It's all in the game: An early Spring Lunch (the lunch wasn't early, spring wasn't)

Gordon Ramsay’s roasted and pressed Belly Pork and Patata Bravas with Red Pepper and Chilli Salsa.

We had decided to have a change, so instead of having an evening meet we were having an early afternoon meal. It was to be at Marianne and Martins, so we would travel to Kiel on Sunday morning with ease.

As usual the hosts would be making the main course, so Linda had selected to do a fish dish and I would make a starter. I decided I would make a dish that I had done previously it was based on a Gordon Ramsey dish twice cooked pressed belly pork. This would be accompanied with a spicy salsa and a garlic schmaltz (lard) and also some Patata Bravas.

Pressed crispy belly pork

1 piece of Belly Pork approx. 1.3kg

Rough salt

Ground pepper

Rape oil

White dry wine

2 bulbs of garlic

A few sprigs of thyme

So let us start with Gordons pressed belly pork. I bought a nice piece from our local ham smoke house (they use Schwäbisch-Hällisches porkers). I bought a nice piece weighing 1300g so that was the basics. They had already scored it but it wasn’t in small enough diamonds so I scored in between theirs.

I rubbed it all over with course salt opening up the scored cuts and rubbing the salt well in, I also liberally peppered it all over and rubbed the whole joint with rape oil.

I cut the tops of two bulbs of garlic and placed these in the base of a roasting dish just large enough to take the pork.

I placed the thyme on top of the garlic and the pork on top of this. I then poured a dry white wine (Grauer Burgunder) up to the base of the meat and placed into a preheated oven at 160C for 2 hours.

At the same time I put 4 red peppers into roast for the Salsa, these I roasted until the skin blackened and blistered, removing placing in a bowl, covered with cling film and allowed to cool overnight.

Place them on baking parchment, this can then be discarded without too much mess

The roasted peppers

After the pork had cooked for 2 hours and the skin was nice and crisp, I placed it on a stainless steel platter, placed another one on top and using a joiner’s clamp pressed the two together. (You can just place tins on top to weigh it down, this is what Gordon suggests, but I find the clamps much easier). This was left overnight to compress and cool.

Compress the pork between two platers with a joiners clamp (or heavy tins)

The nicely compressed belly pork

Sweet red pepper and chilli salsa

4 large red peppers

7 chillies (I used a mixture of red and green)

1 red onion (100g when skinned and diced)

The contents of the roasted garlic from the roasting tin

1 handful of parsley

1 handful of basil

8 tbsp. of oil (50% olive-50% walnut)

1 tbsp. of white wine vinegar

1 tbsp. of red wine

1 tsp of balsamic vinegar

Zest of 1 lemon

Next morning, I skinned and deseeded the red peppers, and deseeded the chillies, finely diced the red onions. I roughly chopped the red chillies and minced them fine in the dicer. I added the onions and the red peppers to the chillies. Mixed the oil, vinegars and red wine together and added this to the mixture, chopped the parsley and basil and mixed in. I squeezed the garlic out of the bulb and added this to the Salsa mix. I then seasoned with salt and pepper and added the lemon zest, gave it a final stir, covered and set aside to mature until tomorrow.

The roasted red peppers

Skin and deseed

The chillies

Deseed the chillies

Chop the chillies

Dice the onions

Squeezing the roasted garlic to add to the salsa

Finely chop the chillies and onion in a blender

The pork was sliced and then cut into squares about 3cm x 3cm, Gordon recommends using a serrated knife so having just bought a new one this is what I used. This was placed into a clean roasting dish ready for the final roasting at the venue.

Patata Bravas

800g of small potatoes

2 tbsp. oil

Smoked paprika

Chilli salt (you can make your own or buy it ready made)

Boil the potatoes for 10 minutes and then cool under running water, Remove the skins and cut in half, place in a roasting tin and sprinkle with oil, shake so that they are all covered, place in a hot oven to roast, turning at regular intervals. Sprinkle with a mixture of salt, pepper and paprika. Allow to cool and then next day, place in a hot oven to heat through, serve with the belly pork and Salsa.

Unfortunately, because we were chatting in the kitchen and i didn't keep an eye on the pork, it got a bit browner than it should have.

The wine served with the dish was a Spanish Rosé -2013 Utiel-Requena.

Linda’s Fruits of the Sea Pâté

For 10 portions as a small fish starter you shall require:

500g of white fish filet (I had some cod filets in the freezer from my last fishing expedition, these I offered up in aid of our Kikoklu)

500g raw prawns (save a few for decoration)

90g of butter

6 chopped spring onions

250g of scallop meat (the round muscle that holds the two halves of the shell together)

1 clove of garlic

2 tbsps. of Cognac

125 ml of single cream

1 dsp. of lemon juice

1 tsp. paprika powder

1 pinch of Cayenne pepper

A wedge of lemon to decorate

Methode:

Skin and pin-bone the fish (in this case it had been done before I froze it) cut into pieces. Shell the prawns. Melt the butter in a pan and sweat the spring onions for a couple of minutes in this. Add the fish, prawns, scallops and garlic and over a low heat slowly cook until the prawns have taken on a pink colour and the fish is just starting to break apart.

In a small pan or ladle heat the Cognac and light, pour this over the fish, wait until the flames have died down and add the cream. Stir in the lemon juice, paprika and Cayenne pepper. Tip all into a blender and blend to a smooth homogeneous paste. Fill into individual pâté dishes and decorate the top with lemon slices and reserved prawns.

Serve with crackers and/or celery.

Linda also made a small salad to go along with it.

A dry Baden Grüner Silvaner 2014 Königsschaffhausener Vulkanfelsen was served to accompany the dish.

Our Spring Afternoon Lunch

Our little band of "Brothers and Sisters" The KIKOKLU

So the wonderful afternoon was started off with Carolyn's Bruchettes, her world famous chicken liver paté and a walnut pesto, topped with Mozzarella and anchovies we drank a nice bottle (it turned into two) of Cava as we chatted about this and that and Martin and I got the DVD of Kalle's birthday cruise sorted out.

Carolyn's walnut pesto with mozzarella and anchovies

Carolyn's chicken liver paté

Next came my pressed pork belly, with a sweet pepper and chilli salsa and patatas bravas

Then came Linda's fish pâté.

Linda doing a bit of decorating

This was followed by the main course :

Marianne's and Martin's Tafelspitz, with Pellkartoffeln and Frankfurter Grünsoße.

Best end of rump with potatoes boiled in their skins and Frankfurt Green Sauce

It was a quite wonderful main course, it is many years since I have had it and the beef was wonderfully cooked and the sauce just the pièce de résistance.

The beef had been placed in unsalted water brought to the boil, skimmed, and then the heat reduced to a slow boil (the surface of the liquid barely moving) with addition of root vegetables (leek, onion, celery, carrots) over several hours. near the end of the cooking period, the root vegetables had done their job and were removed and replaced with fresh vegetables the would be served with the tafelspitz.

A creamed horseradish sauce was also there for those that liked it (I do), it also goes very well with beef.

The Frankfurt green sauce. (Goethe's favourite dish)

I was lucky as Marianne had kept the packing that the herbs that make up the base of the sauce came in and it gave precise instructions as to the contents and the process to make the sauce.

Ingredients:
Parsley
Chives
Chervil
Watercress
Pimpernelle (sometimes called salad Burnett)
Sorrel
Borage

2 hard boiled eggs
1 pickled Gherkin
1 onion
Dice the above and then chop the herbs mix together with:
1 grated clove of garlic
2 dsp. mustard
Zest of 1/2 a lemon
and enough mayonnaise to make a thick sauce
Salt and Pepper to taste.

We drank a wonderful Baden white wine with the meal.

The Frankfurt Green Sauce

The potatoes boiled in their skins

The Tafelspitz (Rump) and the vegetables

My Main Course

To finish (after a break and another natter on the couch) Kalle had made apple flower individual cakes, as normal perfect and exquisite in taste. A beauty to behold.