Des Harris: Set to impress

Clooney restaurant’s executive chef Des Harris shows us how to apply some of his culinary magic into food to serve with drinks.

Being pre-prepared is the key ingredient when entertaining. Take the time the day before to prepare the components you can. This will help take the pressure off during the event and allow you to enjoy time with your guests rather than being stuck in the kitchen. This really helps in term of the mess you are going to make as well. Everything we serve at Clooney has pre prepared components which helps the ease of service. The same goes at home. These snacks tick the yum box: salty, acidic, creamy, crunchy and fresh. We don’t serve finger food at Clooney so it was a nice change to create these recipes which are open to your own adaptions and interpretations. That’s the best thing about cooking. Apply your experiences and modify the recipes to your tastes.

Green tomato on sourdough

Serves 10

200ml riesling verjus
4 medium sized green tomatoes
½ sourdough baguette
200g buffalo yoghurt (or thick Greek yoghurt)
50g mascarpone
Good quality oil, for drizzling

1. In a saucepan gently reduce the verjus by half and set aside to cool to room temperature. With a small sharp knife remove the eye from the tomatoes and, using your fingers, pull back the flesh to expose the heart of the tomato. Use the knife to snip out the segments. Remove any skin and marinate in the verjus reduction for about half an hour.
2. Slightly freeze the sourdough baguette then slice thinly, brush with olive oil and season with flaky sea salt. Bake at 160C until crisp and allow to cool before using.
3. Mix the yoghurt with the mascarpone and season with flaky sea salt.
4. Take the tomato from the marinade and sit on a paper towel to soak up the excess moisture. Dollop or pipe some of the yoghurt/mascarpone mix on each bread wafer and follow with a piece of tomato, a dash of oil and some flaky sea salt.

Pantry notes

• Riesling verjus (or verjus) is available from sabato.co.nz and at some specialty food stores.
• Clevedon Valley buffalo yoghurt is available at some specialty food stores.
• Green tomatoes are not so readily available in the shops but look out for Curious Croppers' Spanish green tomatoes or pick them green from your own tomato plants. Des says it is okay to use red if you prefer.
• Kataifi is shredded filo pastry available at speciality food stores. See timos.co.nz
• Clarified butter is available at speciality food stores or see here to make your own.

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Prawns fried in kataifi with aioli and gremolata

Serves 10

1 packet kataifi pastry
Clarified butter
10 nice sized prawns, shelled with tails left on
Sunflower oil, for frying

1. Lay out some strands of kataifi and brush generously with clarified butter. Roll each prawn up in the strands to protect the flesh of the prawn. Chill before frying.
2. Heat some sunflower oil in a large saucepan (only fill to halfway) and when hot enough (about 180C) very carefully fry the cleaned prawns in batches until golden and crispy. Using tongs, drain on paper towels before seasoning with flaky sea salt. Serve with the gremolata and aioli (see below) to the side, with some lemon wedges for squeezing.

Aioli

2 egg yolks
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp mustard
1 Tbsp cider vinegar
1 tsp sugar
100ml pure olive oil
200ml canola oil
4 Tbsp lemon juice

1. Whisk together the egg yolks, garlic, mustard, vinegar, sugar and a little flaky sea salt in a bowl.
2. Stream in the oils while whisking to form an emulsion.
3. Whisk in the lemon juice.
4. Leave to infuse for an hour then strain out the garlic and adjust the seasoning and consistency if you wish.

Tarragon gremolata

½ bunch flat leaf parsley
1 small packet French tarragon
1 clove garlic, chopped
100ml olive oil
Juice of 2 lemons

Wash the parsley and tarragon and shake off excess moisture. Pick the leaves from the stalks and chop the leaves finely. Mix with garlic and oil and season to taste. Mix in the lemon juice just before serving.

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Rosemary cured wagyu with olive grissini and anchovy mayonnaise

Serves 10

15g rosemary leaves, finely chopped
20g caster sugar
Zest of ½ lemon
10g flaky sea salt
Touch of extra virgin olive oil
200g piece wagyu beef (or use some nice sirloin)

1. Place the rosemary, sugar, lemon zest and salt into a small food processor and blitz together, adding a little olive oil to get the mix moving.
2. Trim beef into 12g-15g pieces. Lay out onto a sheet of plastic wrap with another sheet on top (ensure the meat is well spaced). Using a rolling pin bash the meat out gently to flatten into mini carpaccios.
3. Take off the top layer and brush over a little of the rosemary cure to season the meat. Allow to sit for a few minutes then wrap each grissini (see below) with a little sheet of the cured meat. Serve with anchovy mayonnaise (see below) to the side.

Olive grissini

1 cup pitted kalamata olives
62g milk
62g water
3.75g active dry yeast
55g butter
250g flour
5g salt

1. Place the olives on an oven tray and dry overnight in an oven set at 60C. They are ready when they are flaky.
2. Warm the milk and water, add the yeast and dissolve. Add the butter, flour and salt and mix to form the dough. Place into a lightly greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and leave to prove in a warm spot until pretty much double in size.
3. Grind the dried olives (or flake with your fingers) and knead into the dough until they are evenly dispersed. Break off 15g portions (about the size of a walnut) of the dough and on a lightly greased bench, roll into long cigars. Season with flaky sea salt and lightly spray with water just before baking. These can be as thin or as thick as you like, just bake them at 150C until they are dry. Store in an airtight container when cool.

Boiled egg and anchovy mayonnaise

3 eggs, room temperature
4 Ortiz anchovies
Juice of ½ lemon
1 tsp Dijon mustard
½ cup pure olive oil
¾ cup sunflower seed oil

1. Bring a small saucepan of water to the boil. Boil eggs for exactly 3 minutes and drain. When cool enough to handle, crack the eggs in half one by one and spoon out the contents into a blender or small food processor (the yolks should still be quite raw and the white part cooked). Add the anchovies, lemon juice and mustard.
2. Pour contents into a bowl and allow to cool slightly before streaming in the oils while whisking to form a mayonnaise. Season with flaky sea salt.

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Salmon tartare with pumpkin seed emulsion and lemonade

Serves 10

Jelly

3 leaves gelatine
1 small bottle San Pellegrino lemonata

1. Bloom (soak in water until soft) the gelatine and squeeze out the excess moisture. Add to the lemonata and gently warm over a low heat until the gelatine dissolves.
2. Strain into a container (lined with plastic wrap to make it easy to remove) and refrigerate for a couple of hours until set. Once set you can turn out your jelly and dice into cubes.

Pumpkin seed emulsion

¼ cup pumpkin seeds
3 size 6 egg yolks
1 Tbsp good quality white vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp pumpkin seed oil
Juice of ½ lemon
¼ cup pure olive oil
¼ cup sunflower oil
Warm water

1. Blitz the pumpkin seeds in a small food processor briefly to a powder.
2. Gently toast in a pan over a lowmedium heat, then blitz together with the egg yolks, vinegar, mustard, pumpkin seed oil and lemon juice.
3. Pour the paste into a bowl and stream in the olive and sunflower oils while whisking to form an emulsion. Have the warm water on hand to adjust the consistency if it becomes too thick.
4. Season with flaky sea salt and pass through a fine sieve to obtain a silky texture.

Salmon

200g water
16g salt
10g sugar
Zest of 1 whole lemon
Pinch of fennel seeds
400g piece of fresh salmon fillet
1 Tbsp snipped chives
Dash of Olive oil
Flaky sea salt
2 lemonade lemons (or sweet-eating lemons) segmented and sliced
1 Tbsp pumpkin seeds, sliced
Lemon infused olive oil, to serve
Chervil leaves, to serve

1. Mix together the water, salt, sugar, lemon zest and fennel seeds to form a citrus brine.
2. Trim the salmon of its skin and bloodline. Rinse then drop the salmon into the citrus brine and leave in the fridge for 1 hour.
3. Take out and rinse under cold water to remove the excess brine. Dry using paper towels.
4. Dice the salmon into uniform cubes and place into a bowl. Dress with snipped chives, a dash of olive oil and adjust the seasoning with flaky sea salt if required.
5. Spoon the tartare into serving dishes and dress with the jelly dice, lemonade segments, sliced pumpkin seeds and little dollops of the pumpkin seed emulsion.
6. Finish with a little lemon olive oil over top.

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