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Cucumber, reduced milk and sorrel
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A challenging midsummer day's dessert recipe from Nuno Mendes, full of the refreshing flavours of cucumber, mint and milk and the sweet aroma of burnt hay.
First published in 2015
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Ingredients
Metric
Imperial
Cucumber smoked with hay
- 1/2 cucumber
- 2 handfuls of fresh hay, large
Pickled cucumber
Vanilla syrup
- 200ml of water
- 100g of caster sugar
- 1 vanilla pod
Cucumber jelly
- 2 sheets of gold gelatine
- 1 cucumber
Mint oil
- 250g of fresh mint leaves
- 250ml of grapeseed oil
Reduced milk ice cream
- 5l whole milk
- 5 sheets of gold gelatine
- 100g of milk powder
- 250g of caster sugar
- 50g of glucose
- 10g of ice cream stabiliser
To plate
- 1 handful of fresh wild sorrel
- 1 handful of elderflower
- 1 tsp black sesame seeds, crushed
SAVE RECIPE
Equipment
- Ice cream maker
- Juicer
- Blender
- Sous vide equipment
Method
1
Peel and large dice a cucumber, and place it on a fine wire rack above the the fresh hay
- 1/2 cucumber
- 2 handfuls of fresh hay, large
2
Find a surface that won't burn and get a foil tent ready. Set the hay alight and then cover the tray with the foil to contain the smoke. Leave to rest for 20 minutes before removing the cucumber. Leave to cool
3
To make the pickled cucumber, peel and dice the cucumber
- 1/2 cucumber
4
Place in a bag or container with the lemon juice and seal
5
Make a vanilla syrup by mixing the water, sugar and vanilla pod together and bringing to the boil
- 200ml of water
- 100g of caster sugar
- 1 vanilla pod
6
Add the diced cucumber from the container and place in a sealed bag or container with the above syrup and leave to pickle until required
7
To make the cucumber jelly, soak the gelatine in cold water for 5 minutes to soften. Juice the cucumber in a juicer and mix 250ml of the juice with the soaked gelatine
- 2 sheets of gold gelatine
- 1 cucumber
8
To make the mint oil, blanch the mint leaves briefly in boiling water before refreshing in iced water. Strain the leaves and dry on kitchen towel
- 250g of fresh mint leaves
9
Whiz the leaves in a blender with the grapeseed oil
- 250ml of grapeseed oil
10
Pour the mint oil into vacuum pack bags and cook in a water bath at 65°C for 10 minutes
11
To make the reduced milk ice cream, use a suitalbe sized pan and bring the milk to a gentle boil to reduce by half
- 5l whole milk
12
Soak the gelatine in cold water for 5 minutes to soften. Into the reduced milk, mix the milk powder, sugar, glucose, ice cream stabiliser and gelatine leaves. Churn and freeze in an ice cream maker
- 5 sheets of gold gelatine
- 100g of milk powder
- 250g of caster sugar
- 50g of glucose
- 10g of ice cream stabiliser
13
To serve, arrange the smoked cucumber in the centre of the plate. Top with a scattering of the diced, pickled vanilla cucumber, then spoon over a helping of the cucumber jelly
14
Balance a scoop of the milk ice cream on top, before spooning small droplets of the mint oil across the plate. Add a garnish of wild sorrel, elderflowers and crushed black sesame seeds
- 1 handful of fresh wild sorrel
- 1 handful of elderflower
- 1 tsp black sesame seeds, crushed
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