The Gourmet Gent

Ingredients:

• 6 Large Tomatoes concasse
• 1 Punnet golden cherry tomato’s
• 1 Cap of white wine vinegar
• 1 Large Shallot diced fine
• Dash of olive oil
• 10 basil leaves siffonde
• Pinch of sea salt
• Pinch of black pepper
• Juice of one lemon
• Zest of one Lemon
• Cod Loin portioned into 4 equal portions (you can ask your fish monger to pin bone and portion this up for you)
• 2 tins of mixed beans – for the best results soak your own bean mixture ideally overnight so that they are ready to go.
• Garlic Cloves
• Lemon Thyme
• Sourdough Bread

For the Tomato Concasse:

1. To begin the Tuscan beans, start by making a tomato concasse. To do this place a pan of lightly salted water onto the heat. To prepare the tomatoes remove the stalk and make a small cross in the base of each of the tomatoes as this enables even cooking but also gives you a lip to peel back once the tomatoes are ready.
2. Next fill a large glass bowl with cold water, then add some ice cubes as you want to stop the cooking of the tomatoes as soon as they leave the pan or otherwise they will be overcooked.
3. Once the pan is up to temperature, gently place the tomatoes into the water using a slotted spoon ensure that you do this away from you or otherwise the boiling water can splash up and burn you.
4. Cook the tomatoes for 10 minutes or until the skin has just began to pucker and blister. This indicates that they ready to be removed from the water.
5. Plunge into the bowl of cold water to refresh.
6. Once cool working tidily, remove the skin and deseed the tomatoes disposing of any waste. Once all of the seeds have been removed, slice first into a juilienne and then a brunoise the key of a tomato concasse is to deliver a subtle tomato freshness.
7. Place into a clean bowl and reserve in the fridge until required later.

Mixed beans: you have two options using pre-washed and cooked tinned beans which is fine, but for the best results soak and cook your own. My three beans would be Butter, Borlotti, Cannellini and kidney beans.

Cod Time:

1. For the Cod I’d recommend that you use sustainable line caught, Cornish if possible as you are getting a better quality product as well as supporting British fisherman.
2. Using a sharp chef knife and blue chopping board portion up the cod, for this I brought a loin which was already pin boned. Portion the cod into equal portions as this helps with cooking times but also looks more presentable when you are serving to a large group of people.
3. Once the cod is prepared reserve in the fridge until it is required later on in the process.

Additional Prep:

1. Wash and halve the cherry plum tomatoes
2. Finely dice the shallot
3. Zest and Juice one large lemon
4. Siffonade 10 washed leaves of basil with the stalks removed.
5. Garlic and Lemon thyme sourdough croutons – to make these beautiful croutons tear up a loaf of sourdough, place onto a oil tray then hit it was crushed roasted garlic, lemon thyme, olive oil and lastly freshly cracked black pepper and sea salt.

Tuscan bean casserole:

1. To begin the Tuscan Bean casserole, place a large pan onto a medium heat once the pan has come up to temperature, place a good dash of olive oil into the sauce pan and allow to warm for roughly 30 seconds. Then add your finely diced shallots allow to cook without any colour as you want them the perfume and flavour the oil so don’t BURN THEM.
2. Next add the cherry tomatoes and allow to cook a little the most important aspect of this dish is that you want to be able to see the tomatoes, as they give a new dimension and texture.
3. Deglaze with one cap of red wine vinegar allow the vinegar and alcohol to cook off once this has been achieved add your mixed beans along with a good glug of olive oil.
4. The key now is to keep the beans ticking over whilst you finish off the other elements.

Cod Cooking Time:

1. To cook the cod place a large frying pan onto the heat along with a knob of butter and little olive oil, once the pan is up to temperature and the butter turned a beautiful golden colour. Place your cod fillets in one at a time as this allows the pan to come up to temperature between each therefore offering equal cooking. When cooking fish to ensure that you don’t over cook it place them around the pan in a clockwork motion so that you can easily identify when each is ready.
2. Once they have reached a beautiful golden brown and the skin crisp place them onto a lined baking tray to finish cooking in the oven for 5 minutes.
3. At this time you want to place your croutons in and make the finishing touches to your three bean Tuscan casserole. With the addition of the juice and zest of one lemon a pinch of freshly ground black pepper, sea salt and lastly that beautiful fresh siffonade of basil as the heat from the pan will gently wilt releasing its natural oils perfuming the dish. Taste once ready remove from the heat.

To Plate:

Pre-heat some artisan Plates, Place a generous spoonful of the Tuscan bean casserole onto the plate next place the beautiful cooked fillet of Cornish Cod, lastly finish by placing four lemon thyme and garlic croutons onto the plate, with a drizzle of basil oil.

Serve with a cold bottle of Waitrose’s Perry cider and enjoy with family and friends

Ingredients:

• 150 grams of dried green lentils
• 150 grams of dried chickpeas
• 3 large white onions finely sliced
• 1 orange chilli finely sliced with the SEEDS STILL IN
• 1 teaspoon of tomato puree
• 2 tins of chopped toms
• One large cauliflower cut into florets and then charred in a dry pan
• Siffonde of coriander and stalks finely chopped
• Dash of olive oil

For the curry paste:

• Thumb sized piece of ginger peeled and julienned
• 3 garlic cloves peeled and sliced
• Dash of olive oil
• 2 teaspoons of curry powder
• 2 teaspoons of toasted Gara Masala
• 2 teaspoons of ground cumin

For the best results allow both your lentils and chickpeas to soak over night, as this helps to softened them, the next day cook for half an hour until they were tender. GENT TIP – don’t cook the pulses all of the way through, as they will carry on cooking in the curry and therefore result in them being over cooked.

For the Rice:

• 1 cup and half of Brown Rice
• Equal quantity of water

The Good Bit…

1. In a heavy based frying pan on a medium heat, gently toast the cumin, gara masala and the curry powder as this helps to release the natural oils in the aromats. Once the spices are ready tip them into one of the old trusty Motar and Pestle to crush and then incorporate a little olive oil.
2. In another heavy based pan add a dash of olive oil once the pan is up to temperature, add your onions the secret to a bad boy curry is firstly the caramilsation of the white onions and of course the curry paste. Once the onions are golden brown add your curry paste from step 1 to the pan. Reduce the heat or otherwise you will just burn the paste and turn it bitter.
3. Once the curry paste has been cooked out add the julienne of ginger along with chopped garlic and cook again but not to colour, as this will it help it release its natural aroma.
4. Add the tomato puree at this point and ensure that you cook this out once again otherwise it will send the curry really bitter, to reduce the heat in the pan add a little cold water.
5. To finish the basic sauce add two tins of chopped tomatoes and allow to simmer gently.
6. For the cauliflower florets, heat a medium sized pan over a medium heat with no oil, once the pan is up to temperature add your cauliflower florets and allow them to burn and char as this helps to give an authentic smokey taste. Once ready tip into the curry along with the pulses and cook for a further 30 minutes until the florets are tender and cooked through.

The Gents Top Tip: If your curry goes thick add a little cold water, by filling one can of the chopped toms with water as the remnants help to further enrich the sauce with the tomatoey goodness.

Rice Time:

For the rice use the absorption method – meaning equal quantities of both rice and cold water, for this dish I like to use brown rice as it less refined and better for you. For this dish I used 1 cup and a half of rice as I prefer more curry to rice.

Ingredients:

• 2 garlic cloves finely chopped
• 2 banana shallots finely chopped
• 1 litre of cold water
• additional water to loosen
• 250 grams of risotto rice
• knob of softened butter
• dash of olive oil
• Button Mushroom duxelle
• Chestnut mushrooms finely sliced
• White truffle oil
• Freshly cracked black pepper
• Sea Salt

The Stock

When it comes to vegetable stock you can either go two ways, making your own or using instant with a vegetable OXO cube and some instant powder.

To make your very own bad boy vegetable stock, you will need:

• White onion roughly chopped as well as trimmings
• Carrots roughly chopped as well as trimmings
• Celery stick roughly chopped as well as trimmings
• Rosemary
• Bay leaves
• 2 litres of cold water
• good quality White Wine

1. Begin in a heavy based pan add a dash of vegetable oil as well as a little butter, by adding the vegetable oil this helps to increase the burning point. Once the pan is up to temperature add your white onions and allow them to catch a little as colour = flavour.

2. Repeat this process with the other veggies, once they have all reached a beautiful golden brown releasing that cooked on goodness, de glaze the pan with a little white wine as this helps to flavour the stock. To finish add your cold water along with the herbs.

3. leave for around 2 hours or as long as you can, if the water boils away just add more as this helps to intensify the flavour even further as this theatrically creates a Jus.

4. To finish pass through a metal sieve and discard the veggies because at this point they have done their job.

To make the risotto follow the debut dish recipe, with the addition of button mushroom duxelle, finely chopped chestnut mushrooms and a brunoise of the rehydrated porcini mushrooms, with a finishing touch beautiful white Italian truffle oil.

Regards the Gent