Grilled mackerel with herbed pearl barley salad

First make cucumber ketchup. Put 1 cucumber, 1/2 small onion, a tiny piece of peeled ginger, 1 peeled clove of garlic, 1/2 tsp Dyon musterd, 40ml sherry vinegar and 1 tbsp sugar in a blender, puree until smooth, then pour into a large saucepan and bring to a simmer. When the mix starts to bubble, turn down the heat to medium-low and cook, stirring occasionally, for 35-40 minutes, until reduced by a third.

Meanwhile, bring a pan of salted water to a boil, then simmer 60g pearl barley according to the packet instructions (up to 50 minutes), until tender. While the barley is cooking, toast 15g sunflower seeds in a dry pan until lightly browned, then tip into a small bowl.

Boil 40g samphire for 3 mins and a handful of mini asparagus for 1 min.

Once the pearl barley is cooked, drain and empty into a separate bowl, dress with the olive oil and lemon juice, and season.

Heat the grill to its highest setting. Season 2 mackerel fillets and rub all over with a little oil. Grill for three to four minutes on one side, then turn over and grill for a few minutes more on the other side, until a skewer slides easily into the thickest part of the fish with no resistance.

Toss the barley with 35g rucola, the samphire, the mini asparagus, 1 quartered, cored and sliced apple and a 10g mix of mint, chervil, parsley and dill, setting aside some of the herb mix to garnish, and pile on to plates.

Serve as shown, with the cucumber ketchup on the side. Scatter with the sunflower seeds.

(Here Thomasina Miers' original recipe) 

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Egg-in-a-Hole With Asparagus

Heat oven to 220°C. Grease a rimmed sheet pan with 1 tablespoon melted butter.

In a large, shallow dish, whisk together 1 egg, 120 ml milk, 60 ml grated Parmesan, a large pinch of salt and pepper, and a tablespoon melted butter. 

Add 2 wide slices of sourdough bread and let soak for about 2 minutes per side. The bread should be soft and soaked through, but not falling apart.

Arrange soaked bread on one side of the prepared sheet pan. Pour any remaining soaking mixture from bowl onto the bread slices. Using a cookie cutter or a knife, carefully cut a 5 cm hole in each of the slices of soaked bread. Place the cut-out rounds alongside the bread slices on the pan.

On the other side of the sheet pan, add 225g green asparagus, 1,5 thinly sliced spring onions, 3 fresh thyme sprigs and a large pinch of salt and pepper. Drizzle asparagus with olive oil, tossing well, and spread into an even single layer.

Bake until bread is golden on top, 10 minutes. If the asparagus is tender and browned after 10 minutes, use tongs to transfer the stalks to a plate and tent with foil to keep warm. Thick asparagus may need more time, in which case leave it in the pan for the next step.

Using a spatula, flip the bread slices and cut-outs. Crack 2 eggs into the holes (the eggs may overflow a bit, and that is OK). Season eggs lightly with salt and pepper. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan on top of eggs and bread.

Return pan to the oven and bake until eggs are barely set, about 5 to 7 minutes. The yolks and even some of the whites should jiggle slightly.

(Note that the eggs will continue to cook on the sheet pan once out of the oven, so if you like runny yolks, err on the side of early removal.) However, if the egg whites are still translucent, bake for another minute or two.

To serve, place egg toasts on plates, top each toast with half the asparagus (discarding the thyme sprigs) and garnish with sliced spring onion .

(Here Melissa Clarks original recipe)

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Asparagus carbonara

Peel 4 asparagus. Halve lengthwise, then cut each in 3 parts. 

Fry in 1 tbsp olive oil with 1/2 minced clove of garlic, for 5 mins.

Season with salt and pepper when nicely browned, deglaze with 35ml white wine and reduce the wine till 20% is left.

Add 100ml double cream, put the lid on the pan and softly boil for another 5 mins.

Get from the heat and cool down a bit, before stirring in an egg yolk

Serve as shown with grated Parmesan and black pepper

(A Blend Brother recipe)

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Harolds tomato party

Place cheese cloth in a sieve on a bowl and pour in 300ml goat's yogurt. Place it in the fridge and let it drain overnight. You will see that the whey has leaked out of the yogurt.

Spoon the result into a bowl, mix in 1tsp vanilla extract and 1tsp piment d'espelette. Season with salt and pepper. Place in the refrigerator until use.

Preheat the oven to 80°C (or 95°C if you don't have much time).

Skin 300g honey tomatoes: bring a pan of water to the boil and have a bowl of cold water (ice cold!) ready.
Cut a very shallow cross at the bottom of the tomatoes; you cut through the skin but not through the tomato.
Submerge the tomatoes in the boiling water for about 10 seconds, then place them in the ice water.
Carefully remove the skins from the tomatoes and keep 12 nice skins aside. Set the tomatoes aside under cling film until use.

Pat the skins dry and place them on a baking paper. Fold the paper in half so that the tomato skins are in between and place an oven dish on it.
Leave this in the oven for 3 hours (at 80°C, an hour at 95°C also works but is slightly less crispy).
Set aside until use.

Set aside 14 tomatoes and grind the rest in a blender (or run through the juicer).
Place a (double) paper towel in a sieve and pour in the pureed tomatoes so that clear juice flows into the container below.
Set aside until use.

Remove a nice slice of sushi ginger from the jar (or a few smaller ones) and cut into nice, even strips. You need 14.

Cut 5 Amsterdam onions into thin rings. Remove the thin skins and push the rings loose. You need 14 of these, it's nice if you vary in size.

Start plating with the goat's curd 

Drizzle some clear tomato juice over it.

Put 7 cherry tomatoes on top.

A strip of sushi ginger on each tomato, followed by a yellow onion ring

Place the crispy tomato skins between the tomatoes.

Finish with some coarse sea salt, cress and edible flowers

(Here Harolds original recipe)

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Sea bass tartare, cottage cheese, basil oil

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

Warm the basil oil till it starts to separate, sieve through a muslin cloth. Store in a jam jar in the fridge.

Slice 2 100g filets of sea bass into small cubes, mix with 2 tsp lemon juice, 2tsp lemon zest, pepper, salt and olive oil.

Mix 70g cottage cheese with 4g dashi vinegar (or rice vinegar), a glug of tomato ketchup, 60g tomato juice. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Then stir in 8 tbsp of the basil oil, to make a nice shift sauce.

Serve as shown, with basil leaves and rape seed flowers

(Recipe by the BlendBrothers)

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Lobster tail, carrot foam, furikake

Bring 500ml water to the boil with 8g kombu and 1 tbsp katsuobushi flakes to make a dashi.

Rougly cut 200g carrot and boil in the dashi for 20 mins.

Put the carrot in the blender with a cup of the dashi, put through a sieve.

Mix 2 tbsp furikake (a sesame seeds and seaweed mix, from a jar) with 1/2 tbsp popped (puffed) quinoa.

Stick teaspoons in 2 lobster tails to keep them straight and boil them in the dashi, 1 min per 30g of weight.

Then rinse under cold water to stop the boiling process.

Warm the carrot, season with salt and pepper, cut 50g ice-cold butter into cubes and whip them into the carrot/dashi to create a beurre blanc.

Get the lobster meat from the shells and serve as shown, finish with sumak and edible flower(s)

(Here the original recipe from Culinaire Ambiance in Flemish)

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Caramelized Shrimps and Greek Yogurt

Mix 1 tbsp sesame oil, 1,5 tbsp soy sauce, 1/2 tbsp honey and 1/2 tbsp grated ginger and soak 250g cooked and shelled shrimps for 3 mins.

Brown them in hot oil, caramelize one side then the other and set aside.

Whisk 100g Greek yogurt with the juice of 1/2 lime, 2 tbsp chopped chives and a pinch of salt and pepper.

Hack a hardboiled egg and add to the yoghurt.

Serve the caramelised shrimps on top of a generous spoonful of yoghurt, finish with rucola and Thai basil leaves and drizzle with balsamic cream.

Adjust the portion to make an amuse:

(Here the original recipe in The Good Gourmet magazine) 

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Smoked eel, celeriac, lime

Clean but do not peel a celeriac. Season with salt and pepper and put a knob of butter on top, then tightly pack in 3 layers of alufoil. Put in a 160°C oven for 3 hours.

Mix 37g lime juice with 5g ginger syrup, 20g water, 20g sugar and 2g agar agar. Boil for 2 mins, then pour in a glass container and cool in the fridge for at least 30 mins to create a jelly.

Hack 20g chives, warm in 45g sunflower oil at 50°C the put in the blender for 5 mins. Mix 20g cream with 15g sour cream and season with salt and pepper.

Slice a smoked eel in nice rectangles, put the left overs with mayonaise in the blender to create a smoked eel mayo.

Start plating with the chives oil, mix in some cream to create a shift sauce.

Cut the celeriac in nice blocks with the smoked eel on top.

Finish with dots of eel mayo and tiny blocks of lime jelly 

(Here Haroldkookt's original recipe in Dutch)

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Veal tartare with oyster

Slice 50g veal in thin strips, then in small cubes. Hack 2 oysters. Mix with 2 tsp Ponzu and 1/2 tbsp chives. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Slice cucumber very thinly and create 4 smell rolls.

First fill the oyster shell with 1 tbsp wakamé, finish with dots of sour cream and mustard cress.

The samphire was just a bottom to balance the shell.

(Here the original recipe from Culinaire Ambiance in Flemish)

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Jumbo Shrimps with Chopped Guacamole

Clean 4 Jumbo shrimps and panfry them

To make the salsa, remove the skin from 1/8 cucumber, remove the seeds and cut the rest into small 5 mm cubes. 

Do the same for 1/2 Roma tomato; then reduce 1/2 avocado into cubes of the same size.

Mix the diced cucumber, tomato, and avocado with a tbsp olive oil, 1,5 tbsp jalapeno’s relish, some tabasco and salt and pepper.

Serve as shown , with broccoli cress and chives

(Here the original recipe in The Good Gourmet magazine) 

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Serano, raspberry, burrata

Put a slice of Serano ham on a baking sheet, on a plate and then in de microwave, 1000W,  for 2x 30 sec to make it crispy.

Drain a burrata and slice horizontal in halves, put on 2 plates, cut side up.

Drizzle with smoked olive oil and season with pepper and sea salt.

Roll up 4 slices of the ham, put on the cheese, with 50g raspberries.

Again drizzle with smoked olive oil and 2 tsp balsamic cream.

Finish with shards of crispy ham and edible flowers

(Here the original recipe in Flemish) 

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Pretty in purple

Boil 4 purple potatoes without peeling, otherwise they'll loose their colour. After 19 mins drain them and let them cool.

Cut the end from 6 purple asparagus spears. There is no need to peel them and can be eaten raw. 

Thinly slice a red onion and slice a spring onion.

Whisk a dressing from 1 tsp Dyon mustard, the juice of 1/2 lime and olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.

There is no need to peel the potatoes, but it looks nicer if you do.

Crumble 100g feta cheese and shred 10 leaves of mint.

Mix everything in a big bowl. I added some leftover broad beans and lime zest.

(Based on a House&Garden recipe)

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White asparagus, burrata and dukkah

Peel 4 white asparagus, put in a pan, cover them with just enough water and bring to the boil. Lid on. Boil for 2 mins, then turn off the heat but keep them in for another 9 mins.

Boil 120g frozen peas for 3 mins in vegetable stock, drain and blend with 1tbsp crême fraiche. season with salt and pepper.

Make a dukkah (pronounced doo-kah, is a traditional Egyptian blend of nuts, seeds, and warm spices) in the blender from 30g toasted almonds and the leaves from 3 sprigs of tarragon.

Start plating with a spoonful of the pureed peas.

Cover with 3 asparagus spears with 1/2 burrata on top.

Finish with the dukkah and some tarragon.

(Recipe by Culy Homemade) 

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Hummus on prawn cracker

< purple cress

< chili flakes

< roasted peanut

< hummus

< kroepoek

Scallop, asparagus, caviar on Parmesan wafer

Pre heat the oven at 180°C

Put 2 heaps of 10g grated Parmesan on a paper covered baking tray, flatten them and bake for 10 mins. Cool on kitchen paper to stay crisp.

Peel 4 white asparagus, put in a pan, cover them with just enough water and bring to the boil. Lid on. Boil for 2 mins, then kill the heat but keep them for another 9 mins.

Toast a1 tbsp almond slivers in a dry pan, the pulverise them in the blender.

Pan fry a scallop for 1 min per side, Then halve, season with sea salt and pepper.

Slice the asparagus in 3 parts. Whisk 1 tbsp butter and 1 tsp white wine vinegar,  stir in the asparagus.

Start plating with the Parmesan wafers on each plate with 4 pieces of asparagus stacked two by two. Dust them with almond powder. Follow with the halved scallop, a tsp of caviar and finally some leek cress. 

(Recipe from Catherine Nicolas' Amuse glaasjes)

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Scorched salmon, feta and black tiger gamba's

Make a dressing from olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, pepper and salt. 

Panfry 2 black tiger gamba's. Cool and cut.

Peel and de-seed a ripe tomato. Cut 1/3 into a brunoise (small cubes). Do the same with 1/3 Granny Smith.

Mix with the dressing. 

Toast 10g pine nuts in a dry pan and add to the mix

Do the same with 1 tsp hacked coriander, 1 tsp hacked chives, the pieces of gamba's and 20g cubed feta cheese.

Thinly slice 200g salmon and season with olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.

Drape the slices against and around 2 serving rings, then use a kitchen burner to scorch the fish.

Spoon the salad in the serving rings and compact with a spoon.

Peel 4 more gamba's, season with salt, pepper and curry powder and panfry in olive oil.

Serve as shown, with rucola, dill and dill oil

(Recipe by René de Baets, found on Hap&Tap)

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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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