Our clever chef is at it again: this week we bring you another delectable three-course meal from Melvin’s Diego Dato. This Martín Berasategui collaborator knows a thing or two about creating hearty meals that are as surprising as they are balanced.
We encourage you to try them out on the hungry family members joining you at the table, and it’ll be our little secret where they came from!
Creamy mushroom soup with tomato toast
Preparation: 30 minutes
Ingredients for the soup:
750 g of sliced mushrooms
150 g of diced spring onion
150 g of butter, cubed
3 cloves of garlic, diced
150 g of fresh cream
2 liters of beef stock
50 g of virgin olive oil
Diced chives
Salt
Ingredients for the bread:
Toasted slices of bread
1 clove of garlic
Half a ripe tomato
Extra virgin olive oil
Method:
Sauté the garlic and spring onion in olive oil for 5 minutes without letting them brown.
Add the mushrooms, season, and leave them to stew over a medium flame for 10 minutes. Add the beef stock and leave on the stove another 10 minutes, raising the temperature of the flame a bit.
Add the cream and cubes of butter, then use a hand blender on high to purée. Salt again to taste. If you like, you can pass the soup through a fine sieve.
Finish and presentation:
Serve in individual bowls and scatter some chives across the top. Serve with tomato bread.
To prepare the tomato bread, first toast the slices of bread so they are crispy outside and tender inside. Rub half a clove of garlic over the surface, then half a tomato, so that the juices cover the whole surface. Drizzle a bit of olive oil on top. If you like, you can accompany the bread with freshly shaved slices of Iberian ham.
The secret:
It’s important to blanche the spring onion at the beginning without browning them, so as to avoid transferring undesirable flavors to the soup.
Breaded chicken with Idiazabal and hazelnuts
Preparation: 15 minutes
Ingredients for the chicken:
4 chicken breasts
2 eggs
200 g of flour
100 g of bread crumbs
100 g of ground hazelnuts
100 g of grated Idiazabal cheese
100 g of olive oil
Salt and pepper
Ingredients for the salad:
Endives
Anchovies in oil
Blue cheese
Olive oil
Cider vinegar
Spinach leaves
Method:
Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and keep only the yolks. Add two tablespoons of water and a bit of oil to the yolks and mix well.
In another bowl, combine the bread crumbs, the ground hazelnut, and the grated Idiazabal, and place the flour in a third bowl.
Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Place the bowls in a line and dip each chicken breast first in the flour, then in the egg yolk mixture, and finally in the bread crumb mixture, making sure that each is well coated.
Finish and presentation:
Put a bit of oil in a non-stick pan. Let it heat up on a low flame, and when the oil is hot, place the chicken breasts in the pan. Brown them gently for 4 minutes on each side.
Serve with endives with a blue cheese sauce and anchovies, as well as some sautéed spinach leaves.
The secret:
You can substitute the Idiazabal for whatever other cheese you prefer, but it should preferably by cured and with a strong flavor so that its essence is evident in the batter.
Red berry infusion with Mascarpone cream
Preparation: 2 hours + 12 hours to strain the infusion
Ingredients for the red berry infusion:
2 kg of ripe strawberries
500 g of ripe blackberries
500 g of ripe raspberries
250 g of sugar
Ingredients for the Mascarpone cream:
100 g of Mascarpone cheese
100 g of liquid cream
¼ of a vanilla bean
10 g of sugar
Mint leaf for garnish
Method for the red berry infusion:
Mix all the ingredients for the infusion together in a bowl, cover well with a kitchen towel, and cook with a bain-marie or double boiler for 1.5 hours over a very low flame.
Place a kitchen towel inside a colander, place the fruit inside, and let the juices drain into a receptacle for 12 hours in the refrigerator. The result should be a clean, translucent red berry juice that will be the base of our dessert.
Save a few good-looking berries to decorate the desserts once they are prepared.
Method for the Mascarpone cream:
Scrape out the vanilla bean seeds and whip them with the sugar and the cream until the mixture has the texture of whipped cream.
Mash the Mascarpone in a bowl and add the whipped cream. Mix well, and place in the refrigerator for a couple of hours to give it a stiffer consistency.
Finish and Presentation:
Pour the infusion into a crystal goblet or a soup plate and top with a ball of the Mascarpone cream. Garnish with the mint and some whole berries.
The secret:
It’s best to make plenty of the red berry infusion. The extra can be used in many recipes like ice cream, cakes, and fried bread, or in cocktails.
