Goat cheese and chive ravioli, tomato and basil vinaigrette
A classic flavour combo that just works so well. The “vinaigrette” is more like a light tomato based sauce with sharp acidity.

Goat cheese and chive ravioli, tomato and basil vinaigrette

Celeriac soup, beetroot and red wine emulsion
Rob Feenie’s combo concept-wise. It works pretty well.

Celeriac soup, beetroot and red wine emulsion

Lemon sole, Australian mountain pepper spice, carrot, parsley butter, garlic chips
Halibut, quatre épices rub, poached figs
Essentially two dishes in one, because I just love packing the flavour combos in.
Lemon sole remains a popular N. European fish, particularly in the UK. It’s a delicate fish with a great flavour, and it’s also cheaper than Dover Sole. It doesn’t (or “shouldn’t”) require much treatment, so here I served it with carrot in a parsley butter (coz carrot and parsley work well together, and parsley and butter work well with sole). The garlic crisp and mountain pepper were small touches to just provide some fun (the pepper is a native pepper berry from Tasmania that has quite a hot peppery flavour).
Halibut is amongst my favourite fish, quite unlike many fish due to its firm, almost meaty texture. This fish is great fried, and can take a bit of spice. The figs were essentially poached in port. These components worked surprisingly well together.

The above dishes were served with Bonneau du Martray‘s Corton-Charlemagne 2001. I not think this worked particularly well, but I am not a fan of BdM’s CC (the flavours just aren’t what I look for in white Burgundy) and I may also have been a little tired of it at the time too, since a friend had coincidentally served me blind a different vintage of the same wine a day or two prior. Perhaps I was biased because of this, though really I wouldn’t expect this wine to work with the above dishes particularly well anyway (this wine was opened for what it was, not for the match it might provide).

Lemon sole, Aussie mountain pepper spice, carrot, parsley butter, garlic chips; Halibut, quatre épices rub, poached figs

“Pepper, pita, feta”: stuffed peppers, feta sorbet, spiced fried pita
A wanted to play around with stuffed peppers. I tend to pack them with rice, herbs, tomato sauce and onion. I find they can work fantastically well with red wine if the acidity is kept high (add plenty of vinegar) and they contain Greek quantities of olive oil.

Paired with Château Lagrange St Julien 2003, with which it worked pretty well.

“Pepper, pita, feta”: stuffed peppers, feta sorbet, spiced fried pita

Roquefort cheese, poached pear, spiced toasted walnuts, sweet-wine-poaching reduction
I feel I’ve refined this composed cheese course dish pretty much to the point of perfection. The flavours just work so well together. The pear is poached in a syrup containing white wine and lemon juice, and the nuts are roasted with a little salt, cardamom, cinnamon (perhaps some black pepper or cumin).

I feel this dish pairs very well with a sweet Loire Chenin Blanc. In this case, IIRC, it was Baumard’s 1992 Quarts de Chaumes.

Roquefort cheese, poached pear, spiced toasted walnuts, sweet-wine-poaching reduction

Chocolate dèlice, salted caramel, peanut icecream
Evidently, presentation went a bit wayward.. the diners even joined me in the kitchen at the dish composition phase for some pretty funny cuts and constructions (not shown)… but it tasted pretty good if I do say so myself. Certainly a rich dessert.

Chocolate dèlice, salted caramel, peanut icecream

Richmond Grove Barossa Riesling 1999
Showing some age as hoped, with a dried lime-pith, dusty-hay and tar-like nose. It’s like the fruit has dried up but it hasn’t quite developed much honey/kerosene/diesel. The palate is light, fresh and a tad limey on the finish. Maybe it’s in a “shut down” phase, or maybe the fruit has all dried up and there’s not much more to come. Nice enough in any case.

Clam and mussel soup, curry drizzle

Bacon wrapped roast pheasant, chestnut-potato rösti, red wine sauce
I just wanted simple barded pheasant, but with a slightly different incorporation of chestnuts. The dish divided us (it wasn’t my fav) and that perhaps swayed the opinion on the wine matching. I would say the Barolo did work well with it – not fantastic, but good.

Fontana Fredda Barolo 2000
Just a hint of brown in the pinky red colour. The nose shows very bright fruit with some spice (plum in vanilla for me, cinnamon apple for others). It has great purity and maybe a touch of leafy forest floor underneath. The palate has moderate fine sandy tannins, stewed plum and maybe some stewed fig flavours. Not quite what I’d expect of “traditional” Barolo, but it’s not really “modern” either.

Bacon wrapped roast pheasant, chestnut-potato rösti, red wine sauce

Camembert, rosemary poached apple, cider vinegar, croutons
The Camembert is the one previously posted about. It was cut at just-before a fully-runny ripeness stage (in the photo it is still cold), so the result was a creamy, salty, and ripe Camembert-style cheese which I felt would make for a good combo with a sweet wine. Indeed, it did – this course went with the Taminga fantastically. The rosemary flavour also added to the effect, bringing another dimension to the wine.

Trentham Estate Noble Taminga 2002
IMO, this is a great little sweetie at a good price. “Sunshine yellow”, full-on sweet tropical fruit (like guava) nose, and a well balanced sweet palate of caramelised honey and fresh pineapple.

Camembert-style cheese, rosemary poached apple, cider vinegar, croutons

Camembert-style cheese, rosemary poached apple, cider vinegar, croutons

Edible gin and tonic
Provided some fun palate refreshment.

Edible gin and tonic

Roast pear, white chocolate and yoghurt icecream, caramel
The pear was roasted with sugar syrup, vanilla, star anise and black pepper, so it had some more complexity to it. This actually went fine with the Taminga, well the pear did anyway.

Roast pear, white chocolate and yoghurt icecream, caramel

Panna cotta, coffee gelée
The “coffee” course, so no wine here.

Panna cotta, coffee gelée

The Cuttlefish schnitzel (blended and reconstiuted with gelatine to bind; made below with squid instead) did not do much for me or my guinea pig at the time – I just thought “why bother?”, I’d rather eat cuttlefish/squid another way.

The Scrambled scallops, which I served below with a pea “soup” and caviar, were foul. Admittedly, the example below were slightly overcooked, but I again thought why bother with this technique?

Novelty for novelty’s sake is pretty empty; the food has to taste interesting too.

Squid schnitzel

Scrambled scallops, pea soup, caviar

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

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