Last Night's Formal Hall 20th October

Last Night's Formal Hall was an opportunity to try another recipe from Tony Botella's Cocktail Cuisine cookbook. The Amuse Bouche consisted of pumpkin puree cooked with lots of butter and cream and topped with arouga caviar and orange zest; I've not received any feedback from diners as to whether or not they've liked these small starters, so some feedback would be good (hint, hint!).

Following on from the Amuse Bouche we served Butternut Squash Soup. The soup was garnished with creme fraiche seasoned with nutmeg and chives, and then a little brown butter was whisked in prior to serving. Brown butter is simply butter cooked until it turns a nutty brown colour and adds a nice flavour to the soup.


The winter root vegetable theme was completed by the sweet parsnip puree we served with the slow braised steak and Dauphinoise potatoes. The beef was advertised as being cooked sous vide at 55 degrees C, when in actual fact our steamer malfunctioned Monday night and the beef was actually cooked at closer to 90 degrees C. A new thermostat has been ordered to prevent this happening again! The over-braised steaks were smothered with caramelised shallots and red wine jus.

Last night's sweet was a warm chocolate Bouchon served with clotted cream ice cream and Griotte cherries in kirsch. I eat one of these early in the afternoon and was in heaven! The lovely warm sponge (much like a chocolate brownie) is a recipe from Thomas Keller's Bouchon cookbook and was simply amazing when combined with the clotted cream and the very alcoholic cherries. I hope everyone enjoyed this sweet as much as I did!