It makes a great vegetarian sandwich topping.
  
• Instead of roasting like this you can put it directly on the gas flame of your stove. Keep turning every 5 minutes or so. By the time it is cooked in the middle it will be well charred on the outside. This gives the resulting puree the most wonderful smoky flavour.

For more Venice dishes see here - http://www.thecotswoldfoodyear.com/search/label/venice

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Curried parsnip soup with walnut and raisin bread rolls

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