Friday mornings aboard the Finesse are cooking demonstrations in the beautiful open galley. We try to find something that could be recreated at home, the twice baked cheese souffle was very popular choice all season & I have had many requests to put the recipe here on the blog. This recipe can be made in…
Tag: starter
Sous vide egg & Orthinogale
A starter aboard Finesse this week featured Orthinogale, also known as wild asparagus. A sous vide slow cooked hens egg, cooked at 63 degrees for an hour served with Orthinogale, local cured ham crisped in the oven & a hollandaise purée. The egg cooked in its shell in a water bath for an hour is…
Scallops & Romanesque Broccoli
After many scallop & cauliflower dishes aboard the barges, a variation from the brassica family is scallops with Romanesque broccoli served as a starter aboard the Finesse. Also known as Roman cauliflower, chartreuse in colour it creates a very very smooth pure a little nutty in flavour, it pairs with the same things as cauliflower,…
Foie Gras
At the end of the week on Friday on the Finesse we have a last evening gala dinner, this week the starter was a pressed foie gras & raspberry terrine served with fresh raspberries, raspberry purée & pea shoots. A whole lobe of foie gras is bought to room temperature & then gently deveined, then…
Rabbit
Rabbit is a much used protein in this area of France & very plentiful, a classic dish in this region is a stew of rabbit with prunes so over the last few weeks we have been serving the whole rabbit including its offal in modern interpretations of this classic dish for both starter & main…
Scallops
This really is revisiting an old dish but with some new garnish & new presentation. Pan seared scallops with a roasted cauliflower purée scented by ras el hanout, sliced purple cauliflower & florets, roasted sliced cauliflower, sliced romanesque, dehydrated capers, baby coriander herb. We have also enlarged the dish to create a main course, for…
Mackerel
A new dish with a bit of my Cornish heritage. Pickled mackerel fillet on a bed of celeriac & pear template, seared mackerel fillet on a charred romane lettuce leaf, mackerel Wellington filled with spinach & tarragon & celeriac purée.
Quail
Starter of Quail, sous vide Quail breast, confit Quail leg, soft boiled Quail egg on a nest of violet potato, girolles mushrooms, wilted spinach, puy lentils & Quail & thyme sauce.
Rabbit & Pickled Chanterelles
Loin of rabbit with prunes wrapped in Serrano ham, ragu of rabbit leg, rabbit kidneys, white carrot, baby carrot, carrot purée, pickled yellow chanterelles, spinach, madeira & marjoram sauce. A good way of preserving any excess wild mushrooms is to lightly pickle them, they will keep for upto six months in pickling jars in the…
Goats cheese & beetroot revisited
Goats cheese mousse wrapped in carpaccio of candy beetroot served with golden beetroot, candy beetroot, beetroot purée, pumpkin seeds & pea shoots.
Rabbit starter
Shopping in Castelsarrasin market this morning with the guests we found some amazing wild rabbit to create a new starter, saddle of rabbit with farci of leg meat & prunes, served with prune, bacon & goats cheese risotto, rabbit kidneys, pea purée, fevs & madiera sauce.
Seasonal starter
A seasonal starter of ingredients from local producers market. Wild asparagus (Ornithogalum pyrenacium) with asparagus purée, fevs, pumpkin seeds, crispy Coppa D’Perigord & hollandaise espuma.
bargechef 