Formal Hall Menus October 12th to 18th

Feast Night Formal Hall

Tuesday 13th October

Amuse Bouche

Petit Gougères

Warm puffs of air with Gruyère cheese, Parmesan, rosemary and fleur de sel
-0-

Spiced Split Pea Soup

-0-

Seared Fillet of Mackerel

Celeriac and pear remoulade, sardine dressing

Sautéed potatoes and French Beans

(V) Roasted Vegetable and Stilton Crumble

-0-

Pistachio and Olive Oil Cake

Roasted strawberries and rhubarb sorbet

Feast Night Formal Hall

Wednesday 14th October

Amuse Bouche

Cornet of salmon tartare and crème fraiche

(V) Cornet of red pepper and aubergine caviar confit

-0-

Puree of English Pea Soup

With Truffle Oil and Parmesan Crisps

-0-

Braised Beef steak

Spinach risotto and spring onions

(V) Spinach and Wild Mushroom Risotto with gruyere cheese

-0-

Winter Berry Consommé with Brie Sorbet

Mixed berries and white balsamic foam

Fairtrade, Local and Sustainable Formal Hall

Thursday 15th October

Salad of Figs, Roasted Sweet Peppers and Shaved Fennel

All locally sourced

-0-

Slow Roasted Confit of Suffolk Duck

Rosti potato, caramelised Cambridgeshire red cabbage

Roasted duck and thyme jus

(V) Falafel Medallions

Rosti potato, caramelised Cambridgeshire red cabbage

-0-

Dark Fairtrade Chocolate Crémeux

Tuile Basket and Fairtrade banana Anglaise

-0-

Fairtrade Coffee and Chocolate

Formal Hall

Saturday 17th October

Goat’s Cheese Mousse

Toasted brioche, grilled pear, honey, balsamic reduction and Tellicherry Pepper

-0-

Chicken and Spinach Roulade

Poached prunes, sweet potato mash and broccoli

(V) Spinach and Ricotta Crepes

-0-

Sable Breton with raspberries, vanilla cream and vanilla ice cream (GR)

Candied pistachios and chocolate

Formal Hall

Sunday 18th October

Homemade Smoked Haddock Fish Cakes

Hollandaise sauce and lemon

(V) Warm cauliflower Puree with Toasted Sourdough, toasted almonds and gremolata

-0-

Roast Leg of Lamb

Chateau potatoes, panache, mint sauce

(V) White Bean Cassoulet with dumplings

-0-

Apple and Blackberry Crumble

Crème Anglaise

Feast Night Formal Hall Wednesday Oct. 7th

Monday through Wednesday we serve special 'Feast Night' Formal Hall's. These special dinners include the additions of a fourth course, tableclothes, silver plated cutlery and best China. We normally limit capacity to 50 covers on these evenings and strive for an 'exclusive' ambiance. Formal Hall has traditionally been served seven nights a week at Pembroke, with Friday through Sunday being the most popular nights. About two years ago we introduced the Feast Night dinners in order to boost attendance early in the week; it's been a big success!

Wednesday's Feast Night was the first of Michealmas Term and followed on from the Undergraduate Matriculation dinner the night before. We started the dinner with a warm Amuse Bouche of pea and coconut veloute topped with a coconut foam....mmm, delicious!

We followed the Amuse Bouche with citrus cured salmon confited in olive oil at 38C for twelve minutes. The salmon is topped with finely sliced chives and avrouga caviar. The salmon is set on warm orange segments steeped in stock syrup and white wine. The salmon confit is finished with a coriander coulee. This dish is from Thomas Keller's famous 'French Laundry' cookbook.

Next came a dish from 'Sous Vide' by Joan Roca and Salvador Brugués. This groundbreaking cookbook was the first to focus entirely on sous vide cooking, and is considered by many as a text book reference guide for under pressure cooking. The dish consists of a chicken breast cooked sous vide at 65C for 60 minutes and then briefly pan-fried in olive oil and butter. With the chicken we served a black olive jus, mango sauce and champ potato.

To finish we served a variation of a recipe from Thomas Keller's 'Under Pressure' cookbook. Carrot cake is served with cinnamon ice cream, cream cheese frosting and carrot powder. In hindsight the dish lacked a contrasting colour element to 'lift' the presentation, next time we will do this slightly differently. Nevertheless this sweet tasted great and the plates all came back empty!

BA's Dinner last Thursday

On Thursday we hosted this terms first BA's (graduate students) Dinner in the main hall at Pembroke. The dinner for 120 students and guests began with an Amuse Bouche. We served compressed watermelon topped with Keta caviar, lemon oil, fleur de sel and lime zest. We rubbed a little fish sauce onto the watermelon before we vacuum packed the fruit; the fish sauce added a nice savoury contrast to the sweet fruit.

We followed the Amuse Bouche with:

Baked Trout Fillet

White beans, scallion and radish salad, soy & orange glaze

The fresh trout was topped and tailed prior to being cooked in a 200C oven for 4 minutes. Underneath the trout we served cannellini beans with finely diced leeks, onions and carrots warmed through with butter and white wine. On top we served a chilled salad of radish, scallion and carrot. To accompany the dish we served a warm orange and soy glaze.

For our vegetarian guests we offered heart of palm pan fried in butter, lemon oil and white wine. Heart of palm, also called palm heart, palmito, burglar's thigh, chonta or swamp cabbage, is a vegetable harvested from the inner core and growing bud of certain palm trees (notably the coconut (Cocos nucifera), Palmito Juçara (Euterpe edulis), Açaí palm (Euterpe oleracea), sabal (Sabal spp.) and pejibaye (Bactris gasipaes) palms). Heart of palm is often eaten in a salad, sometimes called "millionaire's salad".

For the main course we served:

Roulade of Duck with Swiss Chard
Wild mushrooms, creamed corn and fondant potato

To make the roulade we skinned two duck breasts and seasoned them with 4-spice and salt. Next we sprinkled them with transglutaminase (British chef Heston Blumenthal is credited with the introduction of "meat glue" AKA transglutaminase into modern cooking.) and wrapped them in plastic wrap to form a barrel shape. The duck is left in the fridge for six hours allowing the two breasts to bind together. Next we un-wrap the duck, re-wrap in blanched Swiss Chard and then vacuum pack on high. We cook the roulades Sous Vide at 58C for 90 minutes, the finished duck is a lovely pink throughout and incredibly tender!

To finish this amazing meal that only cost £7.25 per person, we served:

Hazelnut and Cherry Cake, Yoghurt Sorbet

Cherry coulis and dark chocolate crème brulee

The yoghurt sorbet works very well with the dark chocolate of the brulee, and when combined with cherries and hazlenuts the result is fantastic.

Another 'school dinner' is served!

Formal Hall Menus

On Wednesday we start Formal Hall Dinners. Formal Hall is a 3/4 course dinner that is plated and waiter served, we provide this dinner seven nights a week during term. We charge the students £7.25 for the food and they may each BYOB one bottle of wine. Normally we set capacity at 50 early in the week, and betweeen 100-150 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

We are incorporating various aspects of sous vide cooking into each nights menu; the sous vide puree of fennel, the sous vide puree of almonds, the compressed melon with caviar, the cinnamon ice cream and many other items are all made possible by vacuum packing and controlled cooking. In almost every case we are sous vide cooking in a Hobart Combi Oven set to steam, the results are exactly the same as if we'd used our small Clifton water bath. During the week I will document and photograph as many of these dishes as possible!

Feast Night Formal Hall
Wednesday 7th October

Amuse Bouche
Pea and coconut veloute with coconut foam

-0-

Citrus cured confit of salmon with caviar
Orange confit and coriander coulee

(V) Roasted Fennel with pureed almonds
Pernod and saffron

-0-

Free Range chicken Fillet
Mango puree, olive sauce, champ potato with brunoise

(V) Homemade Linguini with broccoli and Stilton cream

-0-

Carrot cake, cinnamon ice cream, cream cheese frosting and carrot powder


BA Dinner in Hall
Thursday 8th October
No Undergraduate Formal Hall Tonight

Amuse Bouche
Compressed Water Melon and salmon Caviar
Lemon oil

(V) Petit Gateau of Compressed Melon
Orange confit

-0-

Baked Trout Fillet
White beans, scallion and radish salad, soy & orange glaze

(V) Roasted Palm Heart
White beans, scallion and radish salad, soy & orange glaze

-0-

Roulade of Duck with Swiss Chard
Wild mushrooms, creamed corn and fondant potato

(V) Roulade of Sweet Red Pepper, Mascarpone and Basil
Wild mushrooms, creamed corn and fondant potato

-0-

Hazelnut and Cherry Cake, Yoghurt Sorbet
Cherry coulis and dark chocolate crème brulee


Formal Hall
Friday 9th October

Salad of Haricots Verts, Tomato Tartare and chive oil

-0-

Roulade of Trout with a Prawn Mousse
Pomme de terre puree, spinach, vanilla and saffron sauce

(V) Sweet Potato Ravioli
Sage Cream and spinach

-0-

Lemon Sabayon-Pine Nut Tart with Honeyed Mascarpone Cream


Formal Hall
Saturday 10th October

Parmigiano- Reggiano Crisps with Goat Cheese Mousse

-0-

Twelve Hour Glazed Belly of Pork Sous Vide
Mustard Vinaigrette, Parisienne potato, carrot

(V) Organic Vegetable Cobbler

-0-

Milk Chocolate Ice Cream
Vanilla Bean Cake, pistachio coulis


Formal Hall
Sunday 11th October

Salmon Pastrami with Toasted sourdough

(V) Beef Tomato and Whipped Brie Quenelle
Reduced balsamico

-0-

Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding
Traditional condiments

(V) Chestnut and Vegetable Roast

-0-

Glazed Lemon Tart
Raspberry syllabub

new stoves

Our new Bonnet stoves by Hobart. These stoves are absolute beasts and can boil a litre of cold water in under two minutes. These are the same stoves used in Hells Kitchen.