Lukewarm char with colourful beetroot and lemon cream

by Alfons Schuhbeck

Marinate the colourful beets:

• 250 ml of water
• 250 ml of white wine vinegar
• 250 g of sugar, salt
• 6 juniper berries
• 3 small bay leaves
• 6 slices of ginger
• 1 clove garlic in slices
• 4 to 8 mini beetroots (depending on the size)
• 1 yellow beet
• 1 chioggia beetroot
• 1 red beetroot

To make the stock, mix water with vinegar and sugar in a pot, add salt to taste, add seasoning, bring to the boil and then allow to cool slightly to about 40 °C. Trim the green from the mini beetroot to about 1 cm. Cook the mini beetroot gently in salted water for roughly 10 minutes, drain, allow to cool slightly, peel and then cut into slices. Peel the three other types of beetroot, first the yellow beetroot, then the chioggia beetroot, and then cut the beetroot into thin slices. Cut out the largest possible round slices from the slices themselves and place them in three different containers. Add the mini beetroot slices to the red beetroot slices.  Pour the warm stock all over, making sure that the seasoning is evenly distributed and that everything is well covered in the stock itself. Stir and allow to macerate for a minimum of 2 hours, at best over night. These will keep in the fridge for several weeks.

Red beetroot puree:

80 g red beetroot pieces from a jar (sweet and sour pickling, available from the supermarket). Place the beetroot pieces in a blender and puree until smooth. Add seasoning as required.

Red beetroot sauce:

• 1 tsp of cornstarch
• 80 ml of red beetroot juice from beetroot (sweet and sour pickling, available from the supermarket)
• 1 pinch of ground cumin
• 1 trace of finely grated garlic and ginger
• 1 trace of grated, untreated orange peel
• 1 tsp of cornstarch

Glaze the cornstarch with a little cold water. Bring the liquid to the boil and gently add the mixed cornstarch to bind. Season with a pinch of ground cumin, some garlic, ginger and grated orange.

Lemon cream:

• 80 g of crème fraîche
• A small quantity of grated lemon peel, untreated
• A few drops of lemon juice
• Mild chilli salt

Mix the crème fraîche with the grated lemon peel and lemon juice and season with chilli salt.

Lukewarm char:

• 4 char fillets à 80 to 100 g, skinned and boned
• 2 tbsp of brown butter
• Mild chilli salt
• 1 to 2 teaspoons of chive rolls
• 1 tbsp of colourful, fine cress
• 1 tbsp of petals

Preheat the oven to 80 ° C. Place the char fillets on a baking tray covered with baking paper, cover with foil and allow to cook for roughly 15 minutes in a preheated oven. Brush over with brown butter, season with chilli salt and sprinkle with chives.

To serve:

Leave some space for the char in the middle of a flat plate. Decorate the outside with little dollops of lemon cream, beetroot purée and beetroot sauce. Drain the pickled beets. Distribute the mini-beetroot slices between the dots. Take the beetroot slices and twist them to create little pockets, which can then be placed on the dollops. Also dab the beetroot pockets with a little lemon cream. Just before serving, put the char fillet in the middle. Garnish with fine cress and petals.

Saddle of venison with flambéed pineapple

by Christian Jürgens, Restaurant Überfahrt

Saddle of venison:

• 480 g saddle of venison, removed from the bone and filleted
• 1 tsp spice mixture for wild salt
• 2 tbsp of butter

Rub the venison with the seasoning blend for game and some salt. Add 1 tbsp of butter to a pan and heat until golden brown. Sear the venison all over in the melted butter, position on a grid and place in a preheated oven at 90 ° C for 16-18 minutes, then cover with aluminium foil and leave to rest next to the stove. Re-fry the venison using the remainder of the brown butter, cut into even pieces and arrange. Heat the sauce again quickly but without boiling it, froth it with a whisk and refine with a little whipped cream. Arrange the caramelised pineapple, garnish the curd cheese cubes with the warm almond cream and top with roasted almonds.

For the cranberry and pepper sauce:

• 300 g of deer bone, chopped into walnut-sized pieces
• 8 tbsp of seed oil
• 50 g of smoked pancetta, roughly diced
• 1 carrot, peeled, roughly diced
• 1/2 onion, peeled, roughly diced
• 1/4 stick of celery, cleaned, roughly diced
• 2 garlic cloves, unpeeled
• 1 tablespoon of white peppercorns, pounded in a mortar
• 1 bay leaf
• 80 g of wild cranberries (glass)
• 300 g of red wine
• 300 g of red port wine
• 1 l game stock
• 10 juniper berries, slightly crushed
• 10 cloves
• 2 sprigs of thyme
• Salt, aged balsamic vinegar
• 3-4 tbsp of reduced Noilly Prat Vermouth
• Reduced red wine
• 2-3 tablespoons wild cranberries (glass), pressed through a sieve
• 1 tbsp ice-cold butter

Sear the deer bones vigorously in 4 tbsp of oil. Add bacon and vegetables together with the garlic and sauté. Gently heat the crushed pepper in the remaining oil for 10 minutes. Drain in a colander and add to the bones with the bay leaf and wild cranberries. Alternately, de-glaze with red wine and port and allow to boil down. Carefully free up the seared meat juices using a wooden spatula. Pour over the game stock and allow to reduce to a good third over a medium heat. Stir from time to time. Pass the stock through a sieve. Put the juniper berries, cloves and thyme in a sieve, suspend in the sauce and allow to soak through for 10-15 minutes next to the stove. Remove the sieve, reheat the stock and season with salt, balsamic vinegar, reduced Noilly Prat Vermouth, red wine and pressed wild berries. Lightly bind the sauce with little flakes of butter.

Coconut cheesecake

by Christoph Kunz and Eugen Stichling, Restaurant Alois – Dallmayr

Cheesecake:

• 300 g of cream cheese
• 100 g of coconut powder (e.g. from the health food store)
• 50 g of sugar
• 70 g of coconut milk
• 50 g eggs (1 egg)
• 12 g of starch
• 1 g of salt (1 pinch)

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees. Mix the coconut powder with sugar, starch and salt. Add to the cream cheese and stir until smooth. Slowly mix in the coconut milk and egg. Fill in a baking mould and bake at 150 degrees for about 40 minutes.

Lemon grass gel:

• 200 g of lemon juice
• 50 g of lemongrass
• 75 g of sugar
• 10 g of ginger
• 2.5 g of agar-agar

Bring the lemongrass, lemon juice, sugar and ginger to the boil. Let it rest for 15 minutes. Pass through and mix with agar-agar, bring back to the boil. Then allow to cool. Mix.

Coconut gel:

• 200 g of coconut milk
• 2.3 g of agar-agar
• 30 g of sugar

Add the coconut milk, sugar and agar agar, bring to the boil. Then allow to cool. Mix.

Coconut crumble:

• 30 g of flour
• 30 g of butter
• 30 g of desiccated coconut
• 30 g of sugar

Mix everything together and bake at 170 degrees until golden yellow. Allow to cool down. Mix together.

Pandan Parfait:

• 35 g of whole egg
• 50 g of egg yolk
• 35 g of sugar
• 225 g of whipped cream
• 2 sheets of gelatine
• 5 g of Grand Marnier
• 4 g of pandan aroma

Soak the gelatine in cold water. Froth whole egg, egg yolks and sugar over a water bath. Dissolve the gelatine in warm Grand Marnier and pandan aroma. Lift the egg mass and slowly fold in the cream. Fill the silicone moulds and then freeze.

Back to the article: The perfecte Dinner

Photos: Frank Stolle