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Stir crazy
CHEF MARK GREENAWAY ON REINVENTING COOKING
THERE’S a good reason chef Mark Greenway’s new cook book is called Perceptions: he wants to change them. The 39-year-old Glaswegian, whose eponymous restaurant in Edinburgh has been named one of the top 20 restaurants in the UK, believes that, here and around the world, Scottish ingredients tend to be done in the same way over and over again. But his philosophy is: let’s experiment, let’s have some fun, let’s do things differently.
And he does mean really different: look at his cranachan for example, transformed from the dish we think we know into something that resembles a city horizon, or his scallops, slowly poached in a Japanese broth. He says the aim is always to be sympathetic to the main ingredient but experiment with the garnish, dressing and presentation.
But do not be scared. The recipes in the book – there are more than 250 of them – are complicated, but Greenaway, who has appeared on BBC Two’s Great British Menu, says individual elements can easily be taken out and cooked with other simpler ingredients.
“The book is a restaurant cook book with recipes from the restaurant,” he says, “but you could take the main element from one of the recipes and use it with something else – just take the way I cook fish for example and serve it with spinach. You don’t have to do it with all the accompaniments that we do. And if you learn one or two techniques along the way, great.”
Ahead of the publication of the book, we present three of Greenaway’s recipes, including his famous cranachan. This is modern Scottish with influences from all over the world.
CRANACHAN
Serves 6
MARK GREENAWAY: “My philosophy is classics are classics for a reason because the combinations go well but we can have fun with how they look. The basic flavours of a cranachan are raspberries, whisky, oatmeal, cream and honey but what we’ve done is taken the classic flavours and manipulated them in different ways and shapes and textures. We take the cream and make it into almost a panna cotta, we use duck eggs instead of normal eggs, we whip the honey through creme fraiche, we freeze the raspberries and we make a ‘leather’ with raspberry puree and dehydrate it and it comes out as a crisp. We’ve not added weird and wonderful things; all we’ve done is manipulate them in a way you might not have thought of. Every spoonful will be different and it’s more exciting to eat. But you can also take elements out – the raspberry granita for example is a dessert in itself.”
Duck egg and whisky set custard
10 duck egg yolks
260g caster sugar
600ml double cream
350ml milk
50ml whisky
10 leaves gelatine (soaked in cold water)
Prepare ahead. Place the egg yolks and sugar into a mixing bowl and whisk until doubled in volume, thick and fluffy. Place the cream, milk and whisky into a heavybased pan and bring to the boil. Pour the hot liquid over the egg yolk mixture, place the mixture back into the pan and cook out to 85C. The mixture should be thick and coat the back of a spoon. Add the soaked gelatine, then pass the mixture through a fine chinois into a blender. Blend on full power for 25 seconds to get rid of any air and pour into ring moulds, 5cm in diameter and 6cm in height, but filling only three quarters of the way up the mould. Leave to set in the fridge for 24 hours.
Raspberry and whisky leather
300g raspberry puree
25ml whisky
45g caster sugar
Quarter tsp crytex
Prepare ahead. Blend all of the ingredients together and pass through a fine chinois. Spread the raspberry mixture out thinly on silicon mats and dehydrate for 24 hours at 60C. Once the leather has dehydrated, cut into 12cm squares then scrunch each square up randomly to achieve height. Once these cool to room temperature they will become crisp and very fragile.
Raspberry and whisky granita
100ml whisky
150g caster sugar
500ml hot water
300g raspberry puree
Prepare ahead. Pour the whisky, sugar and water into a pot. Over a low heat, dissolve the sugar. Once dissolved, mix in the raspberry puree. Pour into a 30cm x 30cm tray and store in the freezer. Scrape the mixture every 30 minutes with a fork and leave in the freezer until completely frozen. This should take 2-6 hours depending on the freezer.
Frozen raspberry cells
100g fresh raspberries Place the raspberries on a tray lined with silicone paper and transfer to a freezer. After two hours, crumble the raspberries into cells and store in an airtight container in the freezer until required.
Praline tuile
500g caster sugar 50g flaked almonds Add just enough water to the sugar to make a paste and place over a high heat. Take this to a deep caramel, then add the almonds. Pour onto a tray lined with silicone paper and allow to cool. Break the caramel into rough pieces and blend in a food processor to a powder. Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a baking tray with silicone paper. Pass the praline powder through a sieve onto the silicone to create a fine layer. Bake for five minutes until the praline melts back down and creates a fine sheet of caramel that resembles glass. If a few holes form, dust on more praline powder and re-bake in the oven until melted back together.
Honey granola
200g rolled oats (toasted) 126g flaked almonds (toasted) 80g brown sugar 80g honey 60ml rapeseed oil 6g vanilla salt Preheat the oven to 150C. Place the oats and almonds in a large bowl. Combine the sugar, honey, oil and vanilla salt in a pan and dissolve the sugar over a low heat. Pour the mixture onto the oats and almonds and mix thoroughly. Spread on a tray lined with silicone paper and bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes until golden brown, mixing occasionally. Allow to cool and store in an airtight container.
Crystallised almonds and white chocolate
150ml water 200g caster sugar 200g almonds (toasted) 150g white chocolate Pour the water over the sugar in a large heavybased pan and bring to the boil whilst stirring. Take the sugar syrup up to 135C. Add the nuts to the pan and stir with a wooden spoon until crystallised. Leave to cool on a tray lined with silicone paper. Melt the white chocolate. Using a small fork, pick up each almond and dip into white chocolate. Allow any excess chocolate to drip off before transferring onto a silicone mat.
Burnt honey clotted cream
400g honey 500g clotted cream Place 300g of the honey in a large, heavy-based pot over a high heat and whisk constantly. Caramelise the honey to a deep golden brown. Remove from the heat, add the remaining honey and whisk until incorporated. Skim the excess fat off the clotted cream and discard. Put the cream in a bowl and slowly add the honey, whisking constantly. Keep whisking to a set cream. Refrigerate until required. To assemble 30 fresh raspberries
Scatter some of the granola over the base of each plate. Top with one of the set custards standing on its side. Sit the crumpled up raspberry leather next to the custard. Scatter five raspberries and some of the frozen raspberry cells over the dish. Using a teaspoon, rocher two spoons of the honey clotted cream onto each plate. Lightly crush the almonds and scatter over the dessert. Break up the praline tuile and stick into the set custard and honey clotted cream. Finally, scrape the granita once more with a fork and scatter over the whole dessert.
SALMON, DILL, KUZU
Serves 12
“This is the first thing you will eat when you come into the restaurant as an amuse bouche. The salmon is Scottish but again we do something different with it – we take the smoked salmon, we infuse it in some milk and cream, and then we put it in a cream whipper and put it in egg cups, but at the bottom of the cups we have some salmon tartare with all the traditional ingredients you would put in tartare but in salmon. And we serve it with a kuzu cracker – kuzu is a Japanese starch, although you could use
What we’ve done is taken the classic flavours and manipulated them in different ways and shapes and textures
potato starch. So I would argue that this is a Scottish dish because 90 per cent of it is made up of Scottish ingredients. The kuzu gives it a crispiness and then we douse it with dill.”
Dehydrated salmon
150g smoked salmon Prepare 48 hours ahead. Shred the salmon onto a silicone mat and, using a dehydrator on the highest setting, dehydrate for 48 hours. Blend in a spice blender and store in an airtight container.
Dill powder
100g dill Prepare in advance. Place the dill on a silicone mat, dehydrate on the dehydrator’s highest setting for eight hours. Blend in a spice blender then store in an airtight container.
Dill and kuzu crackers
100g kuzu powder 1 litre fish stock Vegetable oil (for deep frying) Sea salt Dill powder Prepare 24 hours ahead. Blend the kuzu powder with the fish stock in a heavy-based pan. Bring to the boil and cook out for 2-3 minutes. Pour out onto a silicone mat to a 5mm thickness. Dehydrate for 24 hours on the dehydrator’s highest setting. Break into irregularly shaped shards and deep fry at 220C until the crackers puff up and triple in size. Drain well on kitchen paper, season with sea salt and dill powder.
Smoked salmon espuma
300g smoked salmon trimmings An amuse bouche of salmon, dill and a kuzu cracker is served at Greenaway’s eponymous restaurant in Edinburgh 300ml double cream 300ml milk 4g sea salt 1 leaf gelatine (soaked in cold water) 4 drops liquid smoke essence Prepare ahead. Add the salmon, cream, milk and salt to a heavybased pan. Bring to a gentle simmer on a medium heat, then remove from the heat. Add the gelatine and liquid smoke. Cling film the pan and leave to infuse for one hour. Pass the mixture through a fine chinois, reserving the salmon. Pour into an espuma gun. Charge the gun twice. Refrigerate for three hours.
Salmon tartare
200g salmon fillet (skinned, deboned) 1 shallot (finely diced) 1 tbsp parsley (chopped) 10g capers 10g gherkins (diced) 25ml lemon juice Sea salt (pinch of) Dice the salmon into 5mm cubes and combine with all the ingredients. Refrigerate until ready to serve. To assemble Half a jar salmon caviar Place a teaspoon of salmon tartare in the bottom of the egg moulds, followed by half a teaspoon of
salmon caviar and a generous sprinkling of dehydrated smoked salmon. Fill up the moulds with the salmon espuma and finish with a dusting of dill powder. Serve with the crackers.
SCALLOP, DASHI, SEA VEGETABLES Serves 8
“I use hand-dived scallops from Mull. We serve the scallop with one side roasted, we then take the roe, blend it, and we dip the scallop in it and roast it. If you cook the scallop with the roe on it, the roe takes longer to cook than the scallop does so we take if off and blend it into a powder so you still get the roe but it massively intensifies the flavour. We then add the dashi broth, which we pour over the raw scallop which poaches. It’s a way that we can keep the scallop simple.”
Dashi broth
Half a red chilli 1 sheet dashi kombu 1.5 sheets nori seaweed 250g white miso 250g brown miso 3 litres water 1 bunch lemongrass (crushed) 100g ginger (peeled, sliced) 250ml soy sauce 50g honey 75g coriander Place all ingredients, except the coriander, into a large, tall pot and bring to the boil. Simmer gently for around one and a half hours. Bring back to the boil and add the coriander. Remove from the heat immediately and cover the top of the pot with cling film. Allow to steep for one hour. Remove the cling film, pass through a fine chinois and leave to separate. Pour the separated liquid through a muslin cloth and discard the sediment at the bottom.
Red wine jelly vinegar
200ml rice wine vinegar 150ml soy sauce 150g caster sugar 5 leaves gelatine (soaked in cold water) Place the vinegar, soy sauce and sugar into a pan and bring to the boil. Dissolve the gelatine into the mixture, then pass through a fine chinois into a container. Set in the fridge for two hours.
Pork crackling
20g pork rind crumble Vegetable oil (to deep fry) Sea salt Deep fry the pork rind crumble at 210C until puffed up – this should take around 15 seconds. Transfer to a clean j-cloth, season with salt and allow to dry out in a warm environment.
Soy caramel
200g caster sugar 200ml soy sauce Heat the sugar to create a dry, golden brown caramel, slowly adding in the soy sauce. Bring to a rapid boil for two minutes before removing from the heat and passing through a fine chinois.
Scallops
16 scallops Sea salt Rapeseed oil (drizzle of) Selection of picked sea vegetables (depending on the season these could include channel wrack, beach coriander, sea aster, sea plantain, sea purslane or samphire) Prepare ahead. Removed the scallops from the shell, wash thoroughly removing all of the skirt and roe. Reserve the roe and store the scallops in the fridge. Dehydrate the roe for 24 hours on the dehydrator’s highest setting. Once dry, blend in the Thermomix to a fine powder, season with salt and pass through a fine chinois. Wash the shells and dry well. Finely slice eight of the scallops and rest them in eight of the clean shells. Season with a little salt and top with a teaspoon of jelly, some sea vegetables and puffed pork crackling. Heat up the dashi broth. Meanwhile, heat a non-stick drying pan with a drizzle of rapeseed oil. Dip one side of each of the full scallops into the dehydrated roe and place in the nonstick pan roe-side down. Cook for two minutes. Turn over and cook for a further two minutes, then season with a little salt. Remove the scallop pan from the heat and rest for about two minutes. To assemble Dot the soy caramel on each plate, top with a roasted scallop alongside a shell containing the raw scallop, pork crackling and seasonal sea vegetables. Each guest should be served a raw scallop, a cooked scallop and a jug of piping hot dashi broth. Instruct guests to pour the dashi broth over the raw scallop and to eat the pan-roasted one while the other scallop cooks.
You don’t have to do it with all the accompaniments that we do. And if you learn one or two techniques along the way, great