The Analytical Kitchen » Pork

Inspirations and anniversaries

ben — Wed, 30 Mar 2016 10:18:05 +0000

Then, a little inspiration stikes, and…

Blue-Eye Trevalla, porcini broth, kohlrabi and amaranth salad with mustard lemon dressing, dill, tarragon

The porcini works well with the Trevalla, and the tarragon works particularly well with everything.

Braised pork ribs, cauliflower cream, Port-poached prunes, orange zest

A slight modification of this dish, where the pork is the rib meat, the cream uses sour cream, and the prunes are poached in Port-style wine. I do like the rib meat with it.

Oak-smoked lamb, pickled cucumber, roast potato discs, griddled spring onion, oregano purée, red wine jus

Smoky, meaty, browned/Maillard, green, herbal never fails.

Spring GM Menu

ben — Sat, 30 Nov 2013 23:15:24 +0000

Amuse for Sparkler

(Photo ©Cam Wheeler)

Plain and Vegemite gougère

Vegemite and cheese just works as a combo, although I think most diners believed the plain gougère were superior.

Surf, Turf ‘n’ Garden

(Photo ©Cam Wheeler)

Barramundi, bacon, peas, asparagus, lemon butter

Barramundi and bacon sandwiched together with transglutaminase (“meat glue”) and baked (slightly over-baked in this case). The lemon butter includes ultra-fine shavings of lemon zest to give freshness and lift.

“Steak”

(Photo ©Cam Wheeler)

Watermelon steak, feta, mint

Slow baked watermelon in Sherry and butter, akin to this rendition. The mint can be overpowering, but otherwise an interesting interlude. There was much discussion on a potential wine matching here, and we concluded that a rosé or a rosé Champagne might be a suitable match.

Braised pork belly, galangal-scented salad, Szechuan pepper toffee

(Photo ©Cam Wheeler)

Braised pork belly, galangal-scented salad, Szechuan pepper toffee

Voted the favourite dish of the menu by the diners. The pork belly is braised slowly with Chinese flavours (soy sauce, rice wine, garlic, ginger, spring onion, brown sugar). The concept behind the salad was that the diner would experience the ethereal aromatic lift of galangal. Unfortunately, IMO, galangal is too hot-spicy to achieve this aromatically without burning and overpowering the diner’s palate. In the end, the galangal was simmered with mirin, and sugar added, to take the edge off the heat. Flavour-wise, this worked successfully, although the resulting salad dressing was perhaps a little too sweet.
Nevertheless, this is a dish I am happy with: the Szechuan pepper adds spice aromatics, the salad of shaved capsicum (bell peppers), carrot and fennel add colour and crunch, and both compliment the tender sweet-savoury pork belly and (braising liquid) reduction-sauce. This style of dish harks back to the days when I focused heavily on flavour impact.

Lamb fillet, eggplant purée, mint salad, rosemary lamb jus

(Photo ©Cam Wheeler)

Lamb fillet, eggplant purée, mint salad, rosemary lamb jus

I prefer fillet to backstrap (eye of loin) for this dish, and it is ideally BBQed. The eggplant is baked then flame-charred for a smoky flavour before it is puréed. A little yoghurt is then added and it is reduced and seasoned. I prefer baby garden mint (Mentha sachalinensis) leaves, but when caterpillars decimate…

Manchego, Comté/St Agur, poached pear, croutons, spiced walnut

(Photo ©Cam Wheeler)

Manchego, Comté/St Agur, poached pear, croutons, spiced walnuts

My standard kind of cheese course – you might call it a signature dish.

Lavender icecream, Manuka honey, scorched almonds

(Photo ©Cam Wheeler)

Lavender icecream, Manuka honey, scorched almonds

Salted Caramel and Peanut Truffles

A modification of David Everitt-Matthias’ Salted Caramel and Peanut Truffles (see Beyond Essence, 2013) – I simply omit the layer of chopped peanuts that surrounds the salted peanut caramel core, instead rolling the salted peanut caramel core in milk chocolate before a final cocoa powder dusting. But I still wonder, do we ever truly appreciate the truffle after so many preceding dishes?

Easter Menu 2012

ben — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 11:48:29 +0000

Salad of greens, fresh beetroot, green beans, walnuts, goat cheese

Salad of greens, fresh beetroot, green beans, walnuts, goat cheese

Discussions with others following the prep for this dish led me to realise just how time consuming the preparation of a properly exectured salad can be. And how typically underrated the skill in preparing salad is. Get the dressing balance off, and it shows. Use anything less than absolutely fresh ingredients and the discerning diner notices. Combine ingredients that don’t compliment each other and it weakens the entire dish. You get away with a lot less when it comes to salads. Could it be that the reason salads remain so underappreciated is because they’re often not well conceived or executed? When I list some of the best dishes I’ve eaten in France, that list invariably includes a salad… they just do salads well in France.

The dressing here was a light extra virgin olive oil and raspberry vinegar with a little salt. Diners never seem to be able to pick out the fruit in fruit vinegars; they add an elusive quality to a salad, and often a touch of welcome sweetness.

The salad was served with Christian Moreau‘s Vaudesir Chablis from 2009. The floral-vanilla oak increasingly overpowered the wine’s minerality, fruit (lemon, pineapple and nectarine/white peach), and attrative edge of vegetation, but it remained delicious, with its suitably austere yet balanced palate and long finish. It complimented the salad quite well. Interesting to note too, that a mouthful of greens+walnut+cheese prior to a sip of that Chablis was a far superior experience than if it followed a mouthful of salad that didn’t include walnut+cheese.

Braised pork belly, cauliflower cream, PX prunes, orange zest

Braised pork belly, cauliflower cream, PX prunes, orange zest

Peter Gilmore (Quay restaurant, Sydney) vac-steams a suckling pig, picks it apart, and remoulds within a piece of crispy pig skin. It’s then served with the cauliflower cream and Pedro Ximénez prunes, and it’s a great dish.
The above dish departs in two significant ways:
(1) The pork here is a ribbed belly cut. For pork belly dishes, I actually prefer cut from the top of the shoulder (à la British belly) or from the hind portion of the belly (no ribs). But the ribbed belly cut (with a firmer texture and less fat) offers something different, and greater textural contrast to the soft cauliflower cream and prunes.
(2) Peter Gilmore doesn’t make the simple addition of orange zest, which is my most humble contribution, but I must say that the addition elevates this dish to a whole new level; providing an aromatic lift that cuts through the pork (in the same way that the acidity of a traditional fruit accompaniment like apple might, yet without the acidity – which isn’t needed here because there’s little fat in the pork) and compliments the cauliflower and prunes well. It’s not entirely surprising, since orange is a classic flavour combination with pork, but the fact that it’s the zest offers something different – I don’t know why citrus zests aren’t used more!

BBQed lamb loin with beans

BBQed lamb loin with beans

In the absence of haricot, cannellini… and broad beans with the shell on (the horror), with a bacon and rosemary-flavoured stock, and mint oil.
The smooth, sweet cherry-fruited E. Pira Barbera d’Alba Superiore 2009 wasn’t a bad match, though it might have been a better match had it not been canvassed in oak.

Chocolate semifreddo

White and dark chocolate semifreddo, PX raisins, hazelnut vanilla fudge

Easter must include chocolate so…
The presentation clearly still needs work, but this was another rendition of the chocolate semifreddo (1 and 2). Here, dark chocolate semifreddo sits on white chocolate semifreddo. Between them lies a hazelnut vanilla fudge. Inside the dark chocolate semifreddo hide PX soaked raisins.

Visual recipes for the adept?

I don’t use recipes, except “in the pastry section”. Even then, I suppose I don’t use recipes as such: I just want to be reminded of the quantities, and a general guide for execution sequence, that I can quickly jot down, take to the kitchen, and follow with visual ease (without reading reams of text). Thus was born the visual “recipe”. Of course, it doesn’t include much of the detail (for example, folding the chocolate and pseudo-pâte à bombe mixture into the cream wouldn’t be done until it was cold, to retain the air in the emulsion), but it contains the essential information. Above is a “visual recipe” for the dark chocolate semifreddo in isolation.

Combinations

ben — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 09:32:42 +0000

Shola Olunloyo continues to inspire… available ingredients influence… ideas fuse…

Pork chop; apple-miso purée; caramel; roast fig, roast almond and Kalamata olive 'tapenade' topped with hazelnuts, grilled green capsicum/bell pepper and greens

Pretty good with an (off-dry side of dry) Savennières.

Vietnamese-style BBQ pork kebabs

ben — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 11:28:07 +0000

This is a dish for lovers of meat and greens.

The “kebab” is pounded pork mince with soy sauce, fish sauce, lemongrass, garlic and chilli added.
This is then wrapped in a lettuce leaf (I prefer something like oak leaf for texture and flavour) with herbs (Vietnamese mint/coriander (i.e., Persicaria odorata) and European mint – I have also found lemon balm to work particularly well).

Vietnamese-style BBQ pork kebabs with herbs in lettuce

Winter Menu

ben — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 12:24:38 +0000

Miso salmon; potato bake; fennel, apple and herb salad

Miso, soy sauce, mirin marinated salmon. Slivers of potato and butter stacked, baked and compressed. This dish did NOT work with a Fromm Vineyard Pinot Noir 2004, but perhaps that’s not a total reflect on the pairing, since the wine was pretty poor itself IMO.

Chinese pork belly; baked onion and beets, balsamic glaze, fennel; onion caramel Sherry sauce

A root veg theme. Onion blanched briefly before a quick pan-browning and then baking. Sauce was onion juice and caramel with some Sherry (beware the power of the fresh shallot, though).

Poached pear, ginger orange honey sauce

Red wine poached. Powdered vanilla sugar down one side, powdered black pepper down the other. Nice combo.

MET Menu

ben — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 05:26:09 +0000

Wine matching menu for M, E and T, February 2007.

Apple soup, curried white chocolate foam

I was playing around with different ideas for soup and came up with this. I think the combination of apple, curry and white chocolate works well together.

Wine syrup poached apple with some acidity, creamy foam of vanilla white choc with Garam Masala style spicing.

Apple soup, curried white, chocolate foam

Tobacco Smoked Scallop and Chicken Liver Paté Wonton
PX truffle glaze, porcini foam, tarragon purée

This was inspired by Shola Olunloyo (Studio Kitchen) who has some absolutely amazing ideas. IIRC, he combined scallops, porcini and PX Sherry somehow.

I went my own way with a pan seared scallop, PX Sherry and truffle oil, porcini foam (extract of the mushrooms plus herbs and stock), and a tarragon/spinach/butter purée.

Tobacco Smoked Scallop and Chicken Liver Paté Wonton PX truffle glaze, porcini foam, tarragon purée

Fried John Dory
braised red cabbage, mustard sauce

Based on The French Laundry’s skate wing dish. This is floured (not battered) and shallow fried John Dory (a great fish!). The sauce is butter based and includes mire poix and grian mustard.

Fried John Dory, braised red cabbage, mustard sauce

Chinese-Style Braised Pork Belly
apple purée, braised fennel, caramel-soy sauce

As previously worked on, the pork belly is the traditional soy sauce/ginger/stock/rice wine/hoisin/spring onion style braise. Fennel braised in vinegar. Wine braised apple purée.

Chinese-Style Braised Pork Belly, apple purée, braised fennel, caramel-soy sauce

Slow Cooked Rib Eye
date miso, melted leeks, Stilton-horseradish sauce

Leeks slow cooked in butter, cider and stock. The miso works as a nice base note with the dates giving a sweetness. Old school British food lovers loved this one.

Slow Cooked Rib Eye, date miso, melted leeks, Stilton-horseradish sauce

Cheese
whipped Brie & croutons, poached apple encased St Agur & mustard

With the alcohol flowing I forgot to photograph this one. I like combining cheese and fruit and thought presenting a cheese that was “hidden” inside fruit would be interesting – the St Agur is encase in very thin rounds of wine syrup poached apple (a lot like a ravioli).

Chocolate peanut semifreddo
peanut tuile, dark caramel ice cream, chocolate paint

I am near obsessed with the flavours of dark chocolate, nuts and caramel, and am constantly look for ways to combine them.

The semifreddo sits on top of a brownie disc, and at mid-height has a layer of nuts and caramel.

Chocolate peanut semifreddo, peanut tuile, dark caramel ice cream, chocolate paint

Pork loin, white beans, mustard

ben — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 02:41:42 +0000

A John Campbell dish by design, that slow roasts pork loin to a perfect 64°C/147°F and pairs it with a creamy wholegrain mustard cannellini bean sauce, pickled braised fennel and red wine jus.

Pork loin, white beans, mustard, pickled fennel

Chinese-style pork belly

ben — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 12:38:25 +0000

I grew up with a Chinese (Cantonese) best friend whose Dad was a chef. The influence has stayed with me ever since.

I love Chinese-style pork belly: slow-braised in soy sauce, rice wine, spring onions, ginger and garlic. It’s rich and meltingly soft.

I decided to give the pork the classic partners of fennel and apple. Here, it’s pickled fennel, apple sauce and a caramel-soy sauce. I think these work well with it because the fennel and apple provide some acidic counterpoint and the sweetness of the sauce matches the sweetness of the pork. This has become a bit of a signature dish of mine.

Chinese-style pork belly, pickled fennel, apple sauce, caramel-soy sauce