It's Roasting!!!

Ok so its been the hottest day so far and what did I put in the menu last week for today??? Roast chicken!! Luckily im allowed to change the menu so I turned it into a roasted chicken salad. Topped with carrot and courgette spaghetti, vacuumed cucumber ribbons and a dressing I made using balsamic vinegar, olive oil, stock from the chicken and xantham gum! Not really a product you will find in a normal school kitchen but hey!! I'll be doing more with this as time goes on i'll show you the results and recipes.

Enjoy

That Sucks!!!!

Ok so I recently acquired a vacuum chamber and, after all the paperwork and health & safety I finally had the chance to give it a go! Heres our first offering, Watermelon! I heard that if you vac pack it the the flavour is enhanced. Not only that but also the colour is so much more vibrant and the structure changes too!! Ill be using it on other things obviously and post about those too! And its not just about flavours, I have been advised by our local E.H.O that vacuum packed products have a chilled storage life of 10 days rather than the 3 we normally allow. So remember that bit of roast turkey you had??? Whack it in a bag and vac it!!! Im not gonna lie professional versions ain't cheap but worth every penny! Check out Mike Bass and his gear!! Heres some pics. See if you can guess which ones are not under vacuum?

leavers dinner

As its nearing the last day of school for the year 13 boarders we thought it would be good to give them a special meal, historically its been a BBQ, but with the weather being terrible I thought it would be nice to give a proper 3 course meal. So with my starter inspired by my love of Indian food, the main a poshed up steak and chips and every chef pudding nemesis the chocolate fondant the night went better than expected!!

Here's the menu and pics.

Starter

Tandoori chicken ravioli with Dahl mint yoghurt, micro coriander and truffle oil

Massive thanks to Nisha Katona my new twitter buddy for inspiring the pasta!!!

Main

Sous vide steak with pomme neuf balsamic roasted cherry tomatoes and a horse radish cream.

Dessert

Chocolate fondant with cardamom infused ice cream.

Again massive thanks to all the staff involved in making it a night to remember.

I'd also just like thank you all for helping make our state run boarding school "outstanding" by ofsted standards, the food we produce on our budget and the standards we set ourselves are nothing short of amazing and the hard work you all put in doesn't go unnoticed. 

Starter dough

Ok so heres the recipe I used to.make this loaf.

500g plain flour
1 1/2 cups starter dough
300ml water
Splash of oil

I really didnt expect this to turn out half as good as it did and the flavour is amazing. Well worth the 3 days prep time!! Saying that now its done the starter will only take a couple of hours to feed then use again.

Starter doughs

Ok well as you can see ive not been blogging for ages!! Two reasons 1. Things have been super busy for me lately and 2. I lost my way a bit and drew a blank on what to tell you all. Crap excuses I know but thats what im sticking to!! So here we are with starter doughs. A starter dough is basically growing your own strain of yeast using the wild yeast that is in the air all around us. Why? I hear you ask! Well my dry goods supplier called to tell me he had yeast issues. (after telling him to see a doctor not a chef I realised he might not be able to get any) so I investigated different ways of making the bread that kicked off the whole way we do things at the school, and found a recipe on google for a sour dough starter. Ive only started to grow it today so will be letting you know how it goes and if its actually worth the hassle!

Heres how to start.

2 cups flour
2 cups warm water
1 table spoon sugar

Mix them all together in a deep mixing bowl preferably glass but never steel. Cover losely with a clean cloth. The starter needs to breathe so cling film is no good. Stir 2 to 3 times a day for 3 days. This is only for the first batch of starter all you need to do then is reserve a cup full and add 2 cups water and 2 cups flour. Ill keep you posted and chuck in some pics too!!

Lobster Thermidore Pizza

So as part of our street food week I thought it would be a good idea to make a gourmet pizza, little did I know that I would be acquiring a couple of beautiful lobsters from Kingfisher in Brixham. So as I only got 2 lobster to serve 85 I made a really nice cheese and lobster sauce to top my pizza and garnished with a slice of their amazing smoked salmon. Classic street food! Take something that shouldn't be there and make it work!! Have a go!!

Thai Style Duck Salad

OK so during the half term holiday I've been in deep thought about what I can do different next and came up with this! Sounds expensive and looks a bit cheffy but really easy and surprisingly cheap.

Here's what I did.

For the duck.

To prepare the legs I got a roasting tin and chucked in about 8 sticks of lemon grass, on top of that stick your legs, its best to stab them a few times with a fork this let's the fat out and makes the duck more tender. Bang it in the oven on 200c for 30 mins. When its done let it cool and take off as much meat as humanly possible.

The salad

I used French mixed salad but use whatever floats your boat, I also roasted off some yellow cherry tomatoes with spring onion, grated carrot and chilli flakes with dark soy sauce and sweet chilli.
I really wanted to give a bit of crunch and at one point considered knocking up some croutons but that's pretty standard and not really out there enough for me so then my thoughts turned to prawn crackers, now do I chuck them on the side or lightly crunch them up and bang them on?? Neither! I found a pack of spring roll pastry sheets in the freezer chopped them into strips and fried them off. Top those off with a sprinkle of micro beetroot shoots and a squirt of sweet chilli sauce and you've got yourself a posh looking plate of really tasty food. 30 duck legs got me just over 100 portions loads came back for seconds and a few thirds!