I normally work Monday thru Friday, and spend weekends running my two kids to gymnastics, football practice and then swimming every Sunday morning. However, with every rule there comes an exception; case in point being today.
The Matthew Wren Society Lunch is an annual event at Pembroke and is hosted by the development office. Such an important lunch is the exception to my normal working pattern and so I found myself rushing into College around lunchtime today with my six year old son in tow (and still wearing his Liverpool Football Kit).
To begin today's lunch we served a crab
tian dressed with grain mustard and creme
fraiche. The
tian was set on a light cucumber jelly garnished with dill and cucumber
concasse. This is one visual dish! The cucumber juice is beautiful to look at and
set's up lovely when gelled.
Our main course was fillet of beef cooked sous
vide to 58 degrees C for three hours; very, very tender. The beef is quickly pan-fried to add flavour moments before being sliced and served. To accompany the beef we served puree of pumpkin, spinach, fondant potato and a red wine
jus. I was very, very happy with this dish and felt that the large plate showed the meat off very well; lots of autumnal colours and flavours!
To complete the beautiful lunch we served pistachio cake with blackberries and apple sorbet. We were lucky to catch the end of the blackberry season and sourced the fruit locally. The combination of blackberries, apples and pistachios was
truly delicious!
I consider myself extremely lucky to not only love cooking, but to work at such a great college. One where good food is both welcomed and
appreciated!
I must say I find the concept, and the taste, of cucumber jelly exceedingly odd. Cucumber is basically flavourless, and its main attraction is the texture; remove this, and you have very little left!
ReplyDeleteThe cucumber concasse adds texture and the dill adds flavour; however cucumber is a light and subtle flavour-maybe not to everyones taste..
ReplyDelete