insideKENT Magazine Issue 22 - January 2014 | Page 62
FOOD+DRINK
A YEAR OF KENT GOURMET
FOLLOW CHAPTER ONE’S CHEF PATRON,
ANDY McLEISH, ON A YEAR LONG JOURNEY
TO DISCOVER THE FABULOUS FOOD KENT
HAS TO OFFER.
Last year, I took part in a charity event to raise
money for a special cause: Galvin’s Chance. The
event brought together a number of chefs and
hospitality professionals to fight one another in
a boxing match. I’m sure you have all guessed
over the year I’ve been writing this column that
firstly, I’m not much of a fighter and secondly,
I’m not in the best shape to survive five threeminute rounds. I had to work hard to get fit. I had
a strict regime, waking up at 5am five days a
week to exercise for two hours, plus spar in a
boxing gym once a week. I trained like this for
four months. Around the time of my fight, I had
lost over three stone. On the day of the event, I
was physically and mentally prepared and
somehow I won. The whole experience was so
exhilarating that I vowed to train as hard, maintain
my new weight, continue eating well and even
take up boxing as hobby…
A year later, I can confirm that none of the above
has taken place. This reminds me of New Year’s
resolutions. We often make big promises to
ourselves and others that we’ll make drastic
changes to improve our lives and wellbeing, and
a month or two later, it’s all forgotten. Without
question, I’m all for self-improvement, but why
do New Year’s resolutions rarely work? I believe
we have a better chance if we make small
changes regularly than commit to a big alteration
in our lives that can be daunting.
One of the most common New Year’s resolutions
we hear people make is wanting to take better
care of their health by losing weight, joining the
gym, drinking less alcohol, and giving up smoking.
I’m no expert in giving advice on decreasing your
alcohol intake or throwing away your cigarettes,
but I can help with creating healthy and delicious
recipes for you to make at home.
flavour. The mushroom consommé needs to be
prepared the day or night before but trust me, it
will be worth it. This is proof that eating well
needn’t be boring. I will be serving this in my
restaurant Chapter One throughout this month.
We use a fantastic local Kentish supplier,
Chapmans. Most of the fish they supply to the
restaurant is caught locally and is also caught on
day boats. This means the fish comes back to
port on the day it is caught rather than trawler
fishing when the boats can be out at sea for
more than a week at a time. Myself and
Chapmans pride ourselves on the quality of fish
we serve.
Good luck all in keeping your New Year’s
resolutions whatever they may be!
This month’s recipe is my poached south coast
cod with an Asian broth. This is definitely a
luxurious healthy recipe that’s packed full of
Poached South Coast Cod with an Asian broth
Serves 4
• 4 120g pieces of cod
• 500g baby spinach picked and blanched
• 200g Samphire (picked and blanched)
• 20g coriander cress
• 1 packet Shimeji mushrooms
• 50g Shitaki mushrooms (sliced)
• 50g tomato concasse
• 1 Kaffir lime
For the Mushroom consommé
• 2 onions
• 200g Muscavado sugar
• 1/2 bottle of white wine
• 2 kg button mushrooms
• 6 pints chicken stock
• 1 bunch coriander stalks
• Raft 3 sticks lemongrass
• 20g ginger
• 200g button mushrooms
• 250g egg white
Slice and roast the onions in a pan and caramelise
with the sugar. Then deglaze with white wine. In
a separate pan panfry the sliced button
mushrooms with a little colour then drain off the
excess liquid. Next, combine the onions and
mushrooms together and add the chicken stock
and simmer for two hours. Strain off and cool in
a fridge overnight.
To make the raft and finish the broth blend the
lemongrass, mushrooms and ginger in a blender
then add the egg white. Remove the mushroom
stock from the fridge and remove any fat on top.
Pour the stock into a pan and whisk the raft into
the stock. On a gentle heat bring the stock and
raft up to a gentle simmer and cook very slowly
for one hour. Remove from the heat gently and
strain the clear stock using a ladle and muslin.
Season with a little soy sauce and fish sauce.
samphire in a little butter and season. Separately
bring the Asian broth to the boil and add the
Shitaki mushrooms, Shimeji mushrooms and the
tomato concasse. Neatly place the spinach and
samphire on a plate with the mushrooms and
half the broth around. Finally remove the cod
from the bags peel off the skin and season with
sea salt and microplane the zest of the kaffir lime
over the top. Place the cod onto the spinach
and pour the remaining broth over the dish.
To serve
Place each piece of cod into a vacuum packed
bag and add a drop of olive oil and seal each
bag removing all of the air. Cook in a water bath
at 56 degrees for 15mins. Sauté the spinach and
Follow Andy on Twitter: @andy23471
Chapter One, Farnborough Common,
Locksbottom, Kent, BR6 8NF
To Book Call: 01689 854848 or visit
www.chaptersrestaurants.com
62