Smoked goat's cheese ice cream, merlot poached pear, pickled onion & candied walnut
A dish from chef Jake McMahon of Dromoland Castle, Co Clare, built around a whole smoked log of St Tola. Jake very kindly shared the recipe and photographs with us, and we are delighted to pass it on.
This is a restaurant recipe, written the way Jake makes it in the kitchen at Dromoland. Home cooks can scale the quantities down, use a lidded roasting tin and a wire rack in place of the gastro trays, and a jar in place of the vac-pac bag for the pickled shallots.
Ingredients
Smoked goat's cheese ice cream
- 1kg St Tola goat's cheese log
- Hickory smoking chips
- 350ml cream, whipped
- 10ml pouring cream, to loosen if needed
- Salt and cracked black pepper
Merlot poached pear
- Pears, halved
- 250ml ruby port
- 250ml Merlot
- 150g demerara sugar
- 1 cinnamon stick
Candied walnuts
- 500g walnuts
- 500g sugar
- 500g water
Pickled onion
- Shallots, peeled
- 400g water
- 400g white wine vinegar
- 80g sugar
- 20g sea salt
- 4g black peppercorns
- 4g coriander seeds
To garnish
- Micro purple basil
- Borage flowers
- Parsley oil
Method
Smoking the cheese. Set up a smoking bain-marie: a deep gastro tray for the chips, a perforated steamer tray above it, and a shallow gastro tray as a lid. Put the hickory chips in the deep tray and light them with a blowtorch. Once fully burnt, cover with tin foil to let the harshness of the chips burn away.
When the chips are ready, open out the St Tola log on its paper and place it on the steamer tray. Cover with the shallow tray and leave to infuse for 20 to 30 minutes, depending on how smoky you want it, turning every 5 minutes so a crust does not form.
The ice cream. Lightly season the whipped cream with salt and cracked pepper. Break the smoked cheese down to a smooth paste, loosening with the 10ml of pouring cream if needed. Slowly fold the cheese into the whipped cream to form a mousse-like texture, then set in the freezer until it has the feel of ice cream.
Poached pear. Halve the pears and take out the seeds with a melon baller. This leaves a hollow for the ice cream to sit in. Put the port, Merlot, demerara sugar and cinnamon stick in a pot and bring to the boil. Place the pears face down in the liquor and cook slowly until the liquid has evaporated. Chill straight away to stop the cooking. You want the pear to still have a bite.
Candied walnuts. Heat the sugar and water to dissolve, then add the walnuts over a medium heat. After 5 to 10 minutes the liquid will turn brown. Drain in a sieve and spread on a parchment-lined tray. Deep-fry the walnuts at 180°C until golden brown, then drain on parchment to cool.
Pickled onion. Slice the shallots into even rings and drop them into iced water so they separate easily, then dry on a tray. Bring the water, vinegar, sugar, salt, peppercorns and coriander seeds to the boil and chill. Put the shallot rings in a vac-pac bag with enough pickling liquid to cover, and seal well so the shallots turn translucent.
To serve. Sit a scoop of the smoked goat's cheese ice cream in the hollow of the pear, on a bed of candied walnuts. Finish with the pickled shallot rings, micro purple basil, borage flowers and a drizzle of parsley oil.
Recipe and photographs by Jake McMahon, Dromoland Castle, Newmarket-on-Fergus, Co Clare. Reproduced with thanks.