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S2 EP8 – The Lovely Carol Bouwer

Express meal

Express Meal

Express meal: Ultimate Avo on Toast

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 fresh avo – peeled and diced
  • 1 fresh avo – peeled, quartered and frozen
  • Juice of two limes
  • 1 shallot – diced
  • 1 chilli – deseeded and diced
  • Half a bunch coriander – chopped
  • 2 tbsps. chunky cottage cheese
  • Salt & pepper
  • Olive oil
  • Sour dough – 1 slice, 1 cm thick
  • 1 clove garlic, cut in half
  • 1 tsp. creamed horseradish

 

METHOD

  1. Heat griddle pan on medium heat.
  2. Drizzle bread with olive oil and char grill for 45 seconds on each side.
  3. Remove and while warm rub with halved garlic clove on each side.
  4. In a bowl, mix chopped fresh avo with cottage cheese. Add creamed horseradish, shallot, chilli, coriander and lime juice. Season with s & p.
  5. To serve – top toast with the avo mixture, drizzle with olive oil and fiinish with a few sprigs of fresh coriander leaves.
  6. Finely grate frozen avo over and serve.

Recipe 1
Recipe 1

Recipe 1: Roast onion risotto

INGREDIENTS

  • 100g butter
  • 250g Arborio rice
  • 1litre chicken stock
  • About 15 baby onion-peeled but roots kept intact and halved
  • Olive oil
  • 8 garlic cloves
  • Hanful of thyme
  • 50g grated mature cheddar
  • 100g spring onions diced
  • 25g chives
  • ½ the soubise made for Recipe 2

METHOD

PRE PREP – ½ cook risotto during pre-prep

  • Melt butter and toast rice, 3 to 4 minutes (large flat bottom pot)
  • Add 600ml chicken stock, stirring till absorbed and rice half cooked
  • (No flavourants added now.)
  • Decant rice into metal tray to finish at venue

FINISHING:

  • pop the onions into a roasting tray
  • Drizzle with olive oil, season with salt
  • Add thyme and garlic cloves, cover wit foil and pop in the oven to roast for about 25-30 minutes.
  • Heat remainder of chicken stock
  • Heat a large saucepan with olive oil and butter and pop your roasted onions in flat side down
  • Reheat risotto and start adding chicken stock again
  • Add onion soubise (1/2 of the quantity made)
  • Add in grated mature cheddar
  • Finish with chives
  • Plate and serve with braised baby onions and cheddar shavings

Recipe 2
Recipe 1

Recipe 2: Crispy skinned, boneless chicken thighs with white onion soubise sauce

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 chicken thigh pp (bone in, skin on)
  • Thyme
  • 1 onion, quartered
  • 1 litre chicken stock

FOR THE SOUBISE

  • 4 large onions – sliced
  • 100g butter
  • Ties bunch of thyme
  • 3 cloves garlic – peeled, whole
  • 1 star anise

    • BABY SPINACH:

    • 200g baby spinach
    • 2 tbsp olive oil
    • 2 tbsp butter

    METHOD:
    PRE-PREP – FOR THE SOUBISE:

    • Melt the butter on med/low heat
    • Add onions, garlic, star anise and thyme.
    • Cover with parchment paper and cook on medium heat till soft. Don’t let onions brown.
    • Remove star anise and thyme and blend till smooth.
    • Set aside for later (To use ½ in risotto and half as sauce)

    FOR THE CHICKEN

    • Season thighs with salt and olive oil and cook in pan colouring on each side
    • Add thyme and onion
    • Add chicken stock to pan, half way up each piece of chicken. (Do not cover skin)
    • Put the lid on and cook for 1 ½ hours at 160 degrees.
    • When cooked, remove chicken onto tray, reserving braising liquid.
    • Leave to cool to room temp.
    • When cool, slide out bone, keeping thigh and skin intact. Set aside for later.
    • Reduce braising liquid to a glaze consistency and set aside for later.

    FINISHING:

    • Trim cooled chicken thighs, keep trimmings
    • Cook spinach in oil and butter
    • Brush each thigh with chicken glaze and roast chicken thighs in the oven until the skin is crispy
    • Heat a non-stick pan with olive oil, add chicken off cuts and fry until crisp
    • Plate and serve with soubise sauce

    Recipe 3
    Recipe 1

    Recipe 3: Spiced sea bass with couscous

    INGREDIENTS

    • Mauritian sea bass – 100g pp, Whole sides with skin on. portioned  (will de-skin on screen)
    • 2 Tbsp. cumin seeds
    • 1 Tbsp. coriander seeds
    • 2 Tbsp. fennel seeds
    • 1 Tbsp. garlic flakes
    • 1 tsp chilli powder
    • 1 tsp paprika
    • 1 Tbsp. salt
    • 200g pearl couscous
    • 200ml boiling water
    • Olive oil
    • 100g pine nuts – toasted
    • 100g pistachios
    • 1-2 scotch bonnet chilli, chopped
    • 100g raisins – soaked
    • 100g dried Turkish apricots – diced
    • 100g dry figs – chopped
    • Bunch of mint – chopped
    • Bunch of coriander – chopped
    • Juice of 2 lemons

    METHOD
    PRE-PRE:

    • In a pan, dry toast the cumin, coriander and fennel.
    • Add to a mortar and crush.
    • Add garlic flakes, chilli powder, paprika and salt and mix. Set aside for later

    For the couscous

    • Rub olive oil into couscous
    • Pour water over, cover in clingfilm and leave to steam fluffing occasionally.
    • Set aside for later

    FINISHING

    • Heat a large saucepan with a good amount of olive oil
    • Add the couscous and seasoning
    • Cover in boiling water and pop the lid on immediately
    • Heat a non-stick pan, add the pinenuts and pistachios
    • Add the dried fruit, nuts and chilli to the couscous and mix through gently.
    • Skin and portion sea bass. Heat a non stick pan, add the skin to the pan season and leave to crisp. Weigh the skin down with another pan while crisping. Set aside.
    • Mix the chopped herbs through the couscous.
    • To cook sea bass, heat oil in a large non-stick pan
    • Rub fish with spice rub
    • Cook for 2 ½ minutes on each side,adding butter to the end. Baste as it cooks.
      (Can reheat in oven if needed, but preferable to serve immediately)
    • Plate and serve

    Recipe 3
    Recipe 1

    Recipe 4: Lemon posset with berry consommé

    INGREDIENTS

    • Zest and juice of 4 lemons
    • 850ml cream
    • 250g castor sugar
    • 1 vanilla pod – seeds scraped out
    • 100g pistachios – chopped
    • 100g blue berries – halved

    FOR THE CONSOMMÉ

    • 1 kg ripe raspberries – hulled
    • Juice and rind of a lemon
    • 150g castor sugar

    PRE PREP

    • Heat cream with sugar, vanilla seeds and zest.
    • Remove from heat.
    • Add lemon juice and mix.
    • Pass through sieve and pour into serving containers.
    • Chill, preferably overnight
    • Place t800g of he berries and sugar in a metal bowl and stir to coat.
    • Add lemon juice and rind
    • Cover with clingfilm and heat over a pot of simmering water
    • Cook slowly for about an hour.
    • Remove from heat place in a fine sieve over a bowl to catch the juice. Leave to drain in the fridge, preferably overnight.

    FINISHING

    • Top possets with raspberries
    • Decant the berry consommé into serving jugs/cups/containers
    • Plate and serve