Aidan Brooks: Trainee Chef: TGRWT #18 - Reminder Of Closing Date

Monday, 17 August 2009

TGRWT #18 - Reminder Of Closing Date

As host of They Go Really Well Together (TGRWT) Round 18, I've invited food bloggers and professional chefs to come up with interesting and tasty dishes that combine plum and blue cheese.

They Go Really Well Together - Plum & Blue Cheese

If you haven't found time to try something out yet, don't panic. You've got another two weeks until the deadline of September 1st. All you have to do between now and then is to prepare a dish using plum and blue cheese (either an existing recipe or your own invention), write up your preparation on your own blog with at least one photo and some comments about how the flavour pairing went. Then drop me an email or comment on my blog telling me where to find your write-up.

We've had some interesting submissions so far, ranging from snack food to fine dining and from a cave man's savoury/umami feast to the most intricate and delicate bitter-sweet dessert. And one would-be entrant who's got me excited by proposing to use plum in the form of a certain Slavic liqueur (well I did encourage thinking outside the box). So, come on and join in. You never know - you might just discover that, when you balance it with fruit, you quite like blue cheese after all.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...: What made you choose blue cheese as oppose to mild cheese
Carl D; 8/18/2009 04:23:00 pm
Trig said...: Carl - if you go back to the original spec on blog.khymos and my initial write-up, you'll see that this is about unusual pairings based on scientific evidence of common odorant molecules. And blue cheese shares at least three different such molecules with plum. Simples!; 8/18/2009 05:31:00 pm
peter said...: I blew this deadline because I was out of town, but I'm still going to make one of my ideas because I want to. Stay tuned...; 9/02/2009 01:21:00 am
Trig said...: Peter - no problem. I look forward to your efforts and if I have time to append them to the round-up, I will.; 9/02/2009 12:40:00 pm

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Welcome

I'm Aidan "Trig" Brooks, a 22-yr-old from Hackney in London's East End. I left Westminster Kingsway College with a Professional Chef Diploma in summer

2007 and moved to Spain, where I trained in Barcelona at Carles Abellan's Comerç 24 (which won its first Michelin star) and Martín Beresategui's Lasarte (which won its second Michelin star) and was chef de partie and later Pastry Chef to Paco Morales at the amazing hotel restaurant Ferrero in the Valèncian mountains. This Spring I returned to London as part of the team of celebrated Portuguese chef Nuno Mendes, opening East End restaurant Viajante. I'm still working with food, but taking a break from fine dining. Passionately pursuing my life-long ambition to become a top-class chef and, one day, a world-famous restaurateur.

Independence and code of ethics

What's in season in the UK?

Here is this week's UK seasonal food item, courtesy of eat the seasons. This week's seasonal food item is monkfish. This resident of the deep is often described as the ugliest fish in the oceans, though from looking at the beautiful picture below it's hard to see why. Actually, monkfish isn't a fish, but a generic name given to fish from several different genus. The most common is the anglerfish, but the generic term can also refer to angel sharks and sea monks. Whichever variety we are talking about, they should be considered a special treat as all are listed as being unsustainably fished at present. Monkfish has a firm but succulent texture and a slightly sweet flavour and is often compared with seafoods such as lobster and scallops, with which it pairs well to make some luxurious dishes. Monkfish has long featured in Iberian regional dishes, but was almost unknown in the UK until recent years. It now appears on many restaurant menus and is highly sought after by fishing vessels in the waters around SW. England, W. Ireland and W. Scotland. Monkfish is low in calories and a good source of protein. It contains useful amounts of vitamin B3 (aids proper functioning of the metabolic system), potassium (controls the balance of fluids) and selenium (an antioxidant that also helps the immune system). The flesh is sufficiently strong to stand its own against otherwise dominant flavours such as the chorizo, saffron and pimentón typically used with it in Spanish dishes.