Dinner Menu 24 February 2007

• Caviar Versailles
• Conchiglioni con Cavalo Nero, Spec e funghi Galletti
• Roasted Fennel
• Saltimbocca a la Romana
• Cheese
• Chocolate brownies

Caviar Versailles is a brilliant method of getting you the three most important food groups namely, carbohydrates, cream and Caviar (Beluga naturally). You make potato mash with mealy potatoes, double cream and white pepper (white is important as black is too strong and looks odd) until you have a smooth but lumpy mash. You then load the mash into a whiskey tumbler sized glass upto half way, cover with a layer of crème frais and cover that with as much caviar as you can afford. If you are Roman Abromovitch stop at the top of the tumbler. This is apparently how caviar was served at Napoleon’s coronation at Versailles. I have no idea where I originally got the recipe but it is one of the best methods of serving caviar I’ve ever come across.

Served with: Reykja Vodka

The Conchiglioni (literally pasta shells) are loosely based on a River Café recipe principally how to prepare the cream sauce. In any case you remove the central stem from the Cavalo Nero, tear the blades into two to three pieces and blanch in gently simmering water. Heat about 300 ml double cream (or single or even yogurt) with loads of garlic (I used five cloves for a seven person recipe) and keep it simmering until the garlic is cooked, pulverize in a blender. Reconstitute the mushrooms as per below. Cut the speck into relatively thick sticks and fry at medium heat with a bit of olive oil until caramelized on all sides. Add the mushrooms and Cavalo Nero and turn until the Cavalo looses its water and sort of wilts. Poor over the cream and garlic sauce, season to taste and poor over the Conchiglioni.

To prepare the Conchiglioni the most important thing you can do is, as I’ve discovered, to completely ignore the bloody instructions on the pack. Apparently, pasta shells due to their size and thickness take a long time to cook but not the 25 minutes that the F***er who wrote the instructions for Waitrose thinks. This I unfortunately did not discover until I had six people sitting at my dinner table so rather than make them wait they had soggy pasta. As far as I can tell 15 min in boiling salted water is just fine.

Roasted Fennel as per 4 February 2007.

Saltimbocca as per the ’06 Christmas menu except I served it with zucchini. I cut the zucchini into a two centimeter cubes and fried them with butter, truffle olive oil, salvia, salt and pepper. I left the zucchini to simmer in the oil and butter until cooked through but still al dente. This turned out to be an excellent vegetable to have with the Saltimbocca.

Served with: Chataux Montrose 2001

Update: David says we got the Caviar recipe from Saveur Mag.