It would be fair to say that I enjoy a good cocktail and, of course, I love food – so I jumped at the chance to create some racione-style dishes to pair with the exciting cocktails created by Peter Lowry and Laura Walker of Wellington’s Forresters Lane. I have only been to Spain once, about a million years ago at the tender age of 17, so these dishes are my interpretation of some classic flavours. Go ahead, round up a few mates, break out the cocktails and raise a glass to the start of spring.
CHEF RECIPES
Preparation: Confit Duck 15 min, Spring Onions 10 mins, Chicken Jus 10 mins, Baby beet & bacon salad 20 mins
Serves: 4
Cook: Confit Duck 3 hours, Spring Onions 15 mins, Chicken Jus 11 hours, Baby beet & bacon salad 10 mins
EMMA GALLOWAY
FIONA SMITH
SARAH TUCK
WILL BOWMAN
GINNY GRANT
OTHER
A Rosy Glow
Nothing Signal Spring more than the bright pink stalks of rhubarb. For me it wasn’t love at first sight, though; as a kid I didn’t like the boiled- to-death way my mum prepared those stalks from the garden that were more green than pink. It wasn’t until much later in life that I came to love rhubarb.
Prime Time
As soon as I started to think about spring salads the ideas were flowing, mostly fed by my attraction to varied textures and strong flavours. I was pretty pleased with my ideas, then a couple of days later I revisited them and thought, “Actually, are these technically ‘salads’?”