Rose Water Labna Cakes

When one has an ingredient so delicious, time consuming to have prepared, and so unique and rare with it's appearance in your refrigerator, it would be an horrific and unforgivable outcome to not give it the few moments of your mental process needed to put it to use in an interesting and exciting, yet comforting fashion. So when I found myself with an overwhelming excess of Rose Water and Vanilla Flavoured Labna after making it for a dessert one day(such a reckless, yet secretly fiendish slip up in my usually thoughtful and carefully planned preparation process), I couldn't resist searching for just the right way to convert it into something that would in no way remind my guests that they had in fact consumed this particular element 2 days in a row.

A year or so before I came across a recipe for a delicious yogurt cake that had a wonderfully light and fluffy texture while still being creamily silken and slightly chewy with the finest of crusts, I put things into perspective and thought to myself, 'if yogurt makes it come up with this kind of texture, surely labna MUST give a more intensified experience, not to mention the amplified flavour of the concentrated yogurt being glorified even further with the rich creaminess from the vanilla bean with the ethereal flavour sensation of roses dancing ever so delicately across your tongue and floating it's way into the sensory regions of your nostrils'. So I set to it.

At first I made a small trial batch with minimal haste, to work out cooking times, temperatures, and more importantly, how to serve it. When the first batch was abducted from the oven the aromas were too much for me to bare. I delved into them with a reckless abandon and complete disregard for the future of my fingerprints as I urged(read - tore) them from their dinky baking mat and greedily stuffed them into my mouth, showing a similar disregard for my mouth as I showed for the rapidly fading crop circles that were once my fingerprints. Outcome? OM NOM NOM NOM! (read - 'success!)

The texture was like a caky, creamy and ever so slightly caramelised marshmallow, with a delicate perfume of rose dancing off the back of my palate upwards as though being sprung up there off the gentle tang of the yogurt cheese as it rested momentarily on my tongue before being pushed out of the way by the creaminess of the vanilla. All I needed now was some finishing, some final flourishes to take it from being just a plain little cake('plain' being used very loosely mind you..) into something that could hold the attention of a table full of people long enough to get their minds as lubricated as their palate so the beauty encapsulated in these little bites could be properly taken into consideration and hopefully appreciated to a level that might come close to my own feelings of affection towards them. Back to the fridge…

Raspberry jus sat there right at eye level, staring me down the moment the little man in the fridge turned on the light, signalling the little light in my mind to flicker on like a fluorescent, tick, tick, tick tick tick PING! Raspberry seemed the perfect element to introduce into this family of flavours, it just needed to find it's place in the texture party. Fondant icing was the most obvious start due to the appearance of the cakes, so the jus became fondant, but not all of it…the rest of it was reserved while I gently quartered fresh raspberries and right at the last minute the quarters were dressed in their own jus. Complexity into Deceptively Simple... goodness from leftovers, sometimes it's better than the original usages.

Dorada with Cauliflower and vanilla

After 2 weeks of what will hopefully be remembered as high end meals and snacks, I was faced with a painful dilemma. Stocks of almost everything were all but gone, I was exhausted, and my head refused to produce a single clear though. For hours I pondered the fate of what would be the final meal I prepared for this particular group of people and it had to be good. I found comfort in some Morcilla that I always try to have around, just because. I got my hands on some dorada and from there it was unashamedly a scratch around the cupboards and fridge. Cauliflower stalks presented themselves to me, begging to be part of the show, along with some vanilla beans that were left over from making a dessert. Morcilla loves the company of onions, so sweating them down until they were sweet was a natural step. Cous cous is a wonderful grain that can be a full meal, accompaniment or in this case, a body builder! I added the smallest touch of truffle oil to the cous cous to give it not only the necessary lubrication the grain desires, but a certain warmth on the palette, not enough to give the overwhelming kick in the face that it can so easily do. Being a lover of all things ‘natural fats’ I made a vinaigrette with the reserved Morcilla fat and some sherry vinegar to dress the fish with. The result – Crispy skinned Dorada on cauliflower and vanilla puree, and a salad of cous cous, crisp morcilla sweet onion and parsly, morcilla dressing.

DILEMA?? I think this might have been one of the tastiest yet! Here’s to improvisation!

Cakes For Afternoon Tea

One of my great loves has recently been brought back into full realisation, Baking. With a new career beginning in the private scene of the dining world I was faced with a question in the afternoon on my very first day- “do you have anything for them for afternoon tea?” Having very little clue as to what may or may not be expected I thought quickly as to what I might expect if it were me sitting out there....”sure I do, it’ll be about 45 mins” and raced to my little note books and made the first cake I could see in there. From then on in, I’ve found that they aren’t explicitly necessary, they will settle for some biscuits I’ve been told, but truth be told I find it hard to stop myself from doing so right now....

There is something magical about a freshly made cake, pastry or biscuit. While they bake they slowly create an aroma that weaves its way through every crevice into every room of where ever you may be, and then finally exploding into a rapturous scent when the oven door opens that makes everyone in the vicinity begin salivating and wanting....even if they claimed not to be hungry...having the pleasure of eating them while still warm, brings every previous conversation to a stop, and the only thing people can think about it what is before them. I love these moments.....it’s what it’s all about.
I have only had the time to snap some quick shots of a few, but every single day there is a different type made, and I hope to get more shots soon.

The first are rhubarb bars, a very crumbly shortbread is ¾ of the way cooked through, then a rhubarb curd is poured on top and baked until the curd is set. The tart curd against the crumbly shortbread creates an amazing contrast in the mouth.

The second round are different flavoured financiers. This little burnt butter friand is a favourite of mine. In this selection are raspberry, blueberry, strawberry and black currant.

After that is a cake that was not for afternoon tea but for dessert, but I feel it qualifies on its cakey nature..flourless chocolate cake that was basted with a syrup made from braising cherries in port, pureeing and passing. Then garnished with morello cherries and coco.

Lastly is one hell of a cake! Caramelised pear and ginger cake. Reminiscent of ginger bread, but soft, and luscious in its texture, the pears lending a touch of gooey goodness to it’s spongy surroundings.


What to make next......

Fois Gras On Toast

freshly toasted baguette, warm fois gras, beetroot and

red onion jam. Glass of champagne and that is a good afternoon!

Strawberries And Cream

When you find beautiful ingredients, you don't need to do much to make them seem special. While at the markets in Barcelona, in the grip of a sintilating mix of terror, stemming from my nearly absolute imcompetence with the spanish language, excitment at actually being in this situation, in this market, in this current position and fear, due to the fact that my situation was to do something I thought I had no idea how to do what was required of me in my new career.

But when the world presents you with an opportunity like this it brings you back and shows you why you are here, to see how beautful the world can be. These apline strawberries are some of the most fragile fruits I know of, a perfect example of how we need to respect our ingredients. Picking them with rough hands, packing them thoughtlessly, transporting them like and elephant in heels, or showing malice in the final preparation before eating, all result in the same outcome- 'good, but not great.'

I seperated mine into 2 batches. One batch was packed away carefully while the other was tossed with a little bit of icing sugar and sat in a seive over a bowl and wrapped. left over night in to fridge, they collapsed under the weight of their intensely delicious juice and released it into my anxious dish below. I pureed the sunken berries and passed them through a fine sieve.

Mascarpone lightly whipped is a wonderful change from whipped cream, and to compliment the deep, rosy sweetness of the berries I sweetened the cream with some vanilla and honey. Shaving the sable dough from the log instead of rolling it delivered me with refreshingly free form biscuits. a quick toss of the fresh berries in the macceration liquid and to the plate.

Basic Living in Spain

sometimes poor living isn't too bad, packet tortelini, tinned mushrooms and emmental came together with my little peice of onion, some garlic and some left over white wine to make a scrummy little fried pasta to appease the hunger gods for another evening

Poached Pear Brulee

For my own personal tastes, desserts are more than often far too sweet, and having worked pastry for numerous years in varied styles of cuisines, I feel more pasionate about it than ever. A tradtional poached pear in many peoples hands can be so overwhelmingly sweet in it's self, only to be smothered in a thick blanket of rich chocolate sauce. I understand that alot of people drool when they think about something like that, but it's just so rich that it weighs you down for a long time afterwards.

For this version I wanted to attempt to limit that uncomfortable after effect so we can enjoy our dessert and then possibly stay awake afterwards without too much pain. To balance the sweetness of the pear its self, I made a salted sugar syrup, simply balancing the flavour into something a little more savoury and less offensive to the dental work. Flavouring the syrup with some vanilla and cinnamon. Prior to poaching all the pears were removed of thier core, allowing me, once they were cooked and cooled, to fill their little bellies with a sharp lemon mousseline. After rolling the pear in demera sugar and bruleeing with a blowstorch, I left them to rest on a dollop of lemon curd. Dishes like this excite me, for something so seemingly simple when you first look at it, it reveals it's self once on the palette and tantelises the tongue with fun flavours and textures.

The picutures are unfortunatly not as sharp as I wished, but we can't have everything :)