NAVARRA GOURMET

Vegetables and smoked food

Fernando Pérez Arellano “Zaranda”, in Madrid

“A great deal of artistic feeling is required in the smoking technique”

Fernando Pérez Arellano, from the Zaranda restaurant in Madrid, centred his paper, entitled "Vegetables and smoked food", on smoking techniques. He demonstrated the elaborate techniques used at his restaurant through three recipes: "Parmantier of smoked salmon roe with horseradish cappuccino", "Borscht of smoked sturgeon" and "Panache of green and white asparagus on smoked eel Royale".

For the first dish, the chef emphasised the importance of achieving a potato mousseline from a purée which is constantly refined until a very light texture is obtained. The roe is smoked using beech sawdust, giving it a characteristic aroma.

In the second recipe, the chef double smoked the sturgeon which had been pre-cured for ten days, and finally added some poached quail's eggs, scallops and vegetables to garnish. "A great deal of artistic feeling is required in the smoking technique, with regard to how much smoke is formed", the chef indicated whilst he explained his Panache of asparagus on smoked eel Royale.

Fernando Pérez Arellano did not forget another technique, the wood roasting one, which he used to create a mimosa salad with capon and artichokes.

« Return to the programme for the 18th