Poached Pear with Pear Cremeux, Hazelnut, Honey & Lemon Thyme.

This dessert has become one of my favourites over the winter and may see the light of day again sometime soon but until then it's in hold. However as it was a cracker I thought I'd share the recipe.

There are a few different components that are made in advance and it's all assembled to order to make it easier produce.

Poached pear:

4 Williams pears
1 ltr water
300g sugar
1/2 lemon

Honey Ice cream:

800ml milk
150ml cream
1 vanilla pod
150g honey
250g egg yolks

Pear Cremeux:

400g Pear puree
60g egg yolk
120g sugar
25g custard powder
2 gelatine leaf
250g butter
1 vanilla pod

To garnish:
Toasted hazelnuts (Crushed)
Lemon thyme leaves
Red vein sorrel
Honey
Ginger jelly

1. Bring the sugar & water to the boil then turn down the heat to low and add the 1/2 lemon and peeled pears, cover with a cartouche and slowly poach for roughly 15 minutes, check them after 10 with a skewer just incase they cook quick. Once ready then  cool on a tray and keep the liquid to place the pears back into to keep once everything is cold.

2. For the ice cream place the cream, milk, vanilla & honey in a pan and bring to the boil. Pour 1/3 of the liquid over the yolks & mix. Pour it back into the original milk mix and bring to 80*c while moving continuously to prevent it from scrambling. Cool down and freeze in a pacojet canister to be churned when required.

3. Boil pear puree, sugar & vanilla. Bloom the gelatine. Mix egg yolk & custard & temper it with 1/3 of the puree mix. Add back into the puree and bring to 80*c. Take off the heat, add the bloomed gelatine and whisk in the butter bit by bit so it doesn't split. Cool down and place into a piping bag.

To assemble cut your pear into wedges and place as you desire on the plate. Pipe some cremeux, its going to be a main component so don't be shy with it. Scatter a little roasted hazelnut, top with a nice spoonful of honey ice cream, a little ginger jelly, lemon thyme & sorrel.

Springtime Italian White Truffles

It's that time of year again when spring comes as a pleasant surprise and all us chefs get excited about all the fresh produce that comes into season. This week we got some fresh spring white truffles into work to play about with, don't be scared away with the thought of it being expensive tho as these were only 52p per gram; a bargain in our eyes. We rattled up a quick risotto recipe thats so basic, a child could make it; that doesn't mean it tastes like it!

Recipe:

500g Carnaroli super fino rice
2 diced shallots
2 clove Garlic
100g Butter
100ml white wine
2 litre nage (Veg stock)
20g french butter
30g parmesan cheese
2g truffle. 

In a warm pan, sauté the shallot & garlic in the butter with a pinch of salt. Once soft then add the rice and blast for 1 minute. Add white wine and cook down by half, this will be a fast process. Slowly add stock a ladle at a time moving the contents around the pan every so often. Don't be tempted to throw it all in at once as the rice won't cook evenly. Once all your stock is in the rice, check for seasoning then add the extra butter, some truffle and parmesan then check the seasoning again. Place into desired dish and top with a little more truffle. 

You can substitute the white truffle for black or even truffle oil. It comes in a lot of forms but our personal favourite is white.

A Wee Special: Hanoi Bike Shop

This week we visited the Westend's Hanoi Bike Shop to speak to our favourite Aussie chef, Tad McLean. He prepared us a small special and told us a little about himself.
Tad begun cheffing in Melbourne, Australia, schooling in the classics. He developed these haute skills in the critically acclaimed Lamaro's. With Australia boasting the largest Vietnamese population outside of Vietnam, his curiosity soon turned to Eastern cuisine. Travelling Vietnam and Thailand, he described the power of the influences their culture delivered as "a smack to the face", and said it was then he decided, this was what he wanted to bring to the table.



Eventually, and thankfully for us, Tad ended up in Glasgow. Here, he helped relaunch The Brasserie at the Ubiquitous Chip and was later asked to open up the immensely popular and successful Hanoi Bike Shop.

After making us at home, he shuffled off with a cheeky grin and returned with this wonderfully simple, yet tastefully complex dish.

Bike Shop Tofu, Sauted Wild Garlic, Peanuts and Black Pepper Soy.

For those of you who haven't been to The Bike Shop, Tad is in early, every morning making this phenomenal tofu from scratch (the only place in Scotland currently doing this). And by Christ you can tell. It's light and fluffy through the centre, and has that perfect crisp around the outside. It soaks up the sauce wonderfully.

The sauted wild garlic, freshly foraged that day, was sublime. The subtlety of this against the mint leaf garnish, strong soy and the crunch of peanut was nothing less than exceptional. And of course that tofu..

This is one of our favourite restaurants in Glasgow, and Tad has yet again showed us why. I'd like to thank @tadmclean and his team for having us up during his break, and we shall definitely be taking him up on his invitation to a morning of tofu making, that we will, of course, be sharing with yourselves!

Thanks also to @hanoibikeshop

Canapés: Parmesan Gougeres

 These little canapé's are quick and easy to make with a pastry that can be kept in the fridge, or even the freezer if needs be. Basically a cheese choux pastry that's baked the same as a choux bun. 

Recipe: 
500ml Milk
500ml Water
400g Butter
12g Salt
20g Sugar
600g Flour
16 Eggs
360g Parmesan

Method: Bring the milk, water, butter, sugar & salt to the boil and sieve in the flour. Mix in the pan with a wooden spoon and cook out the flour until it comes away from the sides, you should have a firm dough that feels moist but not wet. Transfer it to a mixer and paddle the dough until it gets cold. 

Crack in one egg and let it mix until it has fully incorporated into the dough then repeat the process until the eggs are all gone. Try not to rush this process as it will split if you feel the need to throw all the eggs in too fast.. Add 300g of Parmesan and keep back the extra 60g for later. Place the mix into a piping bag and let it rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour. 

When rested then pipe small mounds onto a non stick mat or greaseproof paper and sprinkle with the extra Parmesan cheese. Bake at 185*c for 15 minutes in a fan oven. Once done then leave to cool and serve.

Guest Chef: Iain Baillie

When Iain Baillie agreed to put together a blog post for us, Andrew and myself knew there was something special to come. Currently acting pastry chef at One Devonshire Gardens, Iain has a rich kitchen history, picking up skills from the likes of The Fat Duck in Bray and Gleneagles. Today he's showing us his take of a Red Velvet cake, and show us his "flocking" or "spraying" technique used in its creation. This one is for the true enthusiasts!

Our Red Velvet Cake is made in many stages. To begin I start with a baked red velvet sponge, and cut a disc using a metal cylindrical mould, I then brush the sponge with simple syrup combined with a raspberry liqueur. 

I then place a small hemisphere of frozen raspberry puree on top of the sponge (when the cake defrosts, this will turn to liquid inside the cake, providing a sauce with a much needed acidity to cut through the mousse.) I then fill the mould with a white chocolate mousse. It is then frozen. I remove the mould with a blowtorch and smooth out any holes or rough edges using a hot palette knife. 

This is important as any imperfections in the look now, will not be covered by the spray. The cake is placed back in the freezer. I then combine a 50/50 mix of white chocolate pistoles and chopped cocoa butter in a Vac-pac bag and seal fully, I repeat this a second time to make the chocolate doubly secure, and place the bag in a 48C waterbath for around an hour, until the chocolate is smooth and combined with the cocoa butter. 

During this wait I setup my section for spraying. The spray is brutal and incredibly annoying to clean, I spend a good amount of tape, cling film and bin bags to cover the entire section while I spray. Bin bags open out and cover the floor, and higher up to contain the spray in one area. Cling film is layered over anywhere that might get hit while spraying. It takes a while to setup, but makes cleandown a breeze. I also wear a full disposable boiler suit coverall while spraying - having your jacket covered in a haze of red chocolate for service just wouldn't do. 

The bag is removed from the bath an carefully dried off, then opened and poured into a container, where I then add Liquid red food colour until i like the shade. working quickly, so the temperature of the chocolate does not drop too far, i give it a final blend with a hand blender, to fully emulsify. I then pour the chocolate into a Wagner W140P Paint Spray Gun, much more affordable than dedicated chocolate guns, and I haven't had one fail on me yet. 

I remove the cake from the freezer and place it on the station, and I begin to spray, as the chocolate mix hits the frozen mousse it freezes instantly, and gives the desired effect, I slowly rotate the cake and spray the sides first, the angle of the spray will normally take care of the top all by itself. I then examine the cake and decide if it requires more spray. It is a delicate process, but quick to learn. The cake can now be placed back in the freezer, or defrosted.

Once defrosted, I take the cake and place it in the centre of the bowl, I run a crumble of Caramelised Pecans around the base and top the cake with a roche' of Cheesecake Ice Cream. The dish riffs on the traditional cake by incorporating the traditional aspects (such as the pecans and cream cheese) and presenting them in a way the guest is not expecting.









Many thanks for reading and any questions can be directed to me on twitter, more than happy to help:

@baillie_iain

A big thank you from Andrew and myself, Iain. Some dish. Be great to have you back at some point! 

Oatmeal Bread Rolls

1.2 lb flour 0.3 lb wholemeal flour 1.5 eggs 2oz yeast (if dried, divide by 3) 10g salt 10g sugar 250ml milk 125ml water 25ml olive oil 20g oatmeal 1egg 50ml milk Mix oil, milk, sugar, egg, yeast & water together. Place salt in mixing bowl and top with flour. Mix on a slow pace and slowly add liquid and mix for 10 minutes. Once mixed then place in a greased tub and let prove for 1 hour. Once proven then knock back by hand and roll out in 40g portions. Prove for another 20 minutes until risen. Spray with a light egg wash and top with a little oatmeal. Bake at 180*c for 12 minutes. Easy fresh Oatmeal bread.