2021’s Founders’ Dinner will be held online this year due to the Coronavirus. To help to capture the spirit of our usual event, St Anne’s Head Chef Ben Gibbons has created a delicious 3 course menu with recipes so that attendees can create their own ‘Formal Dinner’ at home! Please see below for the recipes. If you would like a printable version, a PDF is available here. Don’t miss the wine recommendations from alumna Jancis Robinson, available at the bottom of the page.
If you do have not yet registered to join the Founders’ Dinner online event or if you have any questions please email us at development.events@st-annes.ox.ac.uk
Please share your creations with St Anne’s Kitchen on Instagram @st_annes_kitchen
Starter
Crab, brown shrimp & apple salad with toasted sunflower seed bread.
(For a vegetarian alternative replace the crab and shrimp with cooked beetroot, diced into approx. 0.5cm pieces. To make it vegan replace the crème fraiche with vegan cream cheese)
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Prep time: 10 minutes.
Serves 2 to 3.
100g white crab meat
100g brown shrimp
80g crème fraiche
½ Granny smiths apple
½ zest of 1 lime
1 slice of sunflower seed bread (this will serve 2 people)
Celery leaves (found within the inner stalks of a head of celery)
Mustard cress
Salt & pepper
1. In a bowl combine crab, shrimp, crème fraiche, lime zest, salt & pepper. Mix together and leave refrigerated until ready to serve. (This stage can be done a few hours in advance, even the night before)
2. With a sharp knife, cut slices of apple just under 0.5cm thick.
3. Cut the slices into matchsticks and leave in lemon water to stop discolouration. (This can be prepared a few hours in advance)
4. Toast the sunflower seed bread and cut into 4 pieces, 2 per person.
5. Plate up: Place a healthy spoon of the crab and shrimp mix and top with a few matchsticks of apple, a few shoots of mustard cress and a few of the celery leaves. Serve alongside the toasted sunflower seed bread.
Main Course
Pan seared corn fed chicken, roasted carrots, mushroom orzotto, carrot tops.
(For a vegetarian alternative, replace the parmesan with a vegetarian hard cheese and remove the chicken breast, serving extra orzotto. For a vegan alternative do the same but use a vegan hard cheese)
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Prep & cook time 45 minutes.
Serves 2.
2 corn fed chicken breasts
6 small/medium carrots with tops
350g portabello mushrooms
100g pearl barley
20g dried porcini mushrooms
1 chicken or vegetable stock
2 banana shallots
3 garlic cloves
4 sprigs of thyme
½ tsp fennel seeds
40g parmesan
Salt & pepper
Olive oil for cooking
1. Peel carrots, keeping the tops to one side for later. Place the carrots in 600ml cold water with the stock cube 1 thyme sprig and a pinch of salt. Bring to a simmer until cooked. Do not throw away the liquid once the carrots are cooked, you’ll need in later in the recipe.
2. Trim any excess fat from the chicken breasts then rub with salt, pepper & olive oil.
3. In a hot pan, containing a drizzle of olive oil, seal off the chicken breasts skin side down until they are golden and crisp then flip over and seal from one minute on the reverse.
4. Place the chicken and carrots onto an oven proof tray, drizzle the carrots with olive oil and preheat the oven to 170c.
5. Add the dried porcini mushrooms to the stock that the carrots were cooked in and top up with 300ml hot water. Leave to steep in the hot liquid whilst you prepare the next step then strain through a sieve before use.
6. Wash the pearl barley to remove starch. Dice the shallots into approx. 0.5cm pieces. Slice the garlic as thin as you can. Grate the parmesan. Crush the fennel seeds. Chop the remaining thyme. Chop the mushroom into approx. 1cm pieces.
7. In the same pan you fried the chicken, add the shallots, garlic and fennel seeds. Cook on a medium heat until the shallots have softened, stirring occasionally.
8. Add the chopped mushrooms and turn up the heat. Cook still stirring, until the mushrooms water content has been removed and they begin to brown the bottom of the pan.
9. Add the washed pearl barley and chopped thyme to the mushroom mix and stir through.
10. Pour in all of the porcini mushroom stock and stir through.
11. Now place the chicken and carrots into the oven (20 minutes, the same cooking time as the orzotto)
12. Lower the heat of the orzotto to a gentle simmer, cooking for approx. 20 mins until pearl barley is cooked. Stir occasionally adding a touch of hot water if it appears dry at any point.
13. Once the pearl barley is cooked, add all of the grated parmesan cheese and season to taste with salt and pepper.
14. Remove the chicken and carrots from the oven and set aside for 5 minutes to rest.
15. Pick, wash and dry the carrot tops, choosing only the nicest looking.
16. Plate up: A good serving spoon of orzotto on the plate off centre. Cut your chicken breast in half length ways placing one half alongside the orzotto and the other diagonally on top. Place 3 carrots alongside the chicken and add a few sprigs of carrot tops to garnish.
Dessert
Lemon posset, oat crumble & passion fruit.
(For a vegan alternative posset, replace the cream with pureed silken tofu, gently heat to melt sugar and pour into dishes to set in fridge. For the crumble replace the butter with vegan butter).
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Prep & cook time 20 minutes.
Serves 2 or 3.
Can all be made the day before.
Posset:
300ml double cream
80g caster sugar
2 medium lemons
Crumble topping:
90g cold diced butter
50g plain flour
50g oats
80g demerara sugar
Garnish:
2 passion fruit
1. Preheat the oven to 180c.
2. Mix the demerara sugar, plain flour and oats together in a bowl with a well in the centre. Add the diced cold butter to the centre.
3. Rub the butter and dry mix together with your finger tips, careful not to completely melt the butter with your body heat. Stop when you reach a chunky crumble consistency.
4. Spread the mix across an oven proof tray and place in the preheated oven. After approx. 8 minutes give the mix a stir, breaking it up with a spoon. Cook for approx. another 8 minutes or until you have golden crunchy clusters of crumble. Set aside to cool for later.
5. Add the cream, caster sugar, zest and juice of 2 lemons to a pan. Place on a medium to high heat, stirring occasionally until the mixture reaches boiling. Gently boil for approx. 1 minute before straining into a clean bowl.
6. Whilst hot, pour your strained mix into your chosen dishes or glasses. Leave in the fridge to set overnight or at least 2 hours before serving.
7. Plate up: Spoon some of the cold crumble over one half of the possets. Cut a passion fruit in half and with a teaspoon scoop the insides of the passion fruit over the posset, one passion fruit per posset.
Wine Recommendations
Please see below for wines recommended by St Anne’s alumna and influential wine critic Jancis Robinson. The tasting notes are from JancisRobinson.com
Under £10
White – Any Romanian Feteasca Regala such as the Wine Atlas. Available from Asda for £5.49
Red – M Chapoutier 2019 Côtes du Rhône-Villages. Available from Tesco online for £9
Over £10
Portuguese white – Quinta do Crasto, Crasto Branco 2019 Douro £10.99 Adnams
Viosinho, Rabigato and Gouveio from recently acquired vineyards so high up the Douro valley that they are close to the Spanish border. Vegan.
Spicy and lifted, very much a zesty Douro white with citrus notes. Great verve. Very good value.
Greek red – Thymiopoulos, Jeunes Vines Xinomavro 2019 Naoussa £11.50 The Wine Society.
Harvested from 19 September to 10 October 2019. 12–15 days of maceration, 75% destemmed. Fermented for three months in stainless steel followed by malo. Aged for eight months in concrete and stainless-steel vats. Bottled 3 August 2020.
Pale garnet. Exciting stony-sweet fruit with very refreshing finish and lots of sucky-stony character. Needs food thanks to this but it would be lovely at virtually any temperature. Very good value.
