The Church Green Blog | Aiden Byrne

Please Call Us If You Have an Upcoming Reservation

Due to our hard drive being chewed up we have lost all of our future reservations. So we are going into a full weekend without a diary (blind).

If you are registered to our blog and have a reservation for the future at The Church Green then please call the reservations line to re-confirm your table.

01925 752068

The on-line reservations system is currently down until we get on top of things.

We apologise in advance for any inconvenience this may cause.

Kind regards,

Aiden and Sarah

Serious "Foodie" Pictures

A hardcore foodie (and obviously a keen photographer) Alan Spedding dined with us at both of our restaurants last Friday just gone, doing Hillbark Hotel for Lunch and Dinner here at The Church Green. As I said a serious foodie, oh and I forgot to mention the fact he lives in Cumbria, drove 7 hours for dinner at Heston Blumenthal's 3 star Michelin Fat Duck the night before and then made the journey back up for the day with us. Checkout the slideshow below to see the dishes that he ate at Hillbark (the Church Green ones will follow).

Any particular recipes required just leave your requests in the comments section!

Both sites are now registered with Top Table, so get your self a discount and leave your review by clicking these links.

Our food and wine evening on the 14th September is half full at the moment so about 25 spaces left, our regular diners will benefit from a 20% discount for the night.

Scallops with white chocolate and truffle risotto has been a popular dish since the day it was first created back in 2004 when we were all working back in Danesfield house in Buckinghamshire.

Mr Heston Blumenthal advised me never to take it off the menu as it was a winner, admittedly I have had it on and off over the years.

We re-introduced it at our new venture "Aiden Byrne at Hillbark" and it is going down a storm. The recipe will follow over the next week.

Seared Foie gras  & puy lentil Ragout

I'm afraid Rob that I can't take credit for this dish, this is one of Rogers dishes.

For the Puy Lentils:

• 500gr puy lentils
• 1 Large carrot (peeled and chopped roughly)
• 1 Spanish onion (peeled and chopped roughly)
• 1 cm slice of Alsace bacon (or any pork belly cured and smoked )
• 1 head of garlic cut in half

Method

Caramelise the carrot, onion and bacon (the further you take the caramelization the sweeter), add garlic toward the end. Wrap in a muslin cloth with a bay leaf and a few springs of thyme.

In a large casserole place in the lentils and fill the pan with cold water, bring to boil as fast as possible, strain and put back in the pan adding the vegetables wrapped in muslin (doing this will save you the job to pick them after), cover with water, bring to boil, then simmer until tender, at this stage season salt to taste and leave to cool.

Squeeze the muslin to extract all the goodness and flavour, keep lentils in the stock.

Lentil Ragout (4 portions):

• 200 gr cooked puy lentils
• 100-gr lentil stock
• 30 gr sliced spring onion finely sliced
• 60-gr Alsace (or sweet cured) bacon (fine julienne)
• 15 ml sherry vinegar
• Chopped chives
• Salt and pepper
• 1 tbspoon brown chicken stock

Method

In a very hot wok add olive oil and straight away toss the finely sliced spring onion .for a few second only, till they collapse, keep aside.

In a hot non stick pan add the bacon until they colour and melt the fat, remove extra fat, deglaze the bacon and the pan with the sherry vinegar, add lentils and stocks, cook until most of the stock evaporated and emulsified, add the spring onion and the chives, check seasoning.

Foie Gras:

• 60 gr sliced of Foie gras per person

Season with salt and pepper in a sous-vide bag .5 min @ 55 c then seared and a quick flash in the oven. Or in a pan, seared then in a oven for 4/5 min @at 180 c.

To finish the dish 1 quail egg pan friend per person and a sliced of crispy sour dough bread.

Ed Cross has been in the wine trade for longer than he likes to admit having along the way worked in wine retail, made wine in France, New Zealand & Australia before joining Boutinot Wines (Sommelier Wine Awards Wine Merchant of the Year 2009  & 2010).

Ed will introduce a ‘back to basics’ evening that is intended to be fun, informal and mildly educational covering topics such as how wine is made, how to taste wine like a pro, popular grape varietities and pairing food and wine.

The evening would run something like this...

Fizz on arrival

Ed gives a quick chat on how wine is made & then how to taste like a pro – comparing wine to having a cup of tea (honest)

1^st wine False Bay Sauvignon Blanc is poured and tasted together with Ed

1^st course – Aiden's famous chilled broad bean soup with goats cheese and black olives

2^nd wine Chardonnay is poured and tasted with Ed

2^nd course – Chicken with truffle potatoes 

3^rd wine Emiliana Reserva is poured Pinot Noir &   tasted with Ed

3^rd course – Duck with cherries 

4^th wine Mr Smith Shiraz is poured & tasted with Ed

4^th course – Beef Sirloin and braised shin and red wine shallot

5th Dessert wine Keith Tulloch Botrytis Semillon is poured & tasted with Ed

5th Dessert - White chocolate and yoghurt cannelloni with lemon Madeleine’s and lemon rice

AND Blue cheese both served at the same time to pair with the wine

All of this for only £100.

To reserve your place for this spectacular evening please contact the reservations line.

Week one is over at Aiden Byrne at Hillbark Hotel (our new venture) and i'm really excited and happy with the way things have turned out.

The Church Green is still buzzing, Roger (our new head chef) is doing a fantastic job and has introduced a few of his own dishes which seem to be very popular.

Phillipa Scott who is our new restaurant manageress has also settled in really well, our customers love her and she is perfect for the relaxed atmosphere here at The Church Green.

I'm going to New York in October to launch our A-Symmetry (Spode  crockery) range, I've never been to America before so that will be pretty exciting.

The range will be available in John Lewis in Liverpool in September, so I think i'm pencilled in to do a cookery demo in their kitchens sometime in September.

Made in Great Britain (our first book) will be launched in paper back for £12.50 this month so look out for that on the shelves.

We are also about to start writing another book based on recipes from The Church Green, these recipes will be a lot more approachable than those in the first book.

So there is enough going on to keep myslef out of mischief.

I will post a few recipes over the next few days so keep your eyes peeled.

If anyone wants any recipes in particular, leave your requests in the comments section.

Aiden

We will be opening our new restaurant at Hillbark hotel on the Wirral in the beginning of August.

The restaurant will be called "Aiden Byrne at Hillbark Hotel, we will be open Monday to Friday Lunch and Dinner.

We also have a private dining room which can seat up to 25 people.

Watch this space and learn about the exciting new appointment we have at The Church Green. Please believe me folks, it is in very good hands....

The lovely Mr. Jay Rayner has included us in Observer Food Monthly's top 20 place to eat this summer.

Check out the OFM website.

Chicken breast with lemon, Rosemary and Fig

To serve 4 portions

• 1 large organic, free range chicken

• 1 liter of white chicken stock

• 3 large sprigs of rosemary

• 200 ml of double cream

• 4 lemons zested

• 1 recipe of potato gnocchi (flavored with chopped rosemary)

• 6 black figs

• 1 lemon

• 50 ml of honey

• 100 ml of chicken jus Method

1. Heat the chicken stock in a large casserole pot, place 2 of the 3 sprigs of rosemary and the zest of 1 lemon into the stock, cut the legs and the backbone away from the chicken, season heavily with salt and pepper and plunge into the stock. Turn down the heat and simmer for 10-12 minutes. Take off the heat and leave the chicken to cool down in the stock. Meanwhile make the potato gnocchi:

• 700 grams of Desiree potatoes 
• 2 egg yolks 
• 90 grams of 00 strong flour 
• 10 grams of potato starch (fecule)

2. The potatoes need to be just cooked so take care that they are neither under or over cooked. Remove the flesh from the potatoes with a knife and put through a moulis.

3. Weigh out 400 grams of the potatoes and place this into a bowl, adding the egg yolks, 00 flour and season. Mix well. Divide the mix into four and roll each piece, coating in flour, into a long sausage shape approximately 3-4 mm in diameter. Cut each sausage into 3-4 mm lengths so they are like little barrels. Place onto a tray.

4. Place a pan of water onto simmer, add a little salt and olive oil. When the water is boiling place in the gnocchi and once they float to the top remove them from the pan into iced water to cool.

5. Once they have cooled remove from the iced water and drain. Place onto a tray with a little olive oil to prevent them sticking.

6. Slice each fig into 4 slices, lie on a tray and drizzle over the honey.

7. Remove the chicken from the stock and reduce the stock down by 2/3, add the double cream and reduce by ½ again. Remove the rosemary sprigs and pass through a fine sieve. Place into a jug blender and, whilst still warm, add the lemon zest and blend until smooth. You may need to adjust the seasoning with a touch of salt and sugar. You may find this strange but it will probably taste a little fresher with the juice of ½ lemon added. Set aside and keep warm.

8. Take the chicken breast from the bone. Remove the skin and slice thinly. Lay the slices onto a plate, and place into a steamer to re-heat.

9. Re-heat the chicken jus, flash the slices under the grill for 30 seconds or so and re-heat the gnocchi in the lemon sauce.

10. Arrange all the ingredients liberally onto a plate, spoon the chicken jus over and dress with some buckler sorrel.

This week has been fairly eventful, actually the past few weeks have been with all the planning and preparation for our new venture at Hillbark hotel.

Our new restaurant "Aiden Byrne at Hillbark" will be opening either the last week in July or the first week in August. Details will follow shortly.

Anyway I drove down to Norwich at 4 am on Thursday morning to arrive at 8.30 am to spend the day with my old boss David Adlard, at his cookery school in Norfolk, the man is a living legend.

He held a Michelin star for close to 20 years at his epnoymounus restaurant. Not many chefs can boast about such an achievement these days. David has now sort of semi retired to the country side with his latest venture "Adlards in the country"

I had a fantastic time and really enjoyed spending time with amateur cooks who were all extremely keen to learn the tricks of our trade.

I produced a beautiful chicken dish with figs and lemon gnocchi, my GBM desert and a smoked eel and apple soup. All the recipes to follow, a photograph of the chicken dish and some more news about our new venture.