I think that Sardines are very under-rated and personally would rather tuck into some simple grilled Sardines than Lobster any day of the week.

The Tomato Sauce we use for this receipe is great, simple to make and very versatile. It works well with oily Fish & also with Pork. We have just started using Buckland Tomatoes, grown just down the road from the Restaurant, and you can buy them at the Broadway Deli next door.

Serves 4 (as a starter)

Ingredients

2 x Sardines per person (ask your fishmonger to scale and gut them for you)

For the sauce…..

1kg x tomatoes

3 x shallots

1 x stick celery

6 x cloves garlic

1 tsp chilli flakes

1 x tbsp fennel seeds

Good dash of olive oil

Method

Criss cross the tomatoes, then squeeze out the excess juice & seeds. Place the Tomatoes into a roasting tray. Season with Salt, Pepper, Sugar & Olive Oil. Roast in the oven at 180˚C for approx 20 minutes.

Finely dice the Shallots & Celery, slice the Garlic. Place in a pan with the Olive Oil, Chilli Flakes & Fennel Seeds. Cook gently with no colour for approx 15 minutes, then add the Roasted Tomatoes. Bring to the boil and season……..

Simply grill the Sardines with Rock Salt & Olive Oil, a couple of minutes each side.

…..it’s that simple

Slowly sweat the onion, celery & leek in a pan with the butter until they are soft with no colour.

Add the potatoes, water, cream & milk, bring to the boil and simmer until the potatoes are cooked.

Blanch the kale in rapidly boiling salted water for 2 minutes.

Strain and add to the soup base.

Blend until smooth, season to taste.

This is a wonderfully light cheesecake, great this time of year after all the excess of the Christmas and heavy desserts. When whisking the creams be careful not to over whip, as this will cause your cheesecake to become grainy and heavy.
At the restaurant we will be serving the cheesecake with a little simply roasted Force Rhubarb which will be in season at the later end of January through February.

The Force Rhubarb, which technically is a vegetable, works very well with the cheesecake as it has a high amount of acidity. This acidity helps to balance the fat within the cheesecake.
Cut the washed rhubarb into one inch batons, lay on a tray, sprinkle lightly with sugar and roast for approx. 6mins at 175°C. Serve the rhubarb warm.

Weigh the cream cheese into a large mixing bowl with the seeds of the vanilla pod then add sieved icing sugar and mix until smooth.
To this you then need to add the mascarpone, lemon juice & the crème fraîche, whisk until stiff
Place into moulds and set in the fridge for a minimum of two hours

Crumble the oats cakes into a mixing bowl to this add the soften butter and mix
Warm the golden syrup and add this to the mix with the juice of the lemon mix this until all the golden syrup is worked in
Place this into the bottom of the moulds about 1cm think and set in fridge for 1 hour.