Owen Hazel, owner of Jannettas Gelateria and Cafe in St Andrews, and one of the judges for the Menu Food and Drink Awards 2020, talks rhubarb with Caroline Lindsay
Q Desert island food?
A That would be my wife Nicola’s homemade Italian meatballs followed by fresh raspberries and Jannettas freshly made vanilla ice cream
Q Favourite TV chef?
A Tom Kitchin. I love what he is doing to raise the profile of food from and being cooked in Scotland. I also enjoy visiting his restaurant in Leith from time to time. A real treat on a day off!
Q Favourite cook book?
A Yotam Ottolenghi’s Simple. It’s full of fresh, easy to make recipes and delicious. He shows you how you can do a lot with little.
Q Favourite ingredient?
A At this time of year it has to be our locally grown heritage rhubarb from Pittormie fruit farm. It’s a joy to work with. The colour, unlike most rhubarb when cooked is sublime and the flavour outstanding. It’s perfect to be used in ice cream and semifreddo. I know I’m lucky to get my hands on it as Jackie, owner of Pittormie, considers it a precious commodity.
Q Most hated ingredient?
A Strong blue cheese – I’ve had a lifelong dislike of it.
Q Perfect dinner guest?
A Billy Bremner, he was my childhood idol. I loved his style of football – a small man that was a colossus on the pitch. I’d love the opportunity to chat with him about football.
Q Favourite kitchen gadget?
A Very simply – a microplane lemon zester. It’s easy to use, easy to store and very efficient at what it does. Every kitchen should have one. It always reminds me of Italy and the lemons that grow outside our door there.
Q Favourite music to cook to?
A Deacon Blue takes me right back to my youth when I was in London working. Whenever I heard Deacon Blue play it always reminded me of home.
Q Perfect menu?
A Smoked salmon starter with pickled gherkins and dill, ribeye steak served with a simple leafy salad and chunky chips and finished with lemoncello panna cotta and macerated berries.
Q Favourite country for food?
A That’s very easy, Italy for the freshness of ingredients and variety, on our doorstep.
Q Favourite chef, alive or dead?
A Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles. I loved his food and although I never met him in person I loved listening to him being interviewed. He was always so humble and yet achieved an incredible amount in his life. It’s so sad he’s no longer with us.
Q Favourite culinary season?
A Summer thanks to the region we live in and the huge variety of soft fruit and berries available to us. You can’t beat it.
Q Salt or pepper?
A Both because they enhance flavours in different ways for instance our strawberry and black pepper sorbet or salted caramel and salted chocolate ice creams.
Q Favourite herb?
A Rosemary can lift a simple dish and also conjures up memories of being in Italy.
Q Favourite spice?
A Cardamom. It’s so flexible, you can use it in curry and yet it works equally well with ice cream.
Q Favourite way to cook the humble potato?
A Parboiled then fried off with roasted peppers, onions and fresh basil.
Q Favourite go-to recipe if you’re in a hurry?
A Chicken mayo with chopped peaches served on lightly toasted bread. This brings back fond memories of my time spent working in Lucerne, Switzerland.
Q Favourite health food?
A Figs picked fresh from our tree in Italy.
Q Ideal picnic dish?
A A simple fresh leafy salad, always perfect on a summer’s day.
Q Ideal BBQ food?
A A homemade burger – you can’t beat it!
Q Are you critical of the food when you’re dining out?
A We don’t generally dine out often so when we do we tend always to choose venues that are incredible and never have to be critical.
Q Do you tip in restaurants?
A Yes always.
Q Top tip for failsafe cooking?
A Take your time and keep tasting.
Q Worst cooking sin in your opinion?
A Not using fresh ingredients.
Rhubarb semifreddo topped with Italian meringue & rhubarb shortbread
Ingredients
Serves
For the rhubarb semifreddo: 3 medium fresh eggs
2 medium fresh egg yolks
470g caster sugar
500ml double cream
1kg fresh rhubarb
For the meringue: 180g caster sugar
15g glucose
3 medium egg whites
40ml water
For the meringue: 180g caster sugar
15g glucose
3 medium egg whites
40ml water
For the rhubarb shortbread: 30g freeze dried rhubarb (I used HoneyBerry)
225g plain flour
100g semolina or rice flour
225g unsalted butter
100g caster sugar
Directions
For the rhubarb semifreddo: Gently heat on the lowest temperature 1kg rhubarb, we chose to use heritage rhubarb from Pittormie fruit farm as this keeps its vibrant pink colour during the cooking process, with 250g sugar. Keep stirring and don’t leave or it will burn.
Once the rhubarb has softened and cooked set it aside to cool.
Add 3 eggs, 2 egg yolks and 220g caster sugar to a metal bowl and whisk over a pot of gently simmering water until the eggs form soft peaks and temperature reaches 70C.
Once at temperature, set aside until it has cooled to room temperature.
In a separate bowl place 500ml of double cream and whisk until forms soft peaks.
Gradually add the egg mix and fold into the whipped cream with a spatula.
Now your rhubarb should have cooled and needs to be placed in a food processor and blitzed until a puree.
Now add the rhubarb into the egg and cream mixture, gently folding.
Add mixture to your dessert serving glasses (you can also choose to use a terrine dish and serve this dessert but I prefer to use individual coupes.
Place in the freezer and allow to set, approximately 1 hour.
Once set remove from the freezer and decorate with the Italian meringue. You can then place back in the freezer or serve alongside the rhubarb shortbread.
Remove 5 minutes before serving to allow the semifreddo to soften slightly.
For the meringue: Pour the water into a pan, add the sugar and glucose and heat slowly until mixture begins to gently boil and mixture reaches 121°C. Keep an eye on the mixture but don’t stir.
When mixture reaches 110°C begin beating the egg whites using your food mixer on a medium speed until it forms soft peaks.
Once the sugar has reached its optimum temperature of 121C increase the whisk speed of egg whites to the highest speed and slowly begin drizzling the hot sugar syrup until it reaches a desired stiffness and glossy.
Place in a piping bag and decorate.
For the rhubarb shortbread: Preheat the oven to 160C.
Mix together flour, semolina (or use rice flour if you don’t have semolina) and freeze dried rhubarb.
Add the butter and sugar and, much like when you are making pastry, use your fingertips and bring the mixture together to create a dough.
Then roll out between two sheets of grease proof paper until approximately 5mm thick then use a cutter to cut out your biscuits. I chose to use a small round cutter allowing me to give everyone 3 biscuits each but you can also do larger individual biscuits or indeed make fingers.
Bake in the oven until just going golden. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with caster sugar. Remove gently and place on a cooking rack.
