Beef Tenderloin Recipe by Igor Macchia

As promised, here the first recipe in a long time. As we are talking about Igor Macchia, I have taken the liberty to share his recipe with you. It is a bit labor intensive than many others, but then, you want to cook one Michelin Star cuisine...then you have to work for it....Stars don't come just for a simple steak on the BBQ, no there needs to be more to it than that

It was so much fun working with Igor, he is totally down to earth and happy to coach the team, something they loved as the guest chefs are really changing the everyday routine, mine included. Often these chefs need specialized ingredients like the cassis and spinach powder for this recipe. Of course you can do it without it, but for us here, we want to be as close as possible to the original. So I contacted Igor and he happily shared where I can get all the special ingredients from, it took of course still a lot of mails with suppliers to get it finally delivered to us,..... but that is the fun part, the part where we have to source the best ingredients and then bit by bit actually have a web of suppliers where we can fall back with all the fancy foods....I just love that part

So here is the recipe: Enjoy!

Ingredient for cherry marinated with ginger:

  400 gr. fresh cherry

  140 gr. brown sugar

    50 gr. fresh ginger

Method for cherry marinated with ginger:

season quartered cherry with sugar and ginger. Vacuum pack and cook in steamed oven at 80°C for 3 hours. Chilled and blend. Keep the sauce for presentation of the plate.

Ingredient for mashed potatoes:

1500 gr. potatoes

                Sea salt

  150 gr. diced butter

  150 gr. mascarpone cheese

               Salt

               Pepper

Method for mashed potatoes:

wash potatoes and pierce with a fork. Cook with sea  salt in oven at 200°C for 1 hour.

Mashed potato and add mascarpone cheese and butter. Season with salt and pepper and keep for presentation of the plate.

Ingredient for watercress sauce:

250 gr. fresh watercress

             Xantana

             Salt

             Pepper

Method for watercress sauce:

Cook watercress in salted water. Chilled and blend.

Add xantana and season with salt and pepper. Keep for presentation of the plate.

Ingredient for presentation of the plate:

480 gr. wagyu beef tenderloin

120 gr. foie gras

   30 gr. cherry pure’ from boiron or capfruit

   20 gr. beef juice

   10 gr. watercress sauce

     2 gr. cassis powder

     2 gr. spinach powder

   60 gr. mashed potatoes

   40 gr. cooked cherry

   40 gr. saute fresh spinach

               Extra virgin olive oil

               Maldon salt

               Sea salt

               Pepper

               Fresh sprout

Method for presentation of the plate:

Season beef with salt and pepper and cook in a hot pan with olive oil. Finish to cook in oven at 200°C for 5 minutes.

Garnish the top of cooked beef with all ingredient and plate in a hot plate garnished with cherry and watercress sauce.

Use cassis and spinach powder for garnish the plate.

Fig. Pear and Witlof Salad with sustainable Foie Gras

It is Valentines again and we are cooking away a storm. Valentines here on our romantic island is something special. The couples are going first to the sandbank for a glass of Rose Champagne and some Canapes before going to Turtle beach, our most romantic beach on the island.. There they are served a 3 course menu which we cook straight at the beach. A short stroll later they are at Cinema Paradiso, our outdoor cinema for a romantic movie and a chocolate themed dessert buffet. Could it get more romantic than watching a movie under the stars? No, I don't think so, but then again, I live here on the island and love the island every moment of the day

So what are we cooking tonight? I will of course share all the recipes, but want to start with the one starter, a combination of organic lettuces, fruit and meat. We got some sustainable foie gras and made a terrine out of it, then we rolled the terrine and coated it in pistachios. We have received some amazing cured ham from Bayonne in France, it is so subtle in taste, just gorgeous. Of course we take some local lettuces and then some fresh figs, the fruit of love.

The Bayonne ham is a lovely and subtle ham from the French Atlantic coast, very close to Spain. The pigs have to be from the region, the spices, the salt, all is from the region. It has a very mild flavor which I love, it is not so overpowering and salty and combines very well with the other ingredients

Everything gets carefully arranged on a glass plate, it has to be a work of art. We made a balsamic and honey reduction and took some really amazing extra virgin olive oil, we tossed the leaves in it, ah, the combination of the freshness with the richness of the foie gras and the slight saltiness of the ham are just going so well when combined and enjoyed

We take great care of getting certified sustainable foie gras....no, again I am not going into the discussion about foie gras, but trust me, we go through great length to make sure we get the best product which is as friendly to teh geese as possible. I am not giving you the recipe for the foie gras terrine again as it is already in my blog.

The bread is more there to give the dish some extra texture, it is a thinly cut toast bread which is baked in the oven till dry, crisp and golden in color

The recipe is enough for 4 friends

Recipe
100 g (3oz) Bayonne Ham
4 each Figs
2 each Pears
60 g (2 oz) Assorted lettuces
100 g (3 oz) Foie gras terrine
30 g (1 oz) Pistachios
50 ml (2 oz) Olive oil
60 ml (2 oz) Balsamic Vinegar
10 g (0.5 oz) Honey

Method
Firstly reduce the Balsamic till only one third left, add the honey then cool down
Cut the ham is thin slices
Mush the terrine up a bit, then roll in a plastic wrap to a long sausage, cool in the fridge
Chop the pistachios, then roll the terrine in them, after that cut the rolled terrine in 1 cm thick slices
Arrange the ham on the bottom of the plate, then top with the pears
Mix the lettuce with a bit balsamic and olive oil, dress nicely on top of the pears
Garnish with the figs and top with a bread wafer

Canapes, little delicious eats for cocktails

Smoked Salmon Roulade

Don't we all love going to cocktail, sipping the bubbly, talking stories to other people and listening to their stories and yes, of course nibbling these delicious little cocktail food called canapes.

Let me give you the definition of a canape as per Wikipedia:

The name comes from the French word for "couch," drawing on the analogy that the garnish sits atop the bread as people do a couch.

 

Because they are often served during cocktail hours, it is often desired that a canapé be either salty or spicy, in order to encourage guests to drink more. A canapé may also be referred to as finger food, although not all finger foods are canapés.  Crackers or small slices of bread or toast or puff pastry, cut into various shapes, serve as the base for savory butters or pastes, often topped with a “canopy” of such savory foods as meat, cheese, fish, caviar, foie gras, purees or relish.

Traditionally, canapés are built on stale white bread (though other foods may be used as a base), cut in thin slices and then shaped with a cutter or knife. Shapes might include circles, rings, squares, strips or triangles. These pieces of bread are then prepared by deep frying, sauteeing or toasting. The foods are sometimes highly processed and decoratively applied (e.g., piped) to the base with a pastry bag. Decorative garnishes are then applied. The canapés are usually served on a canapé salver and eaten from small canapé plates. The technical composition of a canapé consists of a base (e.g., the bread or pancake), a spread, a main item, and a garnish. The spread is traditionally either a compound butter or a flavored cream cheese. Common garnishes can range from finely chopped vegetables, scallions, and herbs to caviar or truffle oil.

Caramelized Foie Gras Profiterole

Wow, that is a lot of explanation for a little thing, but as you can see, they don't just look delicious, thy taste delicious.

Today I have 2 types for you, both of them are a little high end but something different to the usual cheese on cracker. The one is a smoked salmon roulade with cream cheese. I serve it on a toasted brown bread with a little lettuce. The other one is a Foie Gras Profiterole......I explain a little more about profiteroles another time, but it is basically choux pastry that is filled with a foie gras mousse and then the lid gets caramelized, this gives it a bit sweetness and crunchiness

Salmon Roulade

300 G Smoked Salmon
500 G Cream cheese
1 Ea Pumpernickel, rounds
15 G Salt
2 G Pepper
20 G Parsley, chopped
1 Ea Lemon juice

Baby Spinach
Radiccio salad
Frisee salad

Beat the cream cheese till light and fluffy
Add seasoning and chopped herbs
Take cling film and roll it on your working surface put one layer of smoked salmon on it
Spread the cream cheese evenly all over the salmon
Holding the cling film, carefully roll the salmon that it forms one long roulade
Wrap it in the cling film and freeze
Let it slightly defrost, cut in 5 mm slices

Take the pumpernickel, top with one leaf of baby spinach and a piece of radiccio salad
Top with the salmon roulade
Garnish with frisee lettuce Makes about 45 pieces

Foie Gras Profiterole

250 G Foie Gras
75 Ml Chicken stock, light
250 Ml Cream
10 G Salt
2 G Pepper
15 Ml Cognac
3 Ea Gelatine
100 G Sugar

Melt the foie gras in the chicken stock, not heating it too much
Blend everything in a food processor
Cool down to room temperature
Season with salt, pepper and cognac, it needs to bee a little on the salty side as otherwise with the cream it will taste bland
Soak and melt the gelatine
Add to the foie gras mix
Whip the cream till stiff
Fold into the foie gras mix

Caramelize the sugar
Cut the profiteroles in half
Dip the cover of the profiteroles in the caramel
Cool down Pipe the mousse on the bottom, then add the caramelized top

Makes about 45 pieces

Foie Gras on creamy Asparagus

Now we go with the next recipe of this little series about Asparagus. This time I combine it with creamy asparagus and then olives and tomatoes, a little unusual, but really tasty. I got this idea from a master chef in Switzerland, he had a top rated restaurant in Basel and made a very similar dish and it was so good that I remembered it even so many years have passed

The tomatoes and olives are really important for this dish as otherwise it would be just too rich with the foie gras and the cream, so I just sautee a little shallot with olives and tomato concasse in a bit olive oil, I then add it around the finished dish and the acidity just breaks the other flavors and makes the entire dish even rounder

It looks like I have a lot of time to write at the moment, but believe me, at work it is hectic, we have one of the busiest month in the history of the hotel, we had huge functions, then special a request for a function that was 4 days, special tea breaks, dinners, lunches all for an African Beer Award, so yes, every coffee break was designed to be more of a beer break, so we served assorted pies, meat balls, cold cuts and more.....this is an event I might even write a Blog about.

Then we had some VIP's in house....nothing special just some governors (Nigeria, Congo), presidents (Lebanon) and former presidents (Brazil).....they keep us on our toes that is for sure and then we had a whole lot of small functions.

Amongst all that we prepared to change the Pool BBQ menu which will be implemented as well just before Easter, so everything comes together, the Asparagus promotion, the new Pool menu and Easter...... the fun never stops

Anyway, enough of all the talking, here we go with the recipe

Recipe
600 G Foie Gras
500 G White asparagus
200 G Green asparagus
200 Ml Cream
50 G White wine
20 G Sugar
25 G Butter
10 G Salt

200 G Tomatoes
100 G Olives black
100 G Onions
5 G Salt
2 G Pepper
50 Ml Olive oil
100 Ml Balsamic vinegar
20 G Honey

Method
Peel the white asparagus
Cook it carefully with white wine, sugar, salt and water
Cut the green asparagus and blanch
Cut tomatoes in concasse
Cut Olives in julienne
Cut onions in brunoise

Saute the onions in olive oil without color add olives, tomatoes and parsley
Season to taste, just saute quick
Make a creamy sauce from the stock of the white asparagus
Add the white asparagus to it, heat it nicely

Plate the asparagus in the middle of the plate
Fry the foie gras a la minute

Dress with the olive ragout
Add a little Balsamic reduction around

Foie Gras and Chicken Liver

One is French the other English? No, of course not. But calling goose liver Foie Gras just sounds more elegant. They are basically both livers, one from the chicken and one from the goose. But there is one huge difference, the goose liver is from a force fed animal. At least partly force fed. Already the ancient Romans enjoyed catching the geese when going south in late autumn, their liver big and fatty for the long journey.

Of course there is no comparison to the goose liver of today. Today, the geese are fed till the liver has a size that nearly fills the entire stomach cavity, not good, I admit. So the goal is to find a producer that produces the liver more natural, they are a lot smaller, but still have this lovely flavor.

I like to combine goose and chicken liver. There are several reasons for it, one is that they are both different in taste, but still compliment each other. And then there is of course a cost factor, it is a lot cheaper to do a goose liver terrine and then stretch it a bit, but still have it full of flavor

The recipe is actually totally easy, I got it from a great chef in Switzerland a couple of years ago and I am still doing it regularly.

250 g Foie Gras
250 g Kg Chicken liver, cleaned
250 g Butter
3 Eggs
25 ml Brandy or Cognac

Clean the foie gras and cut in 2 cm pieces
Blend the chicken liver, then strain through a fine sieve
Melt the butter, add to the chicken liver
Beat the eggs and add to the mix
Add Brandy and season to taste......yes you should taste the mix before cooking it, sounds terrible but can avoid that your terrine is too salty or lacks salt

Lay out a terrine form with plastic wrap
Pour the mix in the terrine form, then add the foie gras pieces
Cover and poach carefully at 80C for about 45 minutes.

Cool in the fridge, un mould and slice

Serve with a little port reduction and a crispy salad

Beef Fillet with Wild Mushrooms

I have to admit, the title of this blog is giving very little away and is even a bit boring. There is so much more to this dish than a piece of beef with a couple of wild mushrooms.....I mean wild mushrooms on its own is already a treat, but you will see in this combination, wow

Some the hidden items are foie gras, yes, the famous and infamous foie gras is featuring again. I love it and some people hate it, but because I love it, I will feature it again and again, sorry, but we all have our weaknesses and this is one of many, and I mean many.

For the foie gras I take the small off cuts, let them melt and then mix them with the wild mushrooms and some bread crumbs in order to make a nice crust. Then I give a small slice of fried foie gras on top as well, just to make it a bit more decadent. Of course I give a generous helping of sauteed wild mushrooms, mmmmmm I am getting hungry just writing the blog.

2 hours have passed between the last paragraph and this one. I was doing the pass in the restaurant and yes, we were serving some of these special beef fillets and I got hungry just looking at them. It was a busy evening and the new dishes were sold successful with great feedback, so I am sure that you will be enjoying this dish when you cook it

Here is the recipe

1.6 Kg Beef fillet
0.5 Kg Foie Gras
0.1 Kg Chanterelle mushrooms
0.1 Kg Cepes mushrooms
0.1 Kg Oyster mushrooms
1.6 Kg Potatoes
0.25 L Cream
0.25 Kg Butter
0.05 Kg Shallots
0.1 Kg Shimeji mushrooms
0.1 Kg Enoki Mushrooms
0.1 Kg Eryngi Mushrooms
0.1 Kg Butter
0.03 Kg Garlic
0.05 Kg Parsley, Italian
0.3 L Demi Glace
0.1 L Merlot

Method
Cut the beef fillet in 150 g portions Cut the foie gras in 50 g portions
Cut the mushrooms finely
Fry the mushrooms in a bit butter, season
Mix with bread crumbs, egg white and foie gras
Fry the beef to the desired temperature
Let it rest for a couple of minutes
Top with the mushroom mix
Flash under the salamander
Make a creamy mash with the potatoes
Clean the mushrooms and saute in a bit butter, garlic and shallots

Pipe the mash on the plate, use some demi glace for garnish, plate the fillet and sauteed mushrooms around, add some glaceed onions