Salted and Hung - 11th Jul 2018
“Charcuterie,
the art of electrocuting sharks,” quipped my husband, Colin, as I entertained
thoughts of electrocuting him for such a bad joke. Since Salted and Hung does its own curing, we had to give it a go when we
were there last Saturday for dinner. On the charcuterie platter that evening
was coppa, chocolate and chilli salami, bresaola, pig head terrine, and duck
rillette, served with crackers and thick pickled cucumbers. The duck rillette
had a good layer of lard and a fried shallot fragrance that is a mystery where
and how it came about. The terrine had accompanying pickled cauliflower and
onion with curry that complements with the terrine very well. Accompanying all
these was their home-made crackers that were thin, crisp and had cumin and
other spices. Those crackers definitely did the charcuterie justice!
Charcuterie platter
Next we had
the grilled US scallops served with celeriac puree. One serving comes with 2
scallops that were well grilled. Both had an appropriate layer of char that
speaks of skill behind the grill. Colin loved it even though he doesn’t fancy seafood.
On looking back, he concludes that the scallops were the best thing on the
table that night.
Grilled U.S scallop
Colin then
had the pork chops while I had the skirt steak. The pork chops is on the ala
carte menu while the skirt steak is on the specials. The chops came covered in
thin beetroot slices served with raisin puree, and hazelnuts. These pork chops
have a generous ratio of fats and are therefore juicy and tasty. It would be
have better though if the chops were grilled to higher level of doneness to
render the fats better for they tasted a bit waxy.
Pork chop
My skirt
steak was more exciting. It had a great complexity of flavours on the char (though
tough) that I enquired on the seasonings used. The answer? “Just salt and
pepper”. It is amazing as we get very clean flavours when we grill steaks with
salt and pepper. This one had short bursts of different flavours that complements
one another. And so the wait staff went on to talk about the Josper grill that
the restaurant uses. Because all the different grilled foods go on the same
grill, they each leave behind some flavours that are eventually picked up by
the next item. What makes Josper different, among other factors, is that it is
an oven and grill combined into one. Works 100%
by charcoal and is a closed system, it delivers that “magic” in foods
cooked on it. And so I discussed with Colin how is it that we do not get such
flavours from his Weber grill that also uses 100% charcoal and comes with a lid
(also closed system right?) We have on several occasions used it to grill pork
belly, chicken leg, etc and it doesn’t deliver such results.
Skirt steak
Did you
know that salads could be fried and served with bacon*? That was the brussels
sprouts salad we had that evening. * Guanciale actually.
Brussels sprout salad with Guanciale
For old
times’ sake, Colin urged me to take the home-made timtams with rich, delicious chocolate
ice-cream for dessert while he had the Smoked Maple. We have an ice-cream maker
at home and I have made for the family, on several occasions, chocolate
ice-cream using different recipes but same ingredients. The key to rich
ice-cream is just real ingredients! In fact, doesn’t this apply to any other
foods? If you like your whiskey extra smokey, try the Smoked Maple.
Chocolate ice-cream and smoked maple
~Ariella Lee
Marketing Executive
