Great British Menu ™
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Confit Monkfish
Ayesha preps her monkfish.
Ayesha: “I’m going to be doing a black beurre blanc with arak. Arak is a Middle Eastern spirit. And then I've got monkfish that I'm cooking confit (actually, just in a water bath) with beef dripping that I'm finishing on a charcoal grill. Then I've got a preserved lemon gel, so I'm adding laverbread tuille.”
Spencer Metzger: “Sometimes when you water bath the monk fish, it can go a bit spongy.”
Ayesha: "I just want to add loads of watercress in this dish just to make it really punchy."
Judges talking behind the scenes
“Tell me what you're looking for on the monkfish.”
Spencer Metzger: “It's a really meaty fish, so she's cooking it in that beef fat, which would be great. Nice caramelization on the outside. Unfortunately, sometimes if it goes wrong in the water bath, it could be almost like cottonwood and spongy, which is what we don't want.”
Notes taken during cooking
Ayesha: "This is the watercress velouté. Try a little."
Spencer Metzger, talking to the camera after tasting the watercress velouté
"When it's chilled, I'm sure it'll add a nice creaminess to the dish. She's just got to up the seasoning slightly, make sure it's the right texture, as it could firm up slightly when it's cold."
Ayesha's fish dish will be topped with a laverbread tuille depicting Snowden.
Ayesha: "The first tuille came out perfectly and then the second one ... I've lost the rim a little bit."
Spencer Metzger: "Cook it at 140 degrees (Celsius) until it's just set. And then you peel it out, it's soft. And then you bang it back in the oven at like 170 and crisp it up."
Ayesha: "Thank you, chef. I'll give it a shot."
Plating
It's the moment of truth for Ayesha's tuilles.
Ayesha: "Are you crispy enough? The fan was on high, so they've blown. That's all that beautiful work down the drain. They've all come apart in that high fan."
She starts plating her cucumbers. Preserved lemon gel and garnish ready for her barbecue-finished monkfish.
She still needs to resuce the tuiles.
Spencer Metzger: "That fish will go cold quite quickly."
Now, with the beurre blanc decanted, the dish is complete.
Spencer Metzger: "So firstly, the cooking of the monkfish?"
Ayesha: "I'm happy with the cook of it, but I think it could have stayed on the grill a bit longer."
Peers, talking behind the scenes
"Cooking on the fish?"
"It's okay. I'm not getting any barbecue flavor. I. It's not coming through at all for me."
"I thought it was cooked nicely, though."
"Just a shame that it didn't have that kind of sear."
Back in the Judging Room
Spencer Metzger: "And then let's talk about the beurre blanc. Is that the consistency, the flavor that you were going for?"
Ayesha: "Yeah, that's the flavor I wanted. I think it highlights the arak. I think you get that aniseed through it without it being too alcoholic."
Peers, talking behind the scenes
"What about your sauce? How's your sauce?"
"I really like the sauce. I kind of liked how it turned everything black."
Back in the Judging Room
Spencer Metzger: "So the tuille - obviously the top bit came off. But you're still happy with the story that it tells?"
Ayesha: "I really am. I think it shows the mountain range beautifully. Thank you for the tip, by the way."
Peers, talking behind the scenes
"Was there a flavor to the tuille?"
"Not really."
"It's laverbread."
"I didn't pick that up at all, to be honest."
Back in the Judging Room
Spencer Metzger: "So if you had to score this dish, what would you give it?"
Ayesha: "Probably a six, because I'm annoyed at myself for the lack of preserved lemon gel. I could have added more to that and I think maybe less sauce.
Final Judging
Spencer Metzger:"Ayesha, for your dish,. I thought the story was really well told. Your confit monkfish texturally wasn't right. It was a little bit like cotton wool where you'd water bathed it, and it didn't take on any of that smokiness from the barbecue. The beurre blanc, I loved it when I tasted it here. The reduction in the kitchen, however, in the final dish, I felt like the texture was different. Your dish promised so much. It didn't quite deliver today."
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