Saddle of venison, salsify, mushrooms

Start with the sauce by browning 25g smoked bacon in 1 tbsp butter. Finely cut an onion and 2 mushrooms and sweat with the bacon. Deglaze with 50 ml red wine and reduce as much as possible. Then add 200 ml brown game stock and softly reduce.

After 15 mins add 300 ml cream and 1 tbsp mustard and reduce for another 5 mins. Finish with 13g dark chocolate (min 60% cacao)

Peel 500g salsify and keep in cold water with some lemon juice. Then slice diagonally into 2 cm pieces. Dry on kitchen paper and fry softly in 1 tbsp oil. Add 100 ml brown game stock and softly boil for 10 mins. Sprinkle with thyme leaves.

Pan fry 100g mushrooms in butter with 1/2 minced clove of garlic and 1 finely sliced shallot. Finish with 1/2 tbsp chives 

At the same time panfry  300g saddle of venison, 90 sec per side.

Serve as shown, with gratin dauphinois

(Here the original Njam recipe in Flemish)

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Stuffed squid, baby spinach, paprika coulis

Preheat the oven at 200°C

Halve a red paprika and put in an oven dish, followed by 3 quarts of a tomato and 1/4 red chili. Slice 1/2 shallot in rings, crush a clove of garlic and add them to the paprika mix with some rosemary, a few sprigs of thyme, sea salt and a good glug of olive oil.

Put in the oven for about 25 mins.

Boil 50g rice.

Dice the other 1/2 shallot and crush another clove of garlic and sweat in olive oil in a sauce pan. Add 1 can of mackerel in tomato sauce and mix well.

Add the rice, 2 tbsp hacked parsley, the zest and juice of 1/2 lemon and a bit of salt and mix again.

Stuff this mix into 2 tubes of squid (not too full) and close with cocktail picks

When they are done get the vegetables from the oven, remove the rosemary and thyme and use the stick blender to make a nice coulis. Taste and season.

Fry the stuffed squid in 1 tbsp olive oil and a tbsp butter till nicely browned on all sides, season with salt and pepper

In the meantime sweat 200g baby spinach in a glug of olive oil with another crushed clove of garlic. Season with salt and pepper.

Start plating with the spinach, with sliced squid on top. Spoon the sauce around it and enjoy.

(Here Jeroen Meus' original recipe in Flemish)

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Avocado, smoked eel, croutons, almond

Peel 1/6 of a cucumber, remove the seeds and grate the rest, sprinkle with salt and reserve.

Cut a slice of sourdough bread into croutons and fry in olive oil

Hack the flesh of a ripe avocado.

Squeeze as much liquid from the cucumber as possible. Add 1/2 tbsp finely sliced shallot, 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp hacked coriander, 1 tbsp rice vinegar, the avocado flesh and the juice of 1/2 lime. Mix well. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Start plating with the avocado mix, then some watercress and basil greens, diced smoked eel, the croutons, toasted slivers of almond and leek sprouts.

(Recipe Sergio Herman, restaurant The Jane, Antwerp)

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Puff pastry pizza, red cabbage, apple and feta

Slice an onion and sweat in butter in a heavy casserole. Grate an apple and add to the onion. Then grate 1/4 red cabbage and add to the onion. 

Add a good glug of water, 1 tbsp maple syrup, 2 tbsp red wine vinegar, 1 star anise, 1 cinnamon, 1 clove, a few sprigs of thyme, 2 laurel leaves, pepper and salt.

Simmer for 1 hour.

Pre heat the oven at 200°C

Cover a baking tin with parchement paper, then a 23 cm circle of puff pastry followed by another sheet of paper.

Put a 18 cm pan in the middle of the puff pastry, to keep that part down while the outside can rise. Bake for 15 mins.

In the meantime blend 70g feta with a glug of cream, 1 tsp herbs de Provence and some pepper.

Slice a second apple and fry the segments in butter and 1 tbsp sugar, not too long.

Get the pastry bottom from the oven and raise the temperature to 220°

Beat an egg and to brush over the raised part of the pastry.

Cover the rest with the feta cream. Add the red cabbage, the fried apple slices and finally 60g of crumbled feta cheese.

Bake in the oven for another 15 mins.

Serve with watercress and hacked walnuts.

(Here the video with Jeroen Meus)

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Cromesquis XL, from canard confit

One of the best French inventions is confit de canard in a tin. All you have to do to have a King's meal is to open it and put in in the oven at 60°C for about an hour, to melt the duck fat and to warm the slow cooked legs of duck.

Then use the fat to pan fry potato slices. Put the legs under a hot grill, skin side up so it can crisp nicely.

To be served with sauerkraut or red cabbage.

The good thing is that there are 4 or even 5 legs in the can. And lots of duckfat that normally will cost you €10 or more if you have to buy it in a jar.

Transfer the leftover fat to jam jars and keep in the fridge.

Get the meat from the leftover legs (discard the skin) to make these lovely XL cromesquis.

Melt 80g butter and add 100g flour. Cook for 2 mins.

Then, bit by bit, slowly add 500g cold beef stock, stirring all the time. When all the liquid has dissolved nicely, keep cooking for 2-3 mins to get rid of the taste of flour and to make the ragout shiny.

Cool down a bit, then stir in 3 leaves of gelatine. Followed by 50 ml cream, 2 egg yolks and 1 tsp Dyon mustard.

Taste and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Finally add the meat from the duck legs (ca 350g) and 4 tbsp flat parsley

Cool down and keep, what's now called salpicon, overnight in the fridge.

Next day the salpicon is stiff enough to make balls, 5 cm in diameter, slightly bigger then golf balls.

First roll them all through flour.

Then, one by one, first through egg white and then panko

I then freeze them and later, just before using them, roll them a 2nd time through beaten egg white and finer breadcrumbs before deep frying during 6 mins at 180°C.

(Here master patissier Cees Holtkamp making his famous 'bitterballen')

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Thai style pumpkin & chicken soup

Pre-heat the oven at 220°C

Halve a butternut squash lengthwise  and remove the seeds

Halve 2 onions, without peeling them

Put them on a baking tray, with a whole garlic bulb.

Sprinkle salt, pepper and olive oil over them, cover with baking paper and then with alu foil.

Put in the hot oven for 45 mins, then remove the foil and paper and bake for another 20 mins to caramelise the onions and soften the pumpkin

Cool a bit and scoop out the pumpkin flesh and transfer to a big pan. Peel onions and garlic and add to the pumpkin

Add 1 l chicken- or vegetable stock plus 250 ml water.

Use the stick blender to make a thick soup

Bring to the boil.

Slice 2 chicken breasts and add to the soup, with 2 tsp fishsauce and 1,5 tbsp lime juice

Boil softly till the chicken meat is done

Mix with 3 g coriander leaves, serve in bowls and decorate with rings of green pepper and some lime on the side

(A Donna Hay recipe)

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Nigel Slater’s recipe for pappardelle, mushrooms and harissa

It won't appear on #theartofplating but to me comfort food always looks good.

Put a deep pan of water on to boil. As it boils, salt generously then lower in 125g of fresh pappardelle (or cut them from fresh lasagne leaves) and cook for 18 minutes.

Thinly slice 300g of chestnut mushrooms. Warm 6 tbsp of olive oil in a large frying pan, then add the mushrooms. Let them fry for 4 to 5 minutes until they start to toast, then add 2 very finely mashed cloves of garlic. Thinly slice 4 spring onions. Let the garlic and mushrooms cook for 1 minute or until the garlic is fragrant, then add the spring onions and continue cooking for another couple of minutes until soft. Stir in 3 tbsp of harissa paste.

Lightly drain the pappardelle, toss with the mushrooms and serve. Grate a little parmesan over at the table. Serves 2

Mushrooms drink an amazing amount of oil. Be prepared to add a little more as they fry. It is important to get them to the right colour – a deep, toasty brown – before you add the mashed garlic.

The twist

This is the sort of recipe that can take a bit of tinkering. Add some crumbled sausage to the pan before you add the mushrooms or perhaps a handful of chopped streaky bacon.

(Here Nigel Slaters original recipe)

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Soy-marinated cod with fennel, dill and apple

To start the dish, marinate 2 cod (or skrei) fillets in 50 ml soy sauce for 20 minutes. Remove the fish and pat dry.

Slice a fennel bulb very finely with a knife or mandoline and place in a bowl. Mix in a pinch of salt, a squeeze of lemon juice and some chopped dill 

Toast a tbsp sesame seeds until golden. Cut a Granny Smith apple into thin batons and add to the fennel along with the sesame seeds

Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 5.

Place a large non-stick pan on a high heat with a small dash of oil. Evenly sear the cod, colouring for approximately 1 minute on each side. Place in the oven for 4 minutes, then remove but keen the hot pan.

Give the fennel salad another mix and place into the centre of each plate. Place the cod on top of the salad, garnish with coriander leaves and wasabi sesame seeds, serve immediately.

(Recipe by Adam Stokes)

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Red cabbage salad with dates and feta

Use a mandoline to slice 125g red cabbage very thinly.

Add 1 tsp sea salt and 1 tbsp olive oil and use you hands to knead and soften the cabbage.

Grate a lemon. Add the zest to the cabbage, with 1 tbsp of the juice and 1 tsp ginger syrup.

Mix well

Hack 3 dates. Toast 1/4 tbsp sesame seeds. Add the dates, the sesame seeds, 1 tbsp hacked parsley and 20g crumbled feta cheese to the cabbage.

Mix well and chill

After plating put some extra feta, date, parsley and sesame seeds on top

(Recipe by Yvette van Boven)

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Watercress and celeriac soup

Sweat a sliced leek in 15g butter and a tsp olive oil till soft but not coloured.

Cut 1/3 celeriac into small cubes. 

Add 1/2 liter vegetable stock and the celeriac to the leek and softly boil for 25 mins.

Add 100g watercress and use the stick blender to finish the soup.

Taste and season with salt and pepper

Serve with goat's cheese on bread

(Recipe by Yvette van Boven)

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Small cheesecake with cranberry topping

Start with the topping. Grate 1 orange (for the filling) and press the rest. Boil 160 g cranberries in 65 ml red port, the orange juice and 130g sugar during 15 mins. Cool and keep in the fridge.

Melt 55g butter. Ground 115g cantuccini cookies in the kitchen machine, then add a bit of salt and the butter, keep the machine on till everything has mixed well.

Divide the cookie mix over 2 small (12 cm) spring forms and press with the bottom of a heavy glass. Put in the fridge.

For the filling first whisk 140g cream with 50g sugar, then with 160g mascarpone and 160g ricotta cheese.

Melt 130g white chocolate, au bain marie. Break another 70g in small pieces and add them to the molten chocolate to melt. 

Add the chocolate and the orange zest to the filling and stir well.

Take the springforms from the fridge and pour in the filling. Cover with cling film and keep in the fridge for at least 4 (pref. 24!) hours.

Serve one with the topping and give the other one to the neighbours.

(Recipe by Yvette van Boven)

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