Pillow of smoked salmon and Jersey crab
INGREDIENTS
(serves four)
200g cucumber
Salt
10cl white wine vinegar
20g sugar
2tbs dill, chopped
4 x 8-12cm rectangles smoked salmon, hand-sliced
60g picked white crab meat
Salt and pepper
8 chives
20g caviare
Juice of ½ lemon
120ml yogurt and dill sauce (see note)
2 plum tomatoes, peeled and cut into 2cm rounds
Chervil, lamb's lettuce, frisée, red shiso cress to garnish
Note: To make the yogurt and dill sauce, combine equal amounts of yogurt, whipping cream and mayonnaise. Season with chopped dill, lemon, salt and pepper.
METHOD
Peel and deseed cucumber, then thinly slice. Sprinkle liberally with salt until it wilts. Rinse four or five times to remove all traces of salt. Heat the white wine vinegar, add sugar, and dissolve. Leave to cool. Add chopped dill when cold, and then pour on cucumber.
For each portion, put a slice of smoked salmon on to clingfilm. Season the crab meat and form the filling for the pillow. Bring the shorter end of the smoked salmon over the crab meat, then repeat for the other side. Trim the edges with a sharp knife.
Blanch and refresh the two chives and form a cross on top. Put the caviare at the centre of the cross. Put the drained marinated cucumber in the centre of a 75mm cutter. Place the pillow on top.
To garnish, put five teaspoons of yogurt and dill sauce at equal distances apart around the pillow, and on these put five seasoned circles of tomato, topped with chervil. Fill the spaces in between with a leaf of lamb's lettuce, a piece of frisée and some red shiso cress. Dress and serve.