Just last week, MasterChef Australia judge George Calombaris was in town to promote the latest MasterChef season (read the Q&A here) and as promised, here’s one of George’s signature dishes, served at his famous restaurant, The Press Club.
Green Greek Salad (photo credit – The Press Club)
George Calombaris’ Green Greek Salad
(Serves 4)
Ingredients:
8 green asparagus each (tips removed and blanched, stalk sliced very fine)
4 kale leaves (deep fried)
1 teaspoon confit shallots (*recipe below)
Feta puree (*recipe below)
Kale Puree (*recipe below)
½ cup fresh peas
½ cup blanched broad beans (shelled)
Stir fried abalone (*recipe below)
1 tablespoon hazelnut oil
1 tablespoon raspberry vinegar
4 white anchovies each, finely diced
Method:
1. Place the kale into the bottom of each serving bowl
2. Mix the shallot and anchovies together and place on the puree
3. Mix peas, broad beans, asparagus tips and the fine sliced asparagus stalks into a mixing bowl. Dress with the hazelnut oil and raspberry vinegar
4. Arrange on top of the puree
5. Next, arrange the kale chips and place dots of the feta puree all around and over the salad
6. To finish, add the freshly cooked abalone
Green feta puree
(Makes 425g)
Ingredients:
50g baby spinach
50g parsley
50g dill
400g feta cheese
Method:
1. Blanch the herbs and spinach in salted water and refresh
2. Squeeze out the extra water
3. Place the herbs into a blender or food processor and blend on high until smooth (you may need to add some water to get the herbs blending)
4. Once the herbs are smooth, add the feta and blend until incorporated
5. Place into piping bags and hold until needed
6. Best used at room temperature
Note: This quantity is the best to make, as any less tends not to blend very well, keep any left over for another use.
Confit shallots
(Makes 120g)
Ingredients:
100g shallots
100g raspberry vinegar
Method:
1. Place ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer
2. Cook until nearly all liquid have reduced
3. Remove from heat, set aside to chill and hold until needed
Note: Can be done well in advance up to 1 week before and what is left over will hold for 2 weeks in the fridge
Abalone marinate and cooking
(Serves 4)
Ingredients:
1 large green lip abalone 200 g each (live)
1 small clove garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon ginger, grated
Pinch crushed black pepper
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Method:
1. Place the abalone into the freezer until half frozen
2. Remove the abalone from the shell, and remove all guts and clean well under cold water
3. Freeze again until semi frozen
4. slice on a mechanical slicer 0.5mm thin
5. Mix with the other ingredients and leave overnight to marinate
6. To cook, heat oil in a wok, stir fry the abalone and serve straight away
Kale puree
(Makes 4 portions)
Ingredients:
200g kale, picked and washed
2g bicarb soda
8 litres water
4g salt
Method:
1. In a large pot, bring the water and salt to a rapid boil
2. Blanch the kale in the water for 1 minute and refresh in lots of ice water
3. Strain the kale out of the water
4. In the food processor, blend very well until smooth
5. Pass through a fine drum sieve or sieve
George shares his cooking tips:
- You can only be a great cook if you start with great ingredients.
- Salt is one of the most important ingredients – you can be fancy-schmancy with all the techniques under the sun, but if you don’t know how to transform the flavour of a dish with the right amount of salt, then the dish will never be great.
- Preparation (mise-en-place) is the key to culinary success. It doesn’t matter whether you’re cooking in a restaurant or at home, if you’re well prepared you’re going to get good results.
- If you don’t want to eat your own food, then don’t serve it to others.
- You must live to cook, not cook to live.
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