Earlier this year I did a series of short films for Maldon sea salt, interviewing various folk from the meeja world about their “desert island dishes”. The flat was turned upside down while a film crew large enough to cover migratory patterns of Arctic cod (do Arctic cod migrate?) moved in, and I sat there like a lemon and cooked a few bits and bobs while chatting to the slebs. A bit like James Martin but without the experience or the come-hither eyes.
Here’s the interview with India Knight:
Maldon have published a cookbook based on the concept of Desert Island Dishes. It has a foreword by Jay Rayner, so you know it’s good.
And you can win a copy right here. Just comment below with your most impractical desert island dish. The top three most extravagant will win a copy of the book*.
Toodles x
*Competition closes at midday on Friday 16th November.
Of all the things I eaten, probably the one that stands out the most is the Red Cabbage gazpacho with Mustard ice cream from The Fat Duck.
Outstanding, could eat it the day is long.
A starter of lobster please, probably not so difficult on a desert island, but must be served with drawn butter, not quite as easy.
And then a full rib of beef roast, with Yorkshires, greens, carrots and of course, roast potatoes. The image of finding cattle, being able to dispatch and butcher it, and then having the proper oven, to make this on the desert island, makes me giggle. Could I have some Indian spices and yoghurt for a marinade, too?
And then a chocolate and coffee dessert of some kind.
Baked alaska?
A dry martini shaken not stirred to start followed by stuffed fried zucchini flowers, a retro beef wellington (I just love the beef, smothered in foie gras and wrapped in perfect pastry, followed by a flame topped creme brulee- Perfect.
I would say the most impractical (and improbable!) dish that comes to mind would be a Baked Alaska – can’t think of anything nicer to eat on a “dessert” island!
James Ramsden steak tartare ? Appetiser : dozen Kumamoto Starter: Kobe beef sashimi Main: Surf & Turf (we are desert island!) Lobster Thermidor & Hamksmoor fillet steak (with Maldon salt & ginger pig meat) Dessert: salted caramel rolo’s 🙂 Drinks : chase martini with twist & shakey pete’s digestif
brilliant video!
mine would be:
Gin, tonic, slice of lime, lots of ice
Cheese souffle to start, with something dry, white and cold to drink
Steak, bearnaise sauce, fat crispy chips, creamed spinach with a glass of hefty rioja
Chocolate Guinness mousse
Strong coffee
OOh, my desert island dinner would have to include the best steak ever, cooked medium rare with a side salad and baked jacket potato. This would be followed by a gooey chocolate fondant with lavender ice cream.
This would all be washed down with a gorgeous bottle of red – of course
Gimlet to start, then a bottle of Palistorti Di Valgiano red in a Riedel glass. Roasted venison loin, petit pois a la francaise and triple cooked chips. Finish off with Chateau des Charmes Canadian Ice Wine and a lemon tart with home made raspberry ripple ice cream. Couple of petit fours and a nice Cohiba cigar to finish. May as well have a glass of port from my birth year, 1970 aswell eh?
Roast Beef: albert and barrett rooster potatoes – roasted and mash please, rib of beef from Mr Dorward’s Butcher (Alyth, Scotland) 4 hour roasted a la Valentine Warner, foraged vegetables (preferably from Raymond Blanc’s garden), Heston Blumenthal’s bone marrow gravy…oh and his honey glazed carrots
Dessert: good old apple tart with salted caramel ice cream
Bottle: Tomero, Malbec 2010 (nothing too fancy to over power my meat)
Okay, here goes. It’s my Desert Island meal, maybe my last ever – or certainly my last good meal ever. So it’ll have to be a precariously un-matched foray into nostalgic tastes and comfort eats. It’s a lonely island out there, after all.
I’ll start with some ridiculous cocktail, as the more awkward the prep the more exciting it is to drink. And, as Tom Hanks missed it so badly in Castaway, I’m going to savour this moment and have lots of ICE in the glass. I’ve had too many great cocktails from Hawksmoor Spitalfields, so I’ll choose from their menu, especially as they’ve a ‘Desert Island cocktails’ list:
Stolen Heart: Compass Box Spice Tree, Apricot Brandy, Kamm and Sons
Port in a Storm: Bermudan rum, Velvet Falernum, The Kernel Porter, Lime and Angostura Bitters
(Yes, I need two)
To start, I think I’ll keep it English. This is a starter I had recently at The Glasshouse, in Kew, and I think I’d miss these seasonal ingredients terribly, and bore all too quickly of mangoes:
‘Wood pigeon and white pear salad, green beans, croutons, bacon and crisp quail eggs’
For my main, I’m going back to basics. I’m part Italian and marinara flows through my veins. Only pizza will do in this scary situation. The village where my papa was from, and where I go back on holiday, is very idyllic: it has one shop, one church, one bar, and – importantly – one pizzeria. And for my final meal it has to come from there. Dough rolled so thin in the way only an Italian Nonna knows how, smeared with sauce from tomatoes grown in their yard, a scattering of fresh mozzarella, basil leaves, and, nestled amongst it, an egg from the chickens which roam free outside and occasionally pop their heads into the restaurant. Cooked to perfection with slightly blistered crust in a wood-fired oven. And, I’m afraid, I’ll accept nothing less.
(Washed down with wine from the vineyard next door).
Dessert is a further nod to comfort. I haven’t made it yet, but I have been lusting after this banofee peanut butter brulee recipe I found on HeNeedsFood: http://heneedsfood.com/2012/05/banoffee-peanut-butter-brulee/
Would hot chocolate be too heavy after this? Probably, but a lot of indulgence now will keep me alive for longer when we realise I have no hunter-gatherer skills.
Here is my desert island dish: Sprinkle some Maldon salt over the tail of a swallow. Then squeese half a lemon over a tin of soft cod roe and spread it on burnt wholemeal toast. Ideally, you need to eat the toast as the swallow flies off your island and dusts you first bit with salt! Never tried the swallow business but I do love cod roe…
Three courses of impractical, indulgent heaven!
To start, Eggs en cocotte with duck liver pâté.
Followed by a highly impractical Jalapeno Alligator with Truffle Oil Fries.
For dessert, ‘Dulcia domestica’ (an ancient Roman recipe involving sweet and succulent fresh dates, red wine and honey, amongst other ingredients)
Bird’s nest soup
Caviar from El Bulli
Chicken for Two Roasted in the Brick Oven
Creole Tomato Salad
Fruit kebab with honey jelly
To start, let’s go for a REALLY convoluted parsnips velouté, with date and Cocoa paste, blonde grapes and bitter chocolate. The likelihood of sourcing these ingredients on our island? I’d like to see you try.
For mains there’s a wacky home comfort vegetarian option, namely macaroni cheese, gratinated with Emmenthal (cheese.) Wholly inappropriate for a desert island. Where’s a microwave when you need one?
For meat eaters, I present you with roast Guinea Fowl accompanied by sauerkraut and cream sauce. A poor fit for the island I’m afraid, but scrumptious nonetheless!
Lastly, for desert, a chocolate tartlet for all you chocoholics stranded on our desert island: that is, sweet pastry dough with Macae chocolate ganache and chocolate jelly, glazed with dark chocolate!
Sorry I must have missed who won the Book?
Apologies for delay, Christmas and wedding rather taken over. Just waiting to hear back from team Maldon with a winner! J
SO sorry for the delay everyone, it seems the Maldon team have been busy making salt. However we do have our winners who are (*fanfare*):
Magnolia Verandah
Foodie Monkey, and
Charlotte Hanson
I’ll be in touch about getting the books to you.
Thanks all so much for participating. You all had me dribbling over the keyboard . J x