(500 ml)

Spaghetti carbonara

Ingredients:

200 grindless unsmoked/slightly smoked guanciale or pancetta
1 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clive
300 g spaghetti
6 egg yolks of fresh farm eggs
100 g aged parmesan or pecorino romano

Preparation:

Chop the guanciale or pancetta into small batons. Grate the parmesan, if you want to decorate at the end, firstly with a vegetable peeler cut some decent shavings and reserve.
Heat the oil gently in a large, shallow pan. Fry the guanciale or pancetta and garlic for 10 minutes, or until all the fat has rendered off and the meat is golden and crisp. Remove and discard the garlic clove, then turn off the heat.
Bring a large pan of salted water to a simmer and cook the pasta until it’s al dente (about a minute less than the pack instructions). Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks and the parmesan in a small bowl with a pinch of salt.
Using kitchen tongs, lift the pasta from the water into the pancetta pan along with any dripping water. Use a wooden spoon to stir it into the rendered fat. If the pan looks dry, add a small ladleful of pasta water and mix it in. Keep adding until you see a little pasta water at the bottom of the pan – you’ll be surprised how much will be absorbed.
Working quickly, tip the beaten yolks in with the pasta and stir vigorously. Rinse the yolk bowl out with a little more pasta water and pour that in too. If at any time it’s becoming claggy or starting to scramble, pour in a little more water. If you’ve added too much, stir the pasta over the lowest heat for a few moments. You’re aiming for a smooth sauce that is the consistency of double cream. Season with freshly ground black pepper and taste for salt.
Transfer the pasta to the serving dishes, decorate with the parmesan shavings. Finish with some black pepper to serve and enjoy.

Duo of duck, couscous with sautéed dried fruits, oven roasted root vegetables

Ingredients:

4 duck legs
1-2 duck breast
2 bay leaves
3 sprigs fresh thyme
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
1 bulb garlic
800 g duck lard
500 g couscous fine grain
100 g dried apricot
100 g sultanas
100 g blanched almonds
100 g butter
100 g acacia honey
100 ml Tokaj aszú
1 kg mix of seasonal root vegetables (carrots, parsnip, kohlrabi, sweet potatoes, beetroots, etc.)
1-2 red onion
50 ml extra virgin olive oil
200 g coarse salt
freshly ground black pepper
sea salt flakes

Preparation:

Prepare an aromatised salt by pounding with a mortar and pestle the leaves of 2 sprigs of thyme and 1 of rosemary, the bay leaves and 2 cloves garlic, and a tablespoon of black pepper, with a little splash of olive oil. Mix this paste with 150 g coarse salt and cover generously the duck legs in a terrine with it. Leave 24 hours to marinate in the fridge.
The next day take off the excess salt with a paper towel, but keep the salt for further use.
In a Dutch oven or a heavy pan melt the duck lard, immerge the legs in there, add the rest of the garlic in its skin. Cook at low temperature on the stove or in an oven until your fork is not finding any resistance. Take out the legs and let them dropping for half an hour at least. Reserve the garlic bulb as well.
Score the skin on each duck breast and pat dry with absorbent paper. Season the meat and skin with salt and place into a frying pan skin side down on a low to medium heat with no oil.
Cook for approx 3-4 mins until the skin is a golden crispy brown. Pour off any excess oil as you cook. Flip the duck breast over and seal for 30 seconds. Transfer the breasts to a baking tray and let them cool down totally.
Arrange a rack in the middle of the oven and heat the oven to 180 °C.
Peel or just wash the root vegetables, if desired, then cut them into rough 1-inch chunks. Cut 1 red onion into 1-inch chunks. Place the root vegetables and red onion on a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with 50 ml olive oil, sprinkle with 1-2 teaspoons salt and 1/ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper and toss to evenly coat. Spread out in an even layer.
Roast for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, chop until you have 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped rosemary leaves.
Remove the baking sheet from the oven, sprinkle the vegetables with the rosemary, and toss to combine. Spread back out in an even layer. Continue to roast until the vegetables are tender and caramelized, 10 to 15 minutes more. Reserve until serving.
Prepare the couscous following the instructions on the packaging (usually take the same amount of salted boiling water as your couscous, pour i ton, mix and cover with a clingfilm for 15-20 minutes).
Add in 50 g of soft butter and fold-in with a fork to get it nicely grainy.
Chop the apricots into cubes and the almonds roughly. Melt the butter in a pan, add in and start to sautée the fruits, add in 1-2 tablespoons of honey and deglaze with some Tokaj aszú. Reduce the sauce until almost thick and fold this ragout into the couscous. Mix it well.
When you want to serve, place the duck legs in the middle of the oven at 225 °C fan or grill + fan, reheat until crispy and nice golden brown. You can place the couscous and the root veggies eventually under for reheating or use a microwave oven.
Replace the breasts skin side down again into the frying pan, after approx 3 minutes, season with freshly ground black pepper, flip them, and give the 1-2 minutes on the meaty side. Carve into nice slices.
Serve in the middle a dome of couscous, garnished with the root veggies, add a duck leg and some slices of the breast, seasoned with sea salt flakes. If you like add the confit garlic to the table separately.

Kaiserschmarren

Ingredients:

6 large farm eggs
pinch salt
50 g powdered sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
150 g all-purpose flour
300 ml full fat milk
60 g unsalted butter
30 g brown sugar (muscovado)
1 tablespoon powdered sugar to serve
150 g fresh or frozen apricot (halved)
40 g caster sugar
40 g premium quality apricot jam
lemon juice to taste

Preparation:

First prepare the fruits: in a sautée pan melt some butter, add in the caster sugar and let it melt and even get some colouring. Fold in the fresh or frozen halved apricots and cook for about 6 minutes. Stir in the apricot jam and finish the cooking. Out of the heat, add the lemon juice. The ragout should not be too sweet nor tangy. let it cool totally.
Separate the eggs into whites and yolks.
Add a pinch of salt to the whites and beat them until it forms stiff peaks.
Mix the egg yolks with the sugar, the vanilla extract until the sugar dissolves into the mix and it becomes whiter.
Fold in the flour and half of the milk. Gradually with a whisk add in all the milk.
In the meantime, heat to medium a large, heavy pan with a small knob of butter.
Fold the meringue into the egg mix in two or three steps carefully to keep the air in. It can take a while but keep it up!
Pour half of the mix into the pan, cover with a lid and let it cook slowly. After 2-3 minutes check how it is cooked under with a spatula and if it is nice golden brown, sprinkle with a bit of muscovado sugar and return it with the help of the spatula in a quick movement. (Muscovado, by its caramelized taste will give the same caramelized taste and some texture to the Schmarren, what I personally like very much.) Cook another 2 minutes, then cut into large chunks with the spatula.
Serve immediately sprinkled with some powdered sugar and the cold apricot ragout.

Pulled pork burger

Ingredients:

1 kg pork shoulder / pork neck
salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground ginger
3 cloves garlic
2 onions
fresh rosemary
fresh thyme
4 hamburger buns
3 tbsp Dijon mustard
3 tbsp mayonnaise
3 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
1 tsp lemon juice
1 big pinch smoked paprika
1 tsp chilli flakes
4 slices of mature cheddar
4 slices of streaky bacon
3 pickled cucumbers
1 fresh cucumber
2 handfuls mixed green salad
1 nice, ripe tomato
1 red onion

Preparation:

Prepare the seasoning of the meat: mix 2 tbsp of salt with black pepper, ground cumin, purées ginger and garlic. Score the meat 1 cm deep and rub all the way around with the spice cream. Cut thick slices of the onions and put them in the bottom of an oven tray just to fit the size of the meat. Cover with tinfoil and marinate for 3 hours at room temperature.
Preheat the oven for 120°C/100°C (fan). Put the tray into the oven for approximately 12 hours.
Once the meat is soft and tender, while still hot, cut it into 2-3 cm slices, then with two forks make pull it to fall apart into small bites and chunks. Let it cool down, but while almost at room temperature, form nice, even patties of them. Refrigerate until used.
Mix the mustard, mayonnaise, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, sesame oil, smoked paprika, chilli flakes and lemon juice to make the sauce of your sandwich. Rectify the salt and the pepper at the end.
Toast the inside of the hamburger buns in a dry pan until it gets a nice colour. Fry the bacon until crispy in the same pan. Preheat the oven to 150°C/130°C (fan).
Fry the patties in the fat rendered by the bacon both sides quickly. Once turned, cover with a slice of mature cheddar, and put them to the oven in the frying pan.
Put a dollop of your sauce on the bottom of your bun, cover with some salad, cucumber slices and red onion circles. Once the cheese is melted on the patties, place onto the salad with a slice of crispy bacon and some pickled cucumber slices. One smaller dollop of the sauce and place the top of the toasted patty to finish. Serve with Jerusalem artichoke chips.
(Chef’s talk: To tell you the truth, we have used while taking the photos of this dis the remaining gorgonzola sauce to finish, it was simply gorgeous with it!)

Roquefort