Asparagus Japanese style

Peel 4 asparagus spears and cut them in 4 cm pieces. Cover them with just enough water, bring to the boil. Boil for 2 mins, then turn of the heat and keep for seven minutes.

Finely slice 2 shallots.

Wok the shallots during 2 mins in 1 tsp sesame oil with 1 tbsp grated ginger

Add 1/2 tbsp mirin, 1 tbsp light soy sauce and 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce.

After 2 mins add the asparagus.

Serve with 1/2 tbsp black sesame seeds

(Here Karola's original recipe in Flemish)

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Asparagus and potato salad

Boil 2 tbsp mustard seeds during 20 mins. Rinse under cold water and put in a jam jar.

Bring 150ml water to the boil with 50ml vinegar and 100g caster sugar. Pour over the mustard seeds and cool.

Boil 300g peeled Nicola potatoes in water with some sprigs of thyme, 3 halved cloves of garlic and salt. In a separate pan boil 2 unpeeled truffle potatoes.

Peel 5 asparagus spears and boil them in 10 mins in unsalted water and 1 tbsp butter

Break an egg in a mixing beaker with 1 tbsp estragon vinegar and 1/2 tbsp Dyon mustard.

Add 150 ml grape seed oil.

Start your stick blender at the bottom and slowly go up and up. After 10 seconds your homemade mayonaise will be ready.

Season with salt and pepper.

Mix 50g mayo with 10g mustard, scrape the seeds from 1/2 vanilla pod and add to the mayo.

Cut the asparagus in 4 parts, mix with the Nicola potatoes and the vanilla mayo.

Plate as shown, then add slices of truffle potato and small spoonfuls of mustard seeds

(Based on a Blendbrothers recipe)

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Scallop, samphire, clams, truffle potato and Reblonchon sauce

I made this dish to use some leftover Reblonchon sauce (warm 150g chicken stock with 50g cubed Reblochon cheese and a splash of double cream. Use the stick blender to create a foamy sauce) 

With a panfried scallop, some samphire, a few steamed clams and a crispy deep-fried slice of truffle potato.

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Pear and ginger on smoked salmon bites

Bring 20ml water to the boil, add 40g caster sugar, take from the heat and stir well. Cool.

Peel a pear and a thumb of fresh ginger and cut in a very small brunoise, sprinkle with 1 tbsp lemon juice to avoid turning brown. Add 1 tsp sugar water to create a nice balance between sweet and sour. 

Mix with 1 tbsp finely sliced chives

Slice a thick fillet of smoked salmon into cubes, spoon over the pear&ginger mix and serve.

(Here a video of Bart Desmidt making this recipe)

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Lobstertail, broad beans, reblochon sauce

Defrost 2 lobster tails. 

Bring 1 liter water to the boil with some lovage,  a few sprigs of tarragon, a halved onion, some slices of carrot and a clove of garlic. Simmer for 15 mins.

Warm 150g chicken stock with 50g cubed Reblochon cheese and a splash of double cream. Use the stick blender to create a foamy sauce

Cook the lobster tails in the broth, 1 min per 30g lobster.

Serve as shown with broad beans and truffle potato

(Based on a Blendbrothers recipe)

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Mackerel, cucumber, apple, dill oil

Dissolve 60g salt completely in a liter of boiling water, cool for at least 2 hrs.

Then pickle 200g mackerel filets for 10 mins, wipe them dry

Blitz 40g dill, 20g spinach and 150g grapeseed oil during 2 mins.

Warm the dill oil in a 90°C oven during 2 hrs, sieve through a muslin cloth.

Peel and de-seed 1/4 cucumber. Blend 20g cucumber with 20g apple juice. Mix this with 20g sour cream, 8g chardonnay vinegar, 15g sushi vinegar, 3g mirin and a pinch of salt

Add 3 tbsp of the clean dill oil to the vinaigrette and whisk a bit

Serve as shown, with dill tops, matchsticks of apple and cucumber

(Recipe by Blendbrothers)

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Savoury meringue, yellowtail sashimi

Pre-heat the oven to 85°C

Whip 40g egg whites into peaks, then slowly add 50g caster sugar. Carefully add 12g soy sauce.

Use a piping bag to make bite size meringues on a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper and dry them in the oven during 2 and 1/2 hrs

Thinly slice 40g raw yellowtail

Serve as shown, with wakamé, sea aster, pumpkin, sesame seeds and soy sauce

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Asparagus on ham, sauce Hollandaise

Ask the butcher to slice the ham 3 mm thick

Peel 2 asparagus, remove the last 4 cm. Cover with just enough salted water, bring to the boil, boil for 2 mins, then turn off the heat and leave for 9 mins.

In the meantime make the Hollandaise:

Step 1: melt 125g butter in a saucepan and skim any white solids from the surface. Or use store-bought clarified butter. Keep the butter warm. 

Step 2: put 3 egg yolks, 1½ tbsp white wine, 1 tbsp tarragon vinegar, a pinch of salt and in a metal or glass bowl that will fit over a small pan with barely simmering hot water.
Whisk for a few mins,  whisk continuously until pale and thick, about 3-5 mins.

Step 3: kill  the heat and slowly whisk in the melted butter, bit by bit until it’s all incorporated and you have a creamy hollandaise. 

(If it gets too thick, add a splash of warm water.)

Step 4: season with a squeeze of lemon juice and a little cayenne pepper. Keep warm until needed.

Hardboil an egg, crumble the yolk.

Serve as shown, with chives

Tip from John Ash: No matter how skilled you are in the kitchen, emulsion sauces like hollandaise sometimes “break,” or separate. If this happens, you can try to correct it by whisking in a teaspoon or two of boiling water, a drop at a time. If that doesn’t work, put another egg yolk in a bowl and very slowly whisk in the broken sauce. Usually, the sauce will come back together with one of these methods.

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Red mullet, sea aster, orange butter

Pre-heat the oven at 160°C

Mix 200 ml orange juice with 80 ml chicken stock and a pinch of  saffron and reduce to 50%

Then add 30g salted butter and mix with the stick blender.

Use the kitchen burner to blacken 4 fillets of mullet, then bake them during 5 mins in the hot oven.

Stir fry 50g sea aster in butter.

Start plating with the sauce, with the sea aster on top of the fish. Finish with droplets of hazelnut oil and green wasabi sesame seeds

(Recipe by the Blendbrothers)

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Plaice, blueberries, Riesling sauce

Boil 60g salt in 1 l water, till the salt has completely dissolved. Then cool for at least 2 hrs.

Pickle 2 fillets of plaice (schol) during 10 mins. Take out, rinse and dry.

Finely slice an onion and sweat in 1 tbsp butter with some tops of thyme sprigs, deglaze with 250 ml Riesling and reduce till 1/3 is left.

Add 80 ml fish stock and 80 ml double cream and simmer another 10 mins.

Whisk 40g butter in the sauce and season with salt, pepper, and the zest of a lemon.

Deep fry 3 tbsp capers crispy during 5 mins in 300 ml arachide oil

Steam the fish during a few minutes and season with salt and pepper

Serve as shown with thinly sliced fennel and blueberries

(Recipe by the Blendbrothers)

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Crayfish on prawn cracker

Make a cocktail sauce from 1 tbsp mayo, 1 tsp ketchup, 1 tsp ginger syrup, 1 tsp whisky and a few drops of Worcester sauce. Mix with 125g crayfish and sliced tarragon

Fill prawn crackers with crayfish, finish with wakamé and dill

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Smoked mackerel, marrow, horseradish on sourdough toast

Preheat the oven at 180°C

Mix 100g smoked mackerel with 20g sour cream, 1/2 tbsp sambal and a pinch of salt

Bake a marrowbone in the oven during 20 mins, then use a spoon to get the marrow out

Brush some olive oil on 2 slices of sourdough bread, season with sea salt and pepper and toast 10 mins in the hot oven

Spoon the fish over the toast, then the (warm!) marrow, followed by 1/2 tsp grated horseradish and some cress.

(Recipe by the Blendbrothers)

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for your Kindle