Archive for March, 2010
Often overlooked as a simple piece of garnish (as used in our Long Satay and our Honey Roasted Pigeon dishes), pickled vegetables offer a fresh crunchy, salty and sour taste that is great to open a meal with, especially with a pre-dinner chilled glass of Sherry 
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Using firm fresh vegetables ensures that they retain their texture. Cauliflower florets, mini carrots, mini courgettes can keep for some time in the liquid.
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Other softer ingredients such as large courgettes and cucumbers are best used within a few days. The chilli is really there as a garnish and diners are advised that they eat it at their peril! (though that hasn’t stopped some people! 
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On a less spicy note, we had a huge delivery of ripe avocados this week and quickly put them to use.
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A simple Guacamole is enhanced with a dash of Sriracha and served as an Amuse Bouche. This went down well with the diners and even better with the staff!
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Later in the week I had the pleasure of preparing a special tasting menu. One of the dishes involved lobster. I am a big fan of raw seafood, and when the crustacean arrived, I knew that it had to be served raw. In the past I have served Lobster Sashimi, so this time I wanted to do something a little different.
Its good to get back to normality.
As a child I always enjoyed a nice “Dtom Khem”. The recipe is made by braising pork (or sometimes chicken) and spices with soy sauce and sugar, the resulting dish has a lovely dark caramel colour and a sweet and savoury taste. The best bit has to be the hard boiled eggs that are added to the pot that take on the wonderful colour of the sauce.
I could just eat the sauce over steamed rice and that would be a fine dinner.
We have toyed around with Dtom Khem in the past, sometimes changing the hens eggs for quail eggs, or swapping pork for beef. However, its return to our kitchen this time sees it served in pasta.
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Notice that there is no sauce accompanying the dish. You´ll notice that I said it is served “in” the pasta, and not “with” pasta. 
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