Gourmet Cooking

One of Ireland’s most successful and renowned chefs, Ross Lewis retained a Michelin star for 15 years, at his award-winning restaurant Chapter One in Parnell Square, Dublin. A highly skilled chef, he open the restaurant in 1993 and a second restaurant, Osteria Lucio, in 2016.  He has cooked for many famous people including Queen Elizabeth II at the State banquet during her visit in 2011. Ross has been a leader in the Irish culinary scene over the decades with many well-known chefs having trained in his kitchen.

He was the inaugural recipient of the prestigious Michelin Guide Great Britain and Ireland 2021 Chef Mentor Award, with the Guide declaring: “The impact Ross has had on Irish restaurants over the years is clear to see and very much an ongoing phenomenon.” He is also passionate about Irish artisan food.  Recently he announced that he would be stepping aside 

after 29 years at the helm, with Mickael Viljanen, formerly head chef of the two star Michelin restaurant, The Greenhouse, replacing him in the kitchen. Ross will continue on as a partner to ensure a smooth transition. For more, visit chapteronerestaurant.com.

Dublin Bay Prawn, smoked bacon and basil spring roll with red pepper escabeche puree:

Serves 6 

Red pepper escabeche:  

2 Shallots, diced

2 cloves garlic, finely sliced

125ml olive oil

3g espelette pepper

Pinch saffron

2 plum tomatoes

400g tinned red peppers, julienne

2 sprigs thyme 

2 sprigs basil

15mls sherry or red wine vinegar

4 slices Parma ham, finely sliced

Sweat shallots and garlic in olive oil with saffron and espelette pepper over a low heat until soft. Meanwhile, bring a small pan of water to the boil and blanch the tomatoes for one minute. Transfer to a bowl of iced water and, when cold, drain and peel the tomatoes, then cut into quarters and remove the centres, and finely slice them. Drain the peppers and remove seeds and any skin, then slice finely. Add the tomatoes and peppers to the pan, together with the thyme and continue to cook over a low heat until completely softened – about 20 to 30 minutes. Add the basil and ham and cook for 3 minutes. Drain the liquids off the escabeche mixture into a clean pan and reduce to a syrup. Blend the pepper mixture in a blender, adding back some of the reduced liquid as necessary to create a smooth puree with a dropping consistency. Pass through a chinois.

Dublin Bay prawn mousse for spring roll (optional – the rolls can be made without this)

(Makes 250g) This is more than needed for the recipe but it freezes well.

130g prawn meat

5g salt

1 egg white

150ml cream

Method

In a thermomix or blender, blend all the ingredients together and pass through a drum sieve. Put into a piping bag and chill until needed. 

Basil Oil:

100grms basil

20grms chive

½ clove garlic

300mls light olive oil

Blanch and refresh basil and chives. Blend with oil and garlic. Leave to infuse for 2/3 hrs and strain through fine sieve or muslin cloth.

Making up the spring rolls

400g Dublin Bay Prawn 

1 packet Spring roll pastry 

50g basil, leaves only, finely sliced.

4 bacon  finely sliced. 

2 egg whites

Lay out one spring roll wrapper and use a knife to cut a rectangle 22x11cm. For one roll, you will need around 20g of prawn tails.

Halve the prawns lengthways and lay the pieces end to end on the spring roll wrapper, about 1 inch from the bottom. Cut a small hole in the piping bag and pipe a fine line of prawn mousse onto the pastry, along the length of the prawns. Put a single line of bacon pieces along this line, and finish with 4 or five strips of basil. Use a pastry brush to paint a line of egg white along the top and sides of the wrapper, and then roll the prawns tightly in the pastry, keeping an even pressure along the length. Seal the edge with another brush of the egg white.  Make two rolls per person, and keep them on a tray lined with greaseproof in the fridge until needed.

Serving

Basil Oil - Basil cress

Fill a deep fat fryer and preheat to 190*C. Deep-fry the spring rolls, in two batches if necessary, until golden brown and crispy. Drain on kitchen paper and, at a 45* angle, slice off the ends of the rolls, then slice them in half. Put 5 dots of the warm pepper puree randomly on a plate and arrange the pieces of spring roll around them. Finish with some 

Cured salmon with Burren smoked salmon cream and lemon balm jelly, horseradish and wild watercress, Kilkenny organic cold pressed rapeseed oil

Ingredients:

Cured salmon

Wild smoked salmon cream

Lemon balm jelly

Watercress puree

Horseradish cream

Pickled radish and onion

Chive flowers

Organic rapeseed oil

Cured Salmon:

1 side of wild salmon

Curing solution:

1.125kg water

200g rock salt

400g sugar

15g black peppercorns

10g star anise

5 cloves

4 juniper berries

½ tblspn white wine vinegar

1 bunch coriander

1 fennel bulb finely sliced

Boil all ingredients. Then add the sliced fennel off the heat and leave to infuse. When cold place the salmon in the solution and leave to marinade uncovered in a fridge for 24hrs to dry. When marinated cut 8 half inch cubes from the thick part of the salmon.

Wild smoked salmon Cream:

150g Burren smokehouse wild smoked salmon

200g crème fraiche – brought to the boil with the trimmings and skin of the smoked salmon. Cool and pass.

Place in the pacojet with trimmed smoked salmon and freeze.

When frozen, blend and fold in a further 150/200g of crème fraiche

Season with:

1 tspn lemon juice

½ tspn Tabasco

4 pinches smoked paprika

Salt and pepper

Lemon Balm Jelly:

200g celery

1 clove garlic

200ml white wine

50 ml white wine vinegar

2 ltrs still mineral water

300g fennel

10g ginger

2 star anise

30 black peppercorns

1 tblspn of lemon puree

8 leaves of gelatine to 1 litre of liquid

Bring all ingredients together and cover. Then simmer for 40 minutes on a low heat. Pass onto 200g of lemon verbena and 200g of lemon balm. Leave to infuse for 2/3 hours while covered. Pass through a muslin and set with gelatine.

Horseradish Cream:

200g good quality crème fraiche

1tblspn of good quality horseradish puree

1 tblspn white wine vinegar

Pinch of salt.

Whisk the crème fraiche and add the horseradish and vinegar just before it gets to a stiff peak. Put into a small plastic bottle.

Watercress puree:

500g watercress

2tblspns Worcestershire sauce

300ml single cream, reduced by half

Salt and pepper

Blanch and refresh watercress, squeeze as much water out as possible in a paper towel. Freeze in pacojet container. When frozen pour in the reduced cream and season with the Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Pass through a sieve. Put in a small plastic bottle.

Pickled vegetable:

20 Small shallot or grelotte onion rings

20 slices of radish

Pickling solution:

200mls apple vinegar brought to the boil with 50g of sugar

2/3 generous pinches of salt

Leave vegetables to marinade for 2 hours in the solution

To assemble:

Place 25grms of wild smoked salmon cream into a consommé bowl and cover with 100ml of lemon balm jelly. Chill for 3-4 hours. Garnish with 2 cubes of cured salmon, 3 radish and 3 onion rings, 3 dots of horseradish cream and 3 dots of watercress puree.

Then place 5 or 6 chive flowers and 1 tspn of cold pressed rapeseed oil.

Caramelised Elstar apple and molasses sponge with ice cream:

Molasses sponge:

150g whole eggs

170g muscovado sugar

75g ground almonds

150g olive oil

170g milk

10g baking powder

5g cinnamon powder

5g nutmeg powder

250g flour

Method:

Set up a kitchen aid with whisk attachment and whisk the eggs and sugar together on a medium speed for 5-10 minutes until light brown and fluffy. Pour in the milk and whisk for a further minute. Pass all the dry ingredients through a fine sieve and fold into the mix. Then fold in the olive oil. Butter the baking dishes and dust/line with demerara sugar. Leave aside.

Caramelised apples:

2 Irish apples

Caster sugar

Unsalted Butter

Salt

Method:

Heat in a frying pan on the stove, add enough sugar to cover the base of the pan and allow to caramelise undisturbed. Wash and peel the apples and dice to a 2mm dice and add to the pan. Add a pinch of salt and caramelise for 1 minute then add 10g butter. Cook for a further minute and take off the heat. Take 40g of the caramelised apple and place into the buttered baking dish then add 45g of the sponge mixture, set aside.

Treacle sauce:

200g treacle

200g pouring cream

30g unsalted butter

Method:

Bring treacle and cream to the boil and simmer for 1 minute. Monte with butter and take off the heat.

Presentation:

Place the sponge in the oven and cook for 9 minutes at 185*C. Bring the treacle sauce to the boil. Take the sponge out, pierce with a knife and pour 2 dessert spoons of sauce over the top.

Finish with a quenelle of ice cream.