Veal fillet wrapped in Bayonne ham with a black olive crust. Served with stuffed Piquillos pepper, risotto and a sherry vinegar sauce

Restaurant service. Guess who’s Chef de Partie? Yip, me. I have a 3-person team.

Today’s menu was Gambas au Beurre de Crustacé, Polenta Crémeuse aux épices. That’s pan-fried gambas in prawn butter with spicy polenta to start. Followed by Filet de Veau en Croûte d'Olives Noires, Piquillos Farci et une Sauce au Vinaigre de Xérès. Veal fillet with a black olive crust, stuffed piquillos and sherry vinegar sauce. Now we’re talking!

Last time I prepped Gambas I had lots of stab wounds on my fingers, which swelled up. Painful. Nobody wants to see multiple blue plasters on one hand. That was me. Tedward Plasterhands. I was more careful this time. Apparently a Gambas isn’t a prawn as we know it. It’s a fresh water shrimp. Either way they have sharp pointy things on their tails—to be avoided. Blah, blah. Head off. Remove the shell. This time keep the tail on. Butterfly. Devein. Job done. The heads and shells went into a pan to cardinalise—that’s get red, like a Brit in Marbella, then butter was added to infuse all those shrimpy flavours.

Meanwhile polenta happened. Milk. Cream. Tumeric. Garam Marsala. Fine polenta. And plenty of seasoning. Don’t walk away. On the heat this needed attention for about 8 to 10 minutes. Like a needy child. Then it was spread on a tray to cool and later brushed with prawn butter and cut to size.

A grapefruit was zested. Is that a verb? Segments were cut and the juice squeezed. The juice and zest was reduced to a syrup, then Balsamic vinegar and olive oil were added to make a dressing.

Onto main prep.

The veal fillets were quickly browned in the pan, wrapped in Bayonne ham, and put in the fridge. Veal trimmings were added to the pan to develop more sucs for the sauce. The pan was deglazed with shallot with the heat right down. In went smoked paprika. Paprika burns easily so the heat was kept low while it cooked out. Sherry vinegar. Sploosh. The immediate hit of vaporised acid took my breath away. Heat up. Stock in. Transfer to a deeper, narrower pan that was more conducive to skimming.

Chorizo macédoine were gently fried to render the fat. Courgette macédoine were fried in some chorizo oil. A baby leek was very finely sliced. This was all stuffed into Piquillos peppers, which were brushed with chorizo oil ready for service.

An onion was cut in half across the middle and placed face down in hot oil to get some colour. Then into the oven to roast. When they were cooked the skins were removed and the middles scooped out. Now we had little onions bowls for the risotto.

Rather than chop a shallot to start the risotto we used the onion middles. Waste not, want not. The risotto was cooked to about 80% done then spread out on a metal tray, scored like a chessboard to help it cool quickly, and into the blast chiller to halt the cooking. To check the rice, take a single grain and cut it in half. You’re looking for the white dot at the centre; it gets smaller as it cooks. No dot means the rice is overcooked. When cooking risotto part-way, use the size of the dot to gauge how far along the cooking is and how much longer is needed. This helps with timing in service because risotto is always finished to order.

An olive crust was prepared with fresh breadcrumbs, chopped black olives, ham trimmings crisped up in the oven, and some melted butter.

We’re good to go.

Ça Marche! Service.

Starters ordered.

Chef told us Chefs de Partie have to do all the cooking while commis chefs do the prep. Uh-huh. That didn't quite happen. I “delegated” the prawn cook. Bad move. Not all the prawns were properly cleaned and cooked, despite my warnings. But hey, the buck stops with me.

Fillets went into the oven to be ready for main service. Aiming for 54C.

The grapefruit segments were charred with a blow torch. Polenta on the plate. Prawns on top. Finicky. Grapefruit segments in. Drizzles of prawn butter and dressing. Coriander cress garnish. Starters away. One minute late. Chef likes the butter and dressing.

Chef informs us there’s a pregnant lady at the table. It takes me 5 minutes to figure out how we need to adjust. One veal fillet needs to be cooked well done. She probably shouldn’t have had the prawns but we didn’t know she was pregnant then. Never mind. Roll with it.

Pan-fried prawns with prawn butter and spicy polenta

The jus was passed through a chinois and reduced. Taste. Could I still taste the sherry vinegar? Yip. If not, I would’ve added a splash more.

The peppers were heated in the oven and brushed with chorizo oil again before hitting the plate.

By the time the fillets were at the desired temperature there wasn’t much time for them to rest. Doh. The tops were brushed with Dijon and the crust added. Back into the oven to crisp. Without a decent rest this pushed the fillets past medium rare to medium. Oh well. And I put too much butter in the crust and too much crust on the fillets. It wasn’t thin and it wasn’t crunchy. Tasted nice though.

Time to bring the risotto back. A small amount of hot stock in the pan then in with the par-cooked risotto. Add stock until done. Ideally the rice should have some nuttiness so the white dot at the centre will be smaller than a pinprick. I added parmesan and stirred like a mad man to gets things creamy. And if that wasn’t enough, I folded in some mascarpone, then some butter. Rich isn’t the word for it—scoops of gloopy goodness presented in a lovely little roasted onion bowls.

Served 2 minutes late.

This was a mighty fine dish. Simple too.

And that risotto—boy—when it cools, you could build walls with the stuff.

Really veally good