I’ve just competed in Essex Chef of the Year, a competition to showcase the best products and the best chefs in the county.

At the grand old age of 40 I decided to not sit back on my laurels. When you get to a certain level sometime chefs get out of that arena but I thought that I should test myself against some young pups, the movers and shakers in the local area.

The competition is about farms and products – everything from rapeseed oil to foraged cobnuts I got in the village.  The beginning of autumn is my favourite season by far. 

I got selected for the final of three chefs. They whittled us down from 50 or 60 paper entries. We had a cook off at Colchester Institute.

I started with a beetroot gazpacho with local beets from a farm supplier near me – see all my recipes at the end of this blog post. I served this in a shot glass with local rapeseed oil o top.

To go with that I did a little smoked eel and brown shrimp croquette. I put a little bit of orange and horseradish as again those two flavours really compliment the fish but also the beetroot. 

For the main, I wanted to do something a bit different so I used a cut called Jacob’s Ladder. This is the bottom end of the rib, not as tender as a rib of beef. To try and cook beef tender in two and a half hours was quite a tall order so I acquired a pressure cooker. I felt like my mum in the 70’s.

I cooked it down with local wine from Dedham Vale and I used their Reserve 2012, with local vegetables: carrots, onions and thyme.

The trouble with pressure cooking is it’s such a fast  process.  You won’t get some of the  caramels you would get cooking it slowly for four hours.  So  I sealed and roasted everything first and deglazed the pan and put that in a pressure cooker.

Then I took the beef out, shredded it, reduced the sauce to a jus, mixed some of that with the beef and that wrapped that tightly in cling film in a cylinder and chilled it down so all the proteins and fats and collagen set. Then you slice and sear that. It looks like a fillet steak but when you cut into it it falls apart like braised beef.  

The second part was calves liver – very classic – with purple sage from a lady’s garden two doors top up.  The  third part of the beef was a potato dish called Dauphine –  half mashed potato and half choux pastry. But instead of using butter in the pastry I used bone marrow from the beef. So it was proper use of different parts of an animal and an inventive way to get that beefy flavour.

To complement that I did a little butternut nut puree, sautéed kale, pickled shallot and honey glazed shallots using honey from a little couple that have a beehives locally.

For pudding, a latte blancmange – very similar to a panacotta but set a little firmer. This was served with mocha chocolate bonbons, coated with crushed cobnuts and cacoa beans –  – like a Ferrero Rocher. And a salted caramel tuile with cobnuts which grow on and around Tiptree. It wasn’t a great season for cobnuts so it took a fair bit of foraging.

They judges loved it but the other lad won.  They said it was probably the toughest Essex chef final they had ever had.  But for me it was about proving I can still cut it with the best. I feel confident that I can still judge stuff in the future in and take part. It was a real food journey for me, discovering the foods on my doorstep. 

RECIPES

Beetroot Gazpacho

Ingredients

100g red beetroot peeled and roasted

100g peeled raw grated

1 large plum tomato

50g green pepper

50g spring onion

50g cucumber

1/2 clove of garlic

20ml Duchess rapeseed oil +10ml to garnish

Maldon sea salt

60g rye bread crust removed

15ml red wine vinegar

Method

• Remove the core of the plum tomato and then in boiling water blanch for 12 seconds then place into ice cold water. Remove the skin deseed. Reserve half and then cut the other half into a fine brunoise
• Remove the seeds of the cucumber and then cut the cucumber, half of the roasted beetroot into brunoise. Remove the skin of the green pepper and also cut into neat brunoise, angle cut the spring onions very finely
• In a food processor blitz the raw beetroot, half of the roasted beetroot with the garlic, peeled tomato. Vinegar, rapeseed oil, rye bread to form the soup base. May need a little water to loosen. Season and the chill
• Once chilled check seasoning and the if needed pass through a fine strainer
• Pour the soup into small glasses. Toss the garnish vegetables together with some seasoning then place a small amount into each

Smoked Eel and Brown Shrimp Croquette

Ingredients

60g Smoked eel skin and bones removed (Lambton and Jackson)

20g cooked brown shrimps (Osborne brothers)

40g homemade mayonnaise

2g chopped parsley

1g chopped chives

2g Orange zest fine

2g grated fresh horseradish

80g Marriages white flour

2 ea medium Tiptree eggs

100g fresh breadcrumbs

Method

• In a bowl combine the eel, shrimps, mayonnaise with the orange, herbs and horseradish. Evenly mix but not to harshly. Now mould into 50 -60g cylinders. Then place onto  tray and chill
• Get three bowls and place the flour, egg, breadcrumbs into each bowl. Whisk and season the egg. Then pass the cylinders through each of bowls In order (flour, egg then breadcrumbs.
• Remove excess crumb. Roll and shape gently then place into a fryer at 180c and cook until golden brown and crisp. Remove from the fat, drain and season. Leave to one side to keep warm

Slow Cooked Jacobs Ladder

Ingredients

500g Jacobs ladder short rib (Deersbrook farm grass fed Sussex breed)

800ml beef stock

100ml Dedham Vale reserve red wine

1 red onion chopped peeled

1 carrot chopped peeled

1 stick of celery chopped

1 sprig of thyme

1 sprig of rosemary

30g tomato puree

10g Maldon sea salt

10g dried mushrooms

50g butter salted

30ml duchess rapeseed oil

1 clove of garlic

Method

• Heat a thick bottomed sauce pan and then add the oil and butter. Seal and colour the beef on all sides then remove.
• Now add the vegetables, herbs and garlic cook for a few minutes so that they colour and cook slightly. Add tomato puree and cook for a further minute.
• Place all the ingredients and beef into a pressure cooker add the wine and stock and bring to the boil. then cover with the lid. Place on the heat for 60 -90 minutes until the beef is tender. Remove the beef from the pan strain off the stock and then in a clean pan return the sauce and reduce till coats the back of a spoon.
• Now remove the beef from the bone and strip the meat into strands. Bind with some of the red wine sauce then compress in cling film to form a short fat sausage shape. Place into a blast chiller to set
• Once set remove from the chiller. Cut into two nice slices. Heat a non-stick frying pan and fry the slices on both sides to colour and caramelise.
• Warm the remaining jus

Tiptree Honey Roasted Shallot Petals

Ingredients

40g Tiptree honey

20g salted butter

2 shallots peeled

10g Maldon sea salt

1 sprig of thyme leaves

Method

• Heat a non-stick frying pan and melt the butter with the thyme leaves
• Cut the shallots into 1/4s and remove the root, peel into nice sized petals
• Sauté the petals lightly in the butter then add the honey and coat evenly

Pan Fried Calves Liver with Sage Butter

Ingredients

100g calves liver slice (deerbrook farm)

50g salted butter

4g purple sage chopped

1g cracked black pepper

Method

• Heat a non-stick frying pan and then add the butter so that it goes to a nut brown stage and froths
• Add the liver, sage and pepper. Colour and cook to medium. Basting and coating. Then remove from the pan place onto a tray with a cloth and rest but keep warm cut on the angle into two even sized pieces

Bone Marrow Potato Dauphine

Ingredients

25g Suffolk farmhouse cheese Guernsey whole milk

25g water

50g beef bone marrow (deerbrook farm)

40g Marriages white flour

1 Tiptree egg

2g chopped parsley

10g Maldon sea salt

80g mashed riced Maris piper potatoes

Method

• In a saucepan heat the milk, water and bone marrow until melted and boiling
• Now add the flour, beat to a paste and cook out. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly
• In a bowl beat the egg into the paste to form a choux paste. Now fold and mix in the potato and chopped parsley.
• Using two dessert spoons make two nice sized quenelles. Then in a fryer set at 170c cook until golden brown and floating. Remove, drain and place onto a tray and keep warm

Butternut squash puree

Ingredients

100g peeled chopped butternut squash

40g vegetable stock

Sage stalks. (From the calves liver)

Seasoning

Method

• Place all ingredients into a saucepan and gentle cook until the squash is softened then remove the stalks
• Place into a HV blender and blitz to a smooth puree, season and keep warm

Buttered kale

Ingredients

100g picked kale

25g salted butter

1g cracked black pepper

Method

• Heat the butter in a pan add the kale and cook until the kale has softened but not lost its colour. Add the pepper and season if required. Remove and drain off excess liquid.

Pickled Shallots

Ingredients

1 shallot peeled

10g red wine vinegar

10g Tiptree honey

10g beetroot juice (gazpacho recipe)

Method

• Cut the shallots into even sized rings
• Combine the remaining ingredients and then macerate the shallot rings for 30 minutes. Then remove from the liquid and then drain 

Latte Blancmange

Ingredients

270ml  Suffolk farmhouse cheese Guernsey whole milk

30ml espresso coffee

3 leaves gelatine

30g golden caster sugar

Method

• Warm the milk with the sugar and coffee. Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water
• Bring to a simmer but don’t boil. Drain the gelatine and squeeze out excess water.
• Then remove from the heat and then dissolve the gelatine. Pour into the cylinder moulds and then set in the fridge for 2 hours. Remove from the mould when plating

Salted caramel cob nuts

Ingredients

10  medium sized cob nuts peeled and base removed

50g water

60g golden caster sugar

20g butter

5g salt

Method

• Dilute the sugar, salt and water in a pan and bring to the boil. Simmer until a light caramel colour is achieved then add the nuts and butter and stir gently cook until a darker caramel colour is achieved then remove from the heat and plunge pan base into cold water to stop further cooking.
• Keep stirring the nuts to coat and then once cooled slightly remove each nut and place onto a mat or silicone mat to harden up

Mocha bon-bon with coffee coco crust

Ingredients

80g Maxwell’s Columbian coffee dark chocolate bar

50g Suffolk farmhouse cheese Guernsey whole milk

40g Toasted nib almonds

5g dark coco powder

5g crushed roasted coffee beans

Method

• Heat the milk in a saucepan boil the milk and then pour over the chocolate. Whisk until all the chocolate has melted. Leave to cool slightly so that the chocolate can be moulded into balls.
• Mould 4 – 6 balls out of the chocolate and combine the nuts, coffee, cocoa then roll in the balls to coat in the nut mix
• Remove excess coating