Mange Tout by Bruno Loubet

Author:Bruno Loubet
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ebury Publishing

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I suggest you serve the ribs with roast potatoes and a nice bowl of mixed leaf salad or steamed bok choy.

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If you don’t fancy holding bones and working your teeth on the ribs, use lean pork belly for this recipe. It will cook at a lower temperature (190°C/fan 170°C/Gas 5) for a longer time – at least an hour.

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My eight years in Australia were very interesting. Queensland is a hot place and the outdoor life inevitably influences the food. Sometimes I found myself scratching my head in desperation to find an alternative way to cook a dish. The difficulty was adapting a dish without losing the core idea that made it a ‘classic’.

When I opened my first restaurant in Brisbane, it was called Bruno’s Tables. I decided that everything I served there would be food I loved to eat myself and that I wouldn’t make any concessions towards trends or expectations. My first resolution was not to have steak on the menu. This was quite a brave (or uninformed!) move in a city where the quality of a restaurant is too often judged by the quality of its steak!

The idea for this dish came quite easily. I decided to do a braised beef using the best cut for that: cheeks. But beef braised in red wine, as is classic in French cuisine, was too rich and potentially boring for Brisbanites who were used to exciting Asian food influences. So I decided to use the classic French technique but change the ingredients. I braised the cheeks with sweet Indonesian soy sauce, lemon grass and Kaffir lime leaves that grew in my garden, and local ginger. The usual mashed vegetables gave way to a local mango and herb salad. The dish was an instant hit and has become a classic in its own right. The unusual salad served with the braised meat always seemed to surprise people – even chefs, but when they taste it they are impressed by how well the ingredients work together and how refreshing it is. I served this dish for a dinner celebrating my friend Raymond Blanc’s 60th birthday. For me this dish shows how traditions can be adapted to changes in life.

Serves 6

4 tbsp olive oil

2kg beef cheeks, trimmed

300g carrots, sliced

200g celery, sliced

2 onions, diced

5 garlic cloves, crushed

a 5cm piece of fresh root ginger, sliced

1 star anise

1 lemon grass stalk, crushed

3 tbsp pomegranate molasses

9 tbsp sweet Indonesian soy sauce (Kecap manis)

2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

3 Kaffir lime leaves, bruised

500ml veal or beef stock

3 green cardamom pods, crushed

grated zest of 1 orange, plus 1 long piece of peel

3 tbsp lime juice

toasted sesame seeds, to garnish

Salad

1 mango, peeled and sliced

12 spring onions, finely sliced

½ cucumber, finely sliced

3 tbsp roughly chopped mint

3 tbsp roughly chopped coriander

4 tbsp roughly chopped basil

wedge of lime, to serve

Dressing

4 tbsp sesame oil

1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

1 garlic clove

1 tsp chopped fresh root ginger

1 Kaffir lime leaf, very finely chopped

50ml olive oil

3 tbsp lime juice

1 tsp palm sugar

Preheat the oven to the oven to 220°C/fan 200°C/Gas 7.

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