In our What to Cook series, we have asked the chefs from our favourite Joburg restaurants to share with us the recipes of some of their most delicious signature dishes so that we can all stay fit, healthy and happy while we #stayathome.
Here are three tasty recipes from top star chef James Diack.
Chef and restaurateur James Diack sources almost all the ingredients used in the menus at his four Joburg restaurants from his family’s organic farm Brightside in the Magaliesberg. At his flagship contemporary restaurant Coobs in Parkhurst, Diack and his team like to debut their most daring and inventive creations that emphasise sustainable ingredients and seasonal produce.
You can follow James Diack on Instagram @chefjamesdiack . Here he shares with us a signature fine dining dessert, a vegetarian pizza that you can make from scratch and a how-to guide to making your own beef carpaccio.
200 ml water
20 g star anise
20 g fennel seeds
3 cinnamon sticks or 3 TBS cinnamon
30 g sugar
2 pears (will serve 4 people)
Peel and core pears. Add all the ingredients to a medium sized pot. Bring to boil, then lower heat to medium heat.
Add pears and cook until they can be pierced with a knife, but still can hold its shape. Allow to cool with pears in the liquid .
Pear puree
2 x pears
500ml water
80 G sugar
Peel pears, core and cut into 2cm cubes. Add pears to water and sugar to boil until pears are soft and translucent
Drain remaining liquid. Blend until smooth .
Here are three tasty recipes from top star chef James Diack.
Chef and restaurateur James Diack sources almost all the ingredients used in the menus at his four Joburg restaurants from his family’s organic farm Brightside in the Magaliesberg. At his flagship contemporary restaurant Coobs in Parkhurst, Diack and his team like to debut their most daring and inventive creations that emphasise sustainable ingredients and seasonal produce.
You can follow James Diack on Instagram @chefjamesdiack . Here he shares with us a signature fine dining dessert, a vegetarian pizza that you can make from scratch and a how-to guide to making your own beef carpaccio.
Spiced Poached Pear with ginger sponge, honeycomb, whipped chocolate and white wine jelly
750 ml (1 bottle) white wine200 ml water
20 g star anise
20 g fennel seeds
3 cinnamon sticks or 3 TBS cinnamon
30 g sugar
2 pears (will serve 4 people)
Peel and core pears. Add all the ingredients to a medium sized pot. Bring to boil, then lower heat to medium heat.
Add pears and cook until they can be pierced with a knife, but still can hold its shape. Allow to cool with pears in the liquid .
Pear puree
2 x pears
500ml water
80 G sugar
Peel pears, core and cut into 2cm cubes. Add pears to water and sugar to boil until pears are soft and translucent
Drain remaining liquid. Blend until smooth .
200g flour
200g sugar
1 tsp ground ginger powder
1 tsp bicarb soda
55g butter
1 egg
2 tbsp golden syrup or honey
240ml warm water Mix dry ingredients. Add batter into dry mixture until crumble form. Mix egg, syrup and warm water. Mix wet and dry until well combined. Bake at 180C for 35- 38 mins.
White wine jelly
200g white wine
50g sugar
6 gelatin leaves
Bloom gelatin leaves in cold water. Boil wine and sugar. Add gelatin leaves to wine until dissolved. Placed in sprayed container set in fridge.
Honeycomb
50ml water
90g glucose
270g sugar
50g honey
15g bicarb
Add everything except bicarb to a large pot. Boil until the mixture reaches 130C. Whisk the bicarb. Decant to well-sprayed tray or silicon mat, leave to set.
Whipped white chocolate
240g cream
5ml vanilla
1 Tbs cinnamon powder
60g glucose
450g white chocolate
650g cream
Heat cream, vanilla, glucose until warm enough to melt chocolate. Add heated cream to chocolate, stir until chocolate has melted, allow to cool. Whisk cream until thick, fold cream into chocolate and allow to set for at least 3 hours.
Cutting Your Carpaccio Slices
Beef carpaccio is a very thinly sliced meat soft and delicate. Remove your ribeye from the freezer and unwrap it. Using a gravity slicer or a sharp mandolin slice your meat about 2mm thick. Place your slices on greaseproof paper in a flat deep dish and cover with plastic wrap to avoid it from drying out. Try to avoid overlapping your meat slices as they can stick together and rip apart being so thinly sliced.
Toppings
A variety of toppings work with beef carpaccio, we find that these work the best:
Pinenuts 50g
Radish slices 100g
Crispy capers 50g
fresh parmesan slices 30g
black pepper 10g
Mixed micro herbs 50g
Edible flowers 20g
To prepare the toppings start by thinly slicing your radishes into discs. Using fresh capers deep fry them for 1minute until crispy. Using a peeler gently slice paper-thin slivers of parmesan. In two separate bowls place some black pepper and your pinenuts. In one bowl place your mixed micro herbs and edible flowers Truffle Dressing
A truffle dressing is generally used on beef carpaccio this how to make one. Using fresh truffle paste take one tablespoon of the paste and place into a bowl. Pour 300ml of organic olive oil into the same bowl and whisk together.
Plating the carpaccio
Creating this plate is a process of layering your toppings over your meat. Start by placing your slices of ribeye on the plate usually creating a circular shape depending on the shape of the plate. Gently sprinkle your pine nuts over your ribeye slices. Place your radish slices and capers over your meat. Using a peeler, you can freshly slice or pre-slice your parmesan and place over your meat.
Sprinkle a pinch of pepper over everything and drizzle with your truffle olive oil. Finish the dish by garnishing with mixed micros and edible flowers.
200g sugar
1 tsp ground ginger powder
1 tsp bicarb soda
55g butter
1 egg
2 tbsp golden syrup or honey
240ml warm water Mix dry ingredients. Add batter into dry mixture until crumble form. Mix egg, syrup and warm water. Mix wet and dry until well combined. Bake at 180C for 35- 38 mins.
White wine jelly
200g white wine
50g sugar
6 gelatin leaves
Bloom gelatin leaves in cold water. Boil wine and sugar. Add gelatin leaves to wine until dissolved. Placed in sprayed container set in fridge.
Honeycomb
50ml water
90g glucose
270g sugar
50g honey
15g bicarb
Add everything except bicarb to a large pot. Boil until the mixture reaches 130C. Whisk the bicarb. Decant to well-sprayed tray or silicon mat, leave to set.
Whipped white chocolate
240g cream
5ml vanilla
1 Tbs cinnamon powder
60g glucose
450g white chocolate
650g cream
Heat cream, vanilla, glucose until warm enough to melt chocolate. Add heated cream to chocolate, stir until chocolate has melted, allow to cool. Whisk cream until thick, fold cream into chocolate and allow to set for at least 3 hours.
Beef Carpaccio
Let’s start by preparing your Beef ribeye. Start by portioning your ribeye into 10cm by 10cm blocks. Then rub your ribeye blocks in salt and pepper and coat in olive oil. Gather a variety of mixed herbs sage, rosemary and thyme work best for creating flavour. Roughly rip up your herbs and mix them together, then rub them all over your ribeye blocks. The olive oil will help with coating the herbs to the meat. Take your ribeye and place into a vacpac bag and seal tightly or wrap in plastic wrap as tight as possible, then place wrapped block into the freezer overnight.Cutting Your Carpaccio Slices
Beef carpaccio is a very thinly sliced meat soft and delicate. Remove your ribeye from the freezer and unwrap it. Using a gravity slicer or a sharp mandolin slice your meat about 2mm thick. Place your slices on greaseproof paper in a flat deep dish and cover with plastic wrap to avoid it from drying out. Try to avoid overlapping your meat slices as they can stick together and rip apart being so thinly sliced.
Toppings
A variety of toppings work with beef carpaccio, we find that these work the best:
Pinenuts 50g
Radish slices 100g
Crispy capers 50g
fresh parmesan slices 30g
black pepper 10g
Mixed micro herbs 50g
Edible flowers 20g
To prepare the toppings start by thinly slicing your radishes into discs. Using fresh capers deep fry them for 1minute until crispy. Using a peeler gently slice paper-thin slivers of parmesan. In two separate bowls place some black pepper and your pinenuts. In one bowl place your mixed micro herbs and edible flowers Truffle Dressing
A truffle dressing is generally used on beef carpaccio this how to make one. Using fresh truffle paste take one tablespoon of the paste and place into a bowl. Pour 300ml of organic olive oil into the same bowl and whisk together.
Plating the carpaccio
Creating this plate is a process of layering your toppings over your meat. Start by placing your slices of ribeye on the plate usually creating a circular shape depending on the shape of the plate. Gently sprinkle your pine nuts over your ribeye slices. Place your radish slices and capers over your meat. Using a peeler, you can freshly slice or pre-slice your parmesan and place over your meat.
Sprinkle a pinch of pepper over everything and drizzle with your truffle olive oil. Finish the dish by garnishing with mixed micros and edible flowers.
La Stalla – vegetarian pizza
First you want to start by making your own Napoli sauce to use on the pizza. This also goes very nicely with pasta. Then get busy making your own dough and preparing a delicious mix of toppings to go on top.
Napoli sauce
Serves 4, preparation time 1 hour
Ingredients:
50g basil
4x carrots
2 x red onion
2 x leeks
1 x head of garlic
15 x plum tomato
50g black pepper
50g fine salt
100ml Olive oil
Method:
Start by peeling carrots and cleaning onions, clean garlic into individual cloves and washing all ingredients. Chop the carrots garlic and onions into small pieces slice your leeks up and place all ingredients into a bowl together. Heat the olive oil in a deep-dish pot. Once the oil is hot throw in the onion, garlic and carrot mix and allow to simmer at a medium heat.
