I’ve just about recovered from the mock exam over the weekend. Plenty of margaritas helped. Back to the normal routine in this penultimate week with 4 more lessons to go before exams.

In demo we met John Dory for the first time. Fillet de Saint Pierre, Cannelloni de Crabe au Poireau et Huile au Curry. A pan-fried fillet with crab and leek cannelloni and a curry oil. In the kitchen afterwards, we cooked Carré d’Agneau Rôti, Courgette Fleur Farçi au Fromage de Chèvre et Poivre Vert. Roasted rack of lamb with a courgette flower filled with goats cheese and green peppercorns. FTW.

I’ll start with the lamb.

I was given an 8-rib rack of lamb. The fragment of shoulder blade was removed from the side along with the tendon running along the bottom. If the tendon isn’t removed, the rack shrinks severely when cooking. The knuckles in between the ribs were dug out to make slicing easier. This task is easier when the meat is cold. And 2 rib bones were carefully removed so the rack could be divided into 2 3-rib racks after cooking. The skin was removed to reveal the ribs and the fat was removed except for a strip across the eyes of meat. Last bit of prep and always a bit of a chore—the ribs were French trimmed. I seemed to have a rack with very long rib bones. Scrape. Scrape.

A plum tomato was blanched and peeled. One half was coarsely diced. The other half was cut into petals and then into diamonds. Black olives were cut into rings.

The knuckles, blade and plenty of trimmings went into the pan to brown in the oven. Lots of fat was drained off. Carrot and onion went into the pan and were browned. Then the bones went back in. Wine to deglaze. Stock and the diced tomato. Infuse. Skim. Pass. Reduce. Some fatless lamb meat was added towards the end to boost the lamb flavour.

The goats cheese was blitzed with cream cheese. Crushed green peppercorns were added before one final quick blitz. Taste test, seasoning then into a piping bag. The stamen was removed from the courgette flowers, which were then filled and steamed. The cooked courgette stalks were cut into disks.

Spiralized potato was mixed with a little clarified butter and wound around a metal pastry cutter wrapped with baking parchment. This was baked in the oven until golden and crispy. Mine took on a bit too much colour. Oops. The potato core left in the spiralizer wasn’t wasted. It was cut into barrels and cooked in salted boiling water.

The rack of lamb was seared on all sides in a pan before finishing in the oven. To serve, the ends of the rack were trimmed away to reveal the pink meat. The rack was divided into 2. And the courgette disks and potato barrels were rolled in the roasting juices. My lamb was a little passed the desired cooking degree of medium rare but to me it was exactly how I like it. Not good, but good, if you get my drift. From the cross-section it looks like I seared it a bit too long on the one side.

Back to the fish.

John Dory is a strange looking beastie. Ugly too. It has huge punk-rocker spines, which are poisonous to other fish. Getting stabbed by one of these things isn’t going to kill you but it’s still painful. Wounds are likely to get inflamed apparently. The name “John Dory” originates from the French "jaune doré”, meaning golden yellow in reference to its shimmering skin. The fish is nicknamed St Peter's fish and the big dark spot on its side is said to be the thumbprint of the saint himself. Uhuh.

Two things are curious about the John Dory. First, chef said it’s the only fish he has encountered for which you must trace an incision around the skirt in order to outline and access the fillet. You can see this in the photo of the carcass below. Second, the fish has 3 overlapping fillets, which initially appear as 1. You can see this in the middle photo.

The skin was removed from the fillets and residual membrane scraped away. The thin skin was seasoned, then sandwiched between baking parchment and trays and crisped in the oven. Pancetta was also crisped in the oven. The 3 fillets were separated and marinated in olive oil, black peppercorns and bruised garlic.

The coolest thing about this dish was the cannelloni. Because there was no pasta involved. The cannelloni shell was made from leek. Wat! Like I said, cool. The outer leaves of a leek were individually blanched until pliable, then divided into the white and green parts. Only the white parts were used for the cannelloni. On the inside face of the leaves there was a slime which was scraped away with a knife.

The inner leaves of the leek were sliced thinly and sweated in butter and salt, with the lid on. A tablespoon of water was added. Stirring every few minutes without taking on colour created a leek fondue. When this had cooled it was mixed with crab meat and seasoned with salt and cayenne pepper. Filling ready.

The white leaves were cut into strips and laid down on cling film so they overlapped slightly. One end of each strip was slightly greener than the other end. The strips were arranged so that both ends of the cannelloni shell alternated between white and green. Funky. The filling was moulded into a sausage on top and the leaves and the cannelloni were rolled in the cling film, tied off and placed in the fridge to firm up.

A pea purée was made with a splash of the poaching liquor used for the leeks. Not too much could be used as it was highly seasoned. The curry oil was simply curry powder whisked with olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice.

The fillets were pan-fried in the marinade oil, skin-side down first because the trace of skin caramelises nicely. They were cooked to almost done and then removed to rest and finish cooking through. The flesh was very delicate. The cannelloni were simmered for 5 minutes to heat through and the ends trimmed for plating.

Rack and ring