The ex-Gazelle and El Bulli chef opens his new restaurant this month, focusing on the cuisine of Northern Spain; he whets our appetites with a delicious recipe
ALTA comes to Soho this September: named after the Alta Navarra peninsula, which spans from Donostia to Pamplona, the new restaurant will be taking over the largest site in Kingly Court.
Chef Rob Roy Cameron (formerly of El Bulli, 41 Degrees and Gazelle) will be heading up the kitchen, drawing inspiration from a decade spent living and working in Northern Spain, specifically the Basque region. Open-fire cooking will be central to ALTA, with a menu that incorporates snacks and smaller plates (such as razor clams with white saffron escabeche), a grill section (to include whole seabream, 35-day aged beef sirloin, hen of the woods and more), and desserts (chocolate with olive oil and salt, La Viña cheesecake and St Judes cheese and honey biscuits amongst them). The cocktail list will draw inspiration from Spanish drinks and flavours, taking a culinary approach and incorporating spirits from small-batch British producers, while the wine list will consist of low-intervention European wines from small-scale producers. A continuously changing wall of wines on tap will be on offer as well as wines by the bottle.
The restaurant is due to open its doors this month, but if you can’t wait to sample the Spanish fare, give this recipe from Rob a go. It’s simple, but sensational – a last summer fling.
Ingredients
1kg mussels
For the sauce
50g flat leaf parsley | 100g coriander | 3 red jalapenos | 120g peeled raw garlic |250g raw shallots | 500ml rapeseed oil |8g sherry vinegar |50ml white wine
Method
To prepare the mussels
1. Begin by placing the mussels into a bowl of cold salted water for the purpose of cleaning them. Run the tap into the bowl until the water appears clear.
2. To be sure that the mussels are still alive and safe to eat, make sure that each mussel’s shell is closed or, if open, that it begins to slowly close when tapped. Dispose of any unresponsive, open mussels.
3. Remove the ‘beard’ from each mussel.
4. Keep the cleaned and de-bearded mussels in the fridge until you are ready to cook them.
To prepare the sauce
1. Heat the oil in a wide-based pan to 180°C. Whilst the oil is coming up to temperature, slice the shallots lengthways with an approximately 1cm width.
2. Fry the shallots in the heated oil until they turn a golden colour. Once coloured, remove the shallots from the oil and place on absorbent kitchen roll to absorb the excess oil.
3. Finely chop the garlic and fry in the same oil. Fry until the garlic becomes golden and crispy, then remove from the pan and place on absorbent kitchen paper.
4. Pick the parsley and coriander leaves, and slice the red jalapenos.
5. Using the same oil you fried the shallots and garlic in, fry the parsley and coriander separately in small batches for a short period of time until they become a vibrant green colour. Be sure to not fry the leaves for too long as they will discolour. After frying, remove the herbs from the oil and place onto absorbent kitchen roll to remove any excess oil and allow the leaves to crisp up.
6. In the same heated oil, fry the sliced jalapenos until soft. When they are ready, remove them from the pan and reserve the oil which you fried the ingredients in.
7. In a blender, blitz together the fried herbs and jalapenos with a small amount of reserved oil.
8. Separately, combine the fried garlic and shallots from earlier, and blend together with the remaining oil.
9. Combine both mixtures and mix thoroughly.
10. Stir the sherry vinegar into the mixture to complete the mussel sauce.
Finishing and plating
1. Heat a pan to a high heat and add the white wine and some of the mussel sauce.
2. Once heated, add the mussels to the pan and cover with a lid.
3. Cook the mussels until all of them are open, this will take 3-4 minutes. Discard any mussels that do not open following the cooking process.
4. Dress the mussels in the remainder of the sauce and chopped parsley. Season with lemon juice and serve with toasted slices of sourdough bread.
