David's Dish Development | Farncombe | One Cotswold Estate, Three Award-Winning Hotels

David’s Dish Development

David’s Dish Developement

As the countdown to our re-opening draws closer our fab Head Chef, David Hall, is back in the kitchen working hard on some new, fantastic fishy dishes.

That’s where you guys come in, we want to know what you want on our new lunch menu. For the next three weeks David will be putting two dishes head to head, and asking for your vote on which one is of-fish-ically the best.

The winner, will be appear on our lunch menu and can be enjoyed when you next come to visit us. Double win right?! So make sure you pop over to our Instagram (@TheFishHotel) to cast your vote.

What is more, David is sharing his recipes and know-how behind his fabulous food, so you can tide yourself over and try making them at home.

After all, it would be shellfish to keep up this scrummy grub to ourselves.

Over to you David…

Brown Crab Rarebit on Toast…

For this crab-solutely amazing recipe you will need:

30g plain flour
30g unsalted butter
20g Parmasan cheese
5ml lemon juice
50g brown crab
275ml crab stock

To create your crab rarebit, in a pan melt your butter and then whisk in your flour.
Slowly add your crab stock and then cook until the mixture reduces and becomes nice and thick.
Finally add your grated Parmesan, brown crab and lemon juice to the mixture, remove from the heat and leave to chill before serving.

Towering your Toast…

To serve, spread cold rarebit onto your toast of choice, David used sourdough but a crumpet or English muffin would work too.
Then generously spread the mix onto the toast and grill until golden brown.
Top with white crab and dollops of crème fraiche and garnish with herbs.

Crab Tortellini, Crab Bisque and Rainbow Chard

To make this dish you will ideally need to buy a whole crab, so that you can use the bones for the bisque and meat for the tortellini.

Poach the crab in a slow rolling boil., then add some carrots, leeks, fennel, lemon, parsley and a bay leaf.

For a large crab (1kg) cook for 15 minutes and then rapidly cool in ice water.

Once the crab is cold remove the head and then separate the top of the shell from the legs.

Inside you will find what is referred to as the “dead mans fingers” remove these.

You can then remove all the meat from the inside the cavities.

To remove the meat from the legs and claws use a meat hammer or the back of a knife to crack the shell.

You may need tweezers or a pick to get the meat out.

Once all the meat is out, make sure you check through it for shell.

Flavouring your fennel fondue…

For your flavoursome fennel fondue, you will need:

900g onion
1kg fennel
1/2 celery
1kg plum tomato
25g garlic
2g bay leaves
2g lemon thyme
5g star anise
25g tomato puree
50ml vegetable oil

To make your fondue, firstly in a large pan add your oil, diced onions, thyme, garlic and bay leaves and sweat for 10 minutes.
Then add your chopped fennel and celery and continue to sweat for 20 minutes.
Next add your tomato puree and cook for a further 10 minutes.
Then squeeze your tomatoes to remove all the seeds and mix in with your other ingredients.
Place all into a rational and cook on 130 degrees for around two hours.
Finally, once cooked blast chill before serving.

Creating beautiful bisque…

For your brilliant bisque you will need:

Crab bones (one whole large crab or 1kg)
750g fennel fondue (see recipe above)
2 litres fish stock
200mls whipping cream
1 lemon
Salt

Roast the crab bones for an hour and a half (90 minutes).
Then add your prepared fondue, bones and fish stock to a large pan and cook on a low heat for one hour.
Next pass the stock through a fine sieve to remove the bones.
Then rapidly reduce the stock by 3/4 skimming as it reduces.
Finish with the cream, and season with salt and lemon juice to taste.

Fish-tastic filling…

For your prawn and crab mix you will need:

150g raw peeled king prawns
200g handpicked white crab meat
1 egg white
4g grated ginger
2 spring onions fine brunoise
Salt to season

Blend your king prawns and then add the egg white to make a light mousse.
Then fold through your white crab meat, ginger and spring onion.
Season with a pinch of salt.
Finally, check the seasoning before adding to your pasta by poaching a small bit of the mixture.

Pasta perfection…

For your perfect pasta dough you will need:

250g 00 pasta flour
160g egg yolk
30g olive oil

Place your flour into a large bowl.
Separate the yolks from your eggs and reserve the whites, you will need some later to wash your pasta.
Then add your oil.
Slowly bring your dough together in the bowl.
Once the dough starts to combine, remove from the bowl onto a clean surface and knead the dough.
This mix will be dry but don’t be tempted to add more liquid, otherwise it will spoil your pasta.
Once the dough is completely together wrap tightly in cling film and let it rest for a minimum of one hour before creating your tortellini shells.