Garden Courgette, smoked buffalo milk curd, roof top honey

Robin Gill

Robin Gill

10th November 2015
Robin Gill

Garden Courgette, smoked buffalo milk curd, roof top honey

Garden Courgette, smoked buffalo milk curd, roof top Honey from Robin Gill, The Dairy

Serves 4

Ingredients

  • 4 courgettes with flowers
  • 1 bunch fresh basil
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 20g aged Parmesan
  • 10 g extra virgin olive oil
  • Fresh black pepper
  • 10g toasted pumpkin seeds
  • 5 Nocellara Del Belice olives
  • 4 tbls of good quality honey
  • Smoked buffalo curd
  • 500ml buffalo milk
  • 25g double cream
  • 10g buttermilk
  • Pinch of salt
  • Zest of one lemon
  • 2g vegetable rennet
  • A hand full of dried hay

Method

The first step is to make the curd, first place all ingredients apart from the hay and rennet into a container. Next toast the hay in a pre-heated oven at 180oC until it is an amber colour all over and has started to smoke, carefully remove the smoking hay from the oven and pour the milk mix over the smoking hay and leave to infuse for 30 minutes , next strain the mix into a clean pot and add the rennet. Best place it over a low heat and bring the mix up to 36oC. (The mix should be just warm on the finger tip) transfer the mix into a suitable sized container and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Courgette and basil purée

Take 2 of the courgettes, cut into quarters and then slice across into thin fine pieces. Pick half a bunch of basil and reserve the best leaves for garnish later. Take a medium sized pan and add a good drizzle of olive oil, add the garlic and follow quickly with the sliced courgette, stir and add a spoon of water and place a lid over the pan to help create steam, after 2 minutes add the basil and finally the grated Parmesan, place the mix into a blender and blend until smooth, place the mix in a bowl over iced water to cool quickly to keep the bright green colour.

Assembly

Slice the remaining courgettes thinly lengthways, place in a bowl with the flowers torn into quarters, season with salt, black pepper, lemon juice and olive oil to taste, spoon the courgette purée generously around each plate, scatter the courgettes and flowers alternatively around each plate, add a couple of olive pieces , a couple of spoons of the smoked curd, finish with fresh basil and a good spoon of your favourite honey.

In these challenging times…

The Staff Canteen team are taking a different approach to keeping our website independent and delivering content free from commercial influence. Our Editorial team have a critical role to play in informing and supporting our audience in a balanced way. We would never put up a paywall  – The Staff Canteen is open to all and we want to keep bringing you the content you want; more from younger chefs, more on mental health, more tips and industry knowledge, more recipes and more videos. We need your support right now, more than ever, to keep The Staff Canteen active. Without your financial contributions this would not be possible.

Over the last 16 years, The Staff Canteen has built what has become the go-to platform for chefs and hospitality professionals. As members and visitors, your daily support has made The Staff Canteen what it is today. Our features and videos from the world’s biggest name chefs are something we are proud of. We have over 560,000 followers across Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube and other social channels, each connecting with chefs across the world. Our editorial and social media team are creating and delivering engaging content every day, to support you and the whole sector - we want to do more for you.

A single coffee is more than £2, a beer is £4.50 and a large glass of wine can be £6 or more.

Support The Staff Canteen from as little as £1 today. Thank you.