Some new Inspirations!!!!!

Some new Inspirations!!!!!

The last week or two I have been watching the semi – finals and the finals of the BBC TV programme Master Chef: The Professionals. The contestants have been

producing some really exciting, innovative and totally inspirational food with some really daring and esoteric flavour combinations.

In the first stage of the finals on Monday, (12^th December 2011), the contestants had to produce a starter and a main course using beef and chicken. The Chicken

cam complete with the giblets and offal. Anyway, having watched the show, it got me onto thinking about the dishes that I would have produced if I wad in that

situation. And thee following are my ideas.

As far as the beef is concerned, there was a choice of cuts, including Fillet, Sirloin, Rib, Rump and Bavette (skirt steak). Anyway, I personally would have used the

Bavette for my first.

Oriental Inspired Beef Salad!!!!

For this dish I would cut the Bavette into steaks weighing about 100grams each. I would then season them with Sea salt and cracked black and then seal the steaks in a very hot pan with a little groundnut oil. Once the steaks had been sealed and nicely caramelized on the outside, I would plunge them into a bowl of iced water to stop the cooking process. Before sealing the steaks, they would have to be quite heavily seasoned as the excess salt and pepper would be removed once the steaks are plunged into the iced water. I would then place the steaks into individual vacuum bags along with some Sesame oil, Indonesian soy sauce, mint leaves and Muscavado sugar. The bags would then be sealed and left to marinate for one hour.

To accompany the dish, I would serve the following;

Broccoli Tempura (To give the dish some crunchy texture)

Soy sauce, maple syrup & mint dressing

Butternut Squash (confit and a puree flavoured with orange, lemon and

rice wine vinegar)

Garnish of micro Celery and purple pak Choi.

For my Chicken dish I would do something along the following lines:

Breast......Cooked on Sous vide at 68 centigrade for one hour. The seasoning's for the chicken would include Kaffir lime leaf,

Lemon grass, Szechuan peeper and star anise.

The resulting juices would be reduced with a little coconut milk and cream, finished with butter and seasoned with a touch of soy sauce.

The thighs would be confited and once cooked, the meat would be removed, shredded and mixed with some shredded spring onion, garlic and

ginger and made into a spring roll using filo pastry.

For the drum sticks, I would remove the skin, trim the meat from bone and then form it into a sort of ball shape on the end of the bone. The top part

of the bone would be also be remove so that you are left with something that resembles a Chicken. The meat would then be rolled in a blend of Ricotta and wasabi and roasted. This would be served on a salad of Watercress with an Amontillado sherry, avocado and hazelnut dressing.

Other accompaniments to the dish would include:

Syrup of red beet juice and roasted black mustard seeds.

Almond and pistachio emulsion

Fondant potato

Fricassee of Seasonal vegetables

Anyway, these are just a few thoughts and, when I get the opportunity, I will be doing some experimentation to turn these ideas into

reality.