Japanese Black Abalone with Truffle Sauce

* try to replicate a really nice abalone dish at teppenyaki at Ukai Tei in Tokyo.

Ingredients:
Black Abalone from Japan (around 500g each)
Dry Seaweed （昆布）
lemon slices and lemon zest
capers
coarse sea salt
black truffle paste
black truffle olive oil
butter
flour
whipping cream
chicken stock

How to Make:
1. Wash and clean abalone. Remove intestines. Keep shell.

2. Soak dry seaweed in water until soft.

3. Place the wet and soft seaweed on bottom of a wok. Place some coarse salt on top of the seaweed, Then put the abalones with shells on top of the salt. Then lemon slices, capers, lemon zests, sugar and pepper.

3. Put another layer of wet seaweed of top of the abalone, then cover all with coarse sea salt and cook under medium to high heat, covered, for 20-30min.

4. Remove everything from abalone, especially all coarse sea salt remaining.

5. Heat a wok with butter and lightly pan fried the abalone on both sides, Remove from pan and cut into desired shapes and place in serving dish and spoon sauce over.

Black Truffle Sauce
1. Heat 1 tbsp butter in a wok, add 2 tbsp flour and mix with a whisk until well combined - a rouge!

2. Add 1/2 to 1 cup chicken stock and continue mixing with the whisk. Egg 1-2 tbsp black truffle paste, keep mixing, then a few drops of the black truffle olive oil.

3. Add 1-2 tbsp whipping cream and season with salt and pepper to your desired taste!

* feel free to adjust consistency of the sauce by adding more flour at the beginning if you want a more thick sauce. If you want it lighter, then more chicken stock. If you want it more creamy, add more cream! this is the way i do it and good luck!

Lemon Tart with Italian Meringe

* combining receipe from Michel Roux "Eggs" on the meringue part and Jane Hornby "What to Cook and How to Cook It" on the lemon tart.

 Ingredients:

For the Pastry -

egg yolk from 1 medium egg

175g plain flour

1/4tsp flaky sea salt

100g cold unsalted butter

2tbsp golden caster sugar

For the filling:

4 unwaxed lemon (or 3 Italian lemons)

300ml whipping cream

6 medium eggs

200g golden caster sugar

For the Italian Meringue:

360g caster sugar

egg whites from 6 medium eggs

How to Make:

Pastry:

1. Add 2 tbsp of ice water to the egg yolk and mix well.

2. Put flour to a food processor, then add salt. Cut the cold butter into cubes and scatter all over the flour.

3. Blend the butter and flour together for about 10 seconds until mixture resembles very fine breadcrumbs and no flecks of butter remain.

4. Now pulse in the sugar.

5. Add the egg yolk water to the processor then pulse in 1 second bursts for a few times until the dough comes together in big clumps.

6. Tip the dough into the work surface, then shape it into a flat disc. Wrap in clingfilm, then chill in fridge for 30-40min, until firm but not rock hard.

7. Dust the work surface and rolling pin with Flour. Have a 9" loose bottomed tart in ready. Using the rolling pin, press (NOT ROLL) shallow ridges evenly across the pastry, then rotateit by a quarter turn. Repeat this unti the pastry is about 1cm thick.

8. Now roll out the pastrt. Push the rolling pin in ONE DIRECTION only, turning the pastry by a quarter turn for every few rools, until desired thickness is achieved. Using the rolling pin to help, lift the pastry over the tin.

9. Ease the pastry gently to the tin then press it gently into the edge of the tin using your knuckles.

10. Trim the border of the pastry so that it overhands the tin by at least 1cm. Lift the tin with pastry gently into a baking tray and chill in the freezer for 10min until the pastry feels firm.

11. Preheat oven to 180;C.

12. Tear a baking paper large enough to completely cover the tin and the overhanging pastry. On top of the baking paper, pour the baking beans over so that the beans are up to the edge of the tin. Blind bake this pastry for 20min.

13. Take out from oven and gently remove the baking paper with the beans on top, The pastry should be pale but feel dry and be turning gold at the edges.

14. Return it to oven for another 15 min until base is starting to brown. Remove from oven, Turn oven down to 150;C now.

Filling:

1. Finely grate the zest from lemons, and squeeze juice from lemons. Using a fork beat the cream, eggs, sugar into the jiuce. Strain the mix through a sieve into a large jug. Stir in the lemon zest.

2. pour the filling into the pastry gently and bake it for another 45min or until filling is set (i.e. it gives the merest tremble in the middle when the baking tray is shaken).

3. Let the tart cool completely, then store at fridge with clingfilm wrap. Trim any overhanging edges now.

Italian Meringue:

1. pour 80ml water into a heavy-based saucepan, add sugar and set over MEDIUM heat. Bring to boil, stiring occassionally and brushing down any crystals tht form on the side of the pan using a pastry brush moistened with water.

2. Once boil, increase heat and place a sugar thermometer in the boling syrup  until it reaches 110'C.

3. Still keeping an eye on the syrup, beat the egg whites in a standing electric mixer until they hold peaks. 

4. Stop cooking the syrup the moment it reaches 121'C. Take the pan off the heat and let the bubbles subside for 30 seconds.  (If you do not have a sugar thermometer, best to do is once syrup is boiled, continue until for 10-20 seconds. If you cook too long, the sugar syrup becomes rock!)

5.Pour the syrup onto the beaten egg whites in a thin steady stream, continuing whisking at a LOW speed with the mixer until FIRM. This action takes at least 30 min to 40 min! So be patient!

6. Spoon all meringue into a air-tight container and keep in fridge (best to use it within 24 hrs).

Compose:

1. Spoon meringe into piping bag fitted with a flutted nozzle or a nozzle you like.

2. pipe meringue onto top of lemon tart the way you like it.

3 wave a blowtorch over the meringue until it is lightly browned.

Serve! and enjoy!

   

Mustard & Herb Crusted Rack of Lamb with Pea Puree

Ingredients:
Scottish Lamb Rack x 2 (if you trim the ends, you'll have a better shape. Photo showed racks without trimming. You can choose lamb from other origin but i found Scottish lamb of the best quality!)
50g dry white bread
1 clove of garlic - crushed
2tbsp Italian parsley - minced
2tbsp fresh mint - minced
2tbsp olive oil
2tbsp pinenuts
2tbsp wholegrain mustard or honey mustard

For the Pea Puree
butter
1 small leeo, trimmed and sliced
225g frozen peas
a sprig of mint
150ml chicken stock
3tbsp cream
nutmeg

How to make it:

1. Preheat ove to 200'C.

2. Place bread and garlic in food processor and blend until they form fine crumbs. Add the herbs and oil and blend again until roughly chopped. Lastly add pinenuts and blend until lightly chopped. The mixture should stick together lightly.

3. Spread the mustard over the lamb rack, then press the herb crust onto each one, pressing it down firmly so it sticks.

4. Place lamb racks with the mustard and herb crust to a large roasting tin and and roast in oven for 25-30min.

5. Once take out from oven, rest in room temperature with foil loosely on top for 10 min before you carve them from the bones - this will give you medium rare lamb. If you want it more cooked, increase oven cooking time to 35-40min.

 For the pea puree:

1. melt butter in a pan, add leek and saute for 3-4min or until soft.
2. add the peas, mint and stock and bring to boil.
3. cover and simmer for 4 mins.
4. use a stick blender to whizz the peas misture to form a rough puree.
5. add the cream and freshly grated nutmeg and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy!