Arbor
Restaurant
u
Men
of the
month
Tom East discovers a restaurant in a Bournemouth boutique hotel
serving adventurous, modern English food with a Dorset twist
A
rbor Head Chef Andy Hilton is keen to ensure
his dishes don’t scare people away with “mental
flavour combinations”. There’s nothing too
crazy about curing mackerel in gin, for example, but
it’s the way he pairs it with local Conker Spirit gin
– famous for its local gorse flower botanical – that
makes it stand out. It’s little touches like this that
make this restaurant, located in Bournemouth’s
boutique Green House hotel, well worth a visit.
Andy took us through his new spring menu.
Wild Mushroom Raviolo with Pickled
and Pressed Mushrooms 1
"We get some mushrooms that are wild and some
that are cultivated. At the minute we’re using the
Dorset Oyster. The stock is made with chestnut
mushrooms, but we’ll also get hold of some girolles
and chanterelles. The fact the Dorset Oyster is from
Dorset makes it special, and if I can use anything
that’s grown here, I will."
58
Gin-cured Mackerel, Beetroot Risotto
and Horseradish Snow 2
"We wanted to go with a cured fish and we wanted
to go with gin, and that led us to Conker. It's a
fragrant spirit and mackerel’s an oily, very fishy fish,
but we wanted to keep it fresh, so we wanted that
floral note from the gin, and we added a bit of
rosemary to the marinade. We could use another
The AA has
awarded the Arbor
Two Rosettes
gin, but we like to keep it local – they’re a small
business and we want to put them out there."
Pork Neck with Duck Fat Potatoes
and Roasted Vine Tomatoes 3
"Pork neck is incredible. You either cook it quickly
– we sear it, give it a good rest and serve it medium
rare, or you cook it for a really long time. If you cook
it medium or medium well, it’s going to be really
dry. There's a lot of fat running through it – it’s also
called a pork ribeye, because it has the appearance of
a ribeye steak. This is one of the most popular dishes
on the menu."
Chef’s Seafood Plate/Market
Whole Fish 4
"For our market whole fish, we’ve got lemon sole
or sea bream on at the moment. We just grill it and
serve with new potatoes and a butter sauce. Our
seafood plate is a bit more intricate. We had skate
rack – we took skate wings and trimmed them so
they looked like a rack of lamb and served them with
a wild garlic purée, salsa verde and saffron potatoes."
Stokes Marsh Steak with
Portobello Mushroom 5
"The first thing you notice is the colour. Our steaks
are really deep red with marbled fat, and you can
tell they’ve been well hung. I use a bit of cep powder
to coat my steaks – you can’t taste it’s mushroom,
but it gives it that deeper umami flavour. If you add
salt, you could over season it, and draw moisture out
before you sear it. We season it afterwards with a bit
of salt, but that’s it. How would I cook a sirloin and a
fillet? I’d have them both medium rare."
Tandoori Red Pepper Quinoa,
Bombay Potatoes and
Cauliflower Pakora 6
"If you get the combination of the curry with the
citrus and coriander with the fresh hit of tomato,
you can’t go wrong. We make a tandoori paste of
chilli, ginger, garlic, saffron and coriander seeds, and
we coat the pepper in that. We cook the peppers in
a really hot oven, blitz them, and they go through
the quinoa (we do save some whole chunks to go
through it as well). The Bombay potatoes are diced,
blanched, and finished with Madras curry powder,
spinach, tomato concasse and things like that."
www.menu-dorset.co.uk