"Can I get you a cup of tea, luv?" - my starter recipe for Great British Menu 2018

Dan Fletcher

Dan Fletcher

14th August 2018
Dan Fletcher

"Can I get you a cup of tea, luv?" - my starter recipe for Great British Menu 2018

My starter for Great British Menu 2018 was about the warm welcome that you get when you enter an NHS hospital and you’re greeted quite often with a cup of tea! I remember being in the hospital after an operation, waking up and coming round from the anaesthetic in a real confused, dazed state and a real lovely lady offering me a cup of tea. So in tribute to that, I created a tea-smoked duck dish with a tea-infused duck consommé and a tea-smoked duck salad – trying to put back and say thank you for that experience.

Ingredients

  • For the pre-prep...
  • Duck Consomme:
  • 14 duck legs
  • 2 carrots
  • 2 white onions
  • 1 celery
  • ¼ celeriac
  • 1 head garlic
  • 750ml aged madeira
  • 750ml red wine
  • 4 ltr truefoods golden chicken stock
  • 1 sprig thyme
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 20g earl grey tea
  • 2 star anise
  • 5 juniper berries
  • 1 orange
  • 100g pink peppercorns
  • 200g button mushrooms
  • For the Duck Cracker:
  • 8g star anise
  • 11 cardamom pods
  • 6 black peppercorns
  • 350g golden chicken stock
  • 130g blitz duck meat
  • 300g tapioca starch
  • 12g salt
  • To make the starter...
  • Duck Consomme:
  • 2 duck breast skinless
  • 250ml pasteurised egg white
  • Duck Cracker:
  • Pear and white balsamic dressing
  • 200ml pear juice
  • 20ml white balsamic
  • 2g gelespressa
  • 2g ascorbic acid
  • 100ml Valle de Baux olive oil
  • 50g pink peppercorns
  • Smoked duck:
  • 2 cured duck breasts
  • Hot smoked in studio kitchen and finished with blowtorch
  • Smoked with:
  • 300g oak smoking chips
  • 100g earl grey tea leaves
  • 50g rosemary
  • Cooked Celeriac:
  • 2 large celeriac with leaf
  • 200ml grapeseed oil
  • Hazelnut Mayonnaise:
  • 200g hazelnuts
  • 300g grapeseed oil
  • 2tbl spoons of Dijon mustard
  • ½ a lemon juiced
  • 4 egg yolks
  • Additional:
  • 2 x red passe crassane pear
  • Nasturtium leaves, peeled pink peppercorns
  • Tea accompaniments

Method

Pan of oil to heat up
Smoking chips in to heat up
Blitz duck & egg white
Nuts in the oven, set timer
Add consommé to medium pan with duck and egg white mix
Add duck to smoker
Blowtorch duck and put in freezer
Prepare celeriac, vac pack and put in steamer, set timer
Blitz nuts with oil and pass
Deep fry cracker
Make mayonnaise
Make dressing
Pass consommé
Prepare pear, vac pack
Slice celeriac
Set up for dressing
Slice duck
Fill teapots with accompaniments
Dress crackers
Make folds
Dress plate
Serve

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