One of our favorite aspects of Melvin restaurant at Abama is the diversity of techniques, products and flavors produced by our creative chefs.
This week, in honor of the arrival of summer, Diego Dato offers another three-course meal, but this time composed of airy dishes designed to enjoy on your terrace with an ocean breeze. They’re packed full of flavor, but won’t weigh you down. Perfect for the new season’s imminent arrival and our return to Abama’s seaside paradise.
Celery root and endive salad with walnuts
Preparation: 15 minutes
Ingredients for the clarified butter:
120 g of butter without salt
Ingredients for the salad:
350 g of celery root, peeled
A handful of rocket
1 endive
1 Granny Smith apple
Juice of 1 lemon
A handful of walnuts
1 tbsp of blue cheese
1 tbsp of cider vinegar
3 tbsp of olive oil
1 tbsp of parsley
Clarified butter
Salt
Pepper
Method for the clarified butter:
Melt the butter over a very low flame and discard the foam on the surface.
Carefully pour the liquid butter into a bowl, making sure that the lactic sediment, the whey, in the bottom of the pan doesn’t end up in your bowl.
The clarified butter should have a color similar to light olive oil. This butter can be stored in the fridge for several weeks.
Method for the salad:
Mix together the cheese, the vinegar, the parsley, and the olive oil in a bowl until you have a creamy cheese sauce.
Cook the celery root for 30 seconds in boiling water. Take it out of the pot, and rinse and cool it under a stream of cold water. Dice it and sauté the cubes in a pan over a high flame for a few seconds with a bit of clarified butter.
Wash the rocket, the endive, and the green apple, and cut the apple into sticks with the skin still on.
Mix together the vegetables and the walnuts and season with the cheese sauce.
The secret:
It’s not obligatory to sauté the celery root in clarified butter, but if you do, you will notice the difference: it’s much tastier. This type of butter allows you to cook with high heat without burning the food.
Battered hake with oyster mayonnaise
Preparation: 15 minutes
Ingredients for the oyster mayonnaise:
150 g of oysters
18 g of parsley
150 g of olive oil
Lemon juice
Juice from the oysters
Ingredients for the battered hake:
1 hake loin
2 garlic cloves
1 egg, beaten
Salt
Method for the oyster mayonnaise:
Open the oysters, strain the juices into a receptacle, and place the oysters in a bowl. Wash and dry the parsley before adding it to the oysters. Using a hand mixer, blend it together at high speed.
Once the ingredients are well blended, add the olive oil bit by bit to emulsify like mayonnaise. If the consistency is too thick, add a bit of the juice from the oysters.
Season with the lemon juice and store in a cold container.
Method for the battered hake:
Debone the hake and remove the skin. You can also request that they do this in the fish market.
Dip the fish in the egg, then season and fry each side for a minute and a half in plenty of hot oil with garlic. You do not need to flour the loins.
Finish and presentation:
It’s important that the hake is battered only with egg and not flour, as the fish will be much lighter and spongier.
Garnish with the oyster mayonnaise on one side of the plate or serve it in a sauce dish so that each guest can take as much as he or she likes.
The secret:
The intense flavor of oysters gives the mayonnaise a distinctive touch, but if you prefer to spend less, you can also substitute them for another mollusk like cockles, for example.
Chocolate and red berry yogurt
Preparation: 4 hours
Ingredients for the yogurt:
435 g of milk
40 g of sugar
5 g of gelatin (2 sheets), hydrated in cold water
50 g of 66% dark chocolate, diced
Ingredients for the chocolate sauce:
150 g of milk
40 g of acacia honey
120 g of 66% dark chocolate, diced
Mix of red berries and mint leaves for garnish
Method for the yogurt:
Heat the milk with the sugar in a pot. Add the gelatin. Add the chocolate and mix well with a whisk.
Fill small molds up ¾ of the way with the yogurt, then refrigerate for at least 3 or 4 hours.
Method for the chocolate sauce:
Boil the milk and honey in a pot. Pour the heated mixture over the chocolate. Mix well with a whisk.
Finish and Presentation:
Remove the yogurts from the fridge. Pour 2 mm of the chocolate sauce over the surface of each of them.
Place red berries and some mint leaves on top of each.
The secret:
Make sure the chocolate sauce has cooled before pouring it on top of the yogurt so that it doesn’t make the yogurt go soft or melt it.
