Coffee & Chocolate..

I have been missing for a while as most of you know, well there is an explanantion.. have decided to move on.. But, I want to continue with the blog and hope people still take a look, in the interim whilst I am waiting for a proper internet connection I wanted to post something to keep the blog going, so here is coffee and chocolate, a beautiful dessert made before things changed, keep looking an interesting update coming soon, I should by all rights be heading to arkansas in a week for a couple of days. I have never been so it should be very intersting to see what the food is like there... for now though coffee and chocolate, a little too much for one but you would if you could wouldnt you!

Belly Pork, Sweet Potato, Bilimbi, Chilli & Chocolate

Braised Pork belly, sweet potato mash, chocolate leather, cauliflower puree, chili tuille, baby carrots, sauce vigneronne & bilimbi..

Absolutely delicious, although a little sweet, that's where the bilimbi comes in, a little fruit from the Seychelles, also found across Asia and in Caribbean, it's very sour and dry, actually from the same family as the carambola (starfruit)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/bilimbi

It also has some good medicinal uses as well. Here the locals blend it with fresh chili to add to their food, they like it really hot, so it acts as a really good carrier.

What else have we used bilimbi with recently, we pickle it, marinate fish with it, we have made salsas, I'm thinking bilimbi ice cream, no sorbet, with sweet chili sauce..

actually a dry rubbed curried bonito, bilimbi ice cream, palm sugar jelly, coriander foam, holy basil risotto.. mmm nice new creole dish there

Red & White

Red Snapper & White Chocolate

We have been oddly busy the last few days, occupancy has been lower but we haven taken the chance to get ahead with prep and lots of it, having a any menu any venue any time concept for your work is a little strange and challenging to say the least, but, we do well most of the time.

So, we have been busy getting ahead for the strange requests we get, making purees, turning herbs into beautiful herb oils, its fantastic when you see all the mis en place building up and gets the creative side of all of us thinking.

We have had everything going on, one sous chef on holiday, another sick had to get a chopper off the island, a new chef started and today he left, a 1 week wonder! A steward leaving on the boat to the dentist, what it seems like non stop rain, 2009 budget meeting, a visit with a hydroponics expert, made a japanese 6 course dinner, made a "desperate dan" style pie, five course Asian dinner for spa girls, England beat Germany 2-1 in the footie, "big man" my star kitchen steward cleaned the gator (buggy), foie gras terrines, non stop thai curry for one guest, today I have been piping beetroot meringue to look like antique picture frames, we recieved some nice red snapper, vara vara, jobfish from Mahe, that and more all in the last 3 days!

What to do with beautiful fresh red snapper, well we pan fried it, nice and simple fresh flavour, along with some truffle pomme puree, sliced truffle, vanilla salt, asparagus we feature it alot because its one of our best ingredients, white chocolate veloute, red wine syrup just to cut through the whole thing, the vanilla salt is great with the white chocolate TGRWT, another nice little treat is a white chocolate jelly wrapped around the asparagus and a light grating of the choc as well, all comes together as what we like to do with red snapper.