Chilled Spring Pea Soup with Minted Yoghurt, Pea Mousse, Pickled Cherries, Tea Smoked Duck Breast, finished with Black Olive Oil

I was recently treated to a fabulous lunch at Donovan’s in St. Kilda. Gail was kind enough to ask chef’s Adam Draper and Emma D’Alessandro to share this fabulous recipe.

Now be warned… this recipe is slightly on the complicated side, but so insanely worth the effort, and it adds a little drama to the dining experience as it all comes together in front of the diner.

This is a spectacular summer soup… if you feel it is a bit challenging to attempt yourself, then get yourself down to Donovan’s pronto, and experience it as it is nothing short of sublime…

Makes 8 Serves

Pre-preparation…

Pickled Cherries

Ingredients:

200g of fresh cherries

300g sugar

300ml white wine

10 black peppercorns

1 torn bay leaf

½ cinnamon stick

Place everything but the cherries in a pot and bring to the boil.

Let cool for 10 minutes, place cherries in a jar and pour over the cherries and seal.

Leave for 2 weeks before eating.

Minted Yoghurt

Ingredients:

500g of organic plain yoghurt

2 tbs of picked fresh mint finely chiffonnade

Pinch Salt

Method:

Line a fine sieve with a chux and place yoghurt in the chux and put in fridge for 24 hours to drain.

Then place strained yoghurt into a bowl, add the mint and salt to taste.

Place in a piping bag.

And then…

Black Olive Oil

Ingredients:

250g black olives

200ml good extra virgin olive oil

Method:

Place olives in a dehydrator at 60°C for 8 hours. Once they are firm, place in a vita prep and blend to a powder, then add olive oil and blend to a puree. Pour through a fine sieve and refrigerate.

Soup

Ingredients:

100ml olive oil

5 shallots, finely brunoise

3 cloves garlic (roasted and mushed up)

1 tbs of fresh oregano

1.3 kg frozen peas

900ml cream

1200ml vegetable stock

500g fresh spinach

10 leaves of fresh mint

Method:

Heat oil and sauté shallots until soft, but no colour, add garlic and marjoram.

Add cream and vegetable stock and bring to the boil, now add to the peas and boil for 7 minutes. Add a little salt and pepper.

Add spinach and mint and take off heat.

Set up the vita prep and a gastronome tray full of ice and another tray on top to chill the soup down immediately after blitzed.

Strain it through the fine sieve into a bowl and place in your freezer, whisking every 3-4 minutes to cool down further.

When cold, it is ready to serve.

Pea Mousse

Ingredients:

220g of frozen peas

100g of cream (whisked to a soft peak)

Method:

Planch the peas in a pot of slated water for 5 minutes, then strain but keep 100ml of the pea water.

Place the peas and the 100ml of hot water in a vita prep and blitz until smooth.

Pass the pea puree through a fine sieve into a bowl that is sitting in another bowl over ice (it is important to cool quickly so that the peas do not lose their colour).

When cold, fold through the whipped cream, check seasoning and place in a piping bag.

Tea Smoked Duck Breast

This recipe is for 2 duck breasts. Trimmed and the skin lightly scoured.

Ingredients:

Smoking Flavours:

¼ cup jasmine rice

¼ cup black tea leaves

½ cup brown sugar

rind of 1 lemon

rind of 1 orange

2 star anise, ground

Method:

Line a fry pan with aluminium foil, mix all of the smoking ingredients together in a bowl and pour over the foil.

Place the duck breast, skin side up, on a wire rack and place over the mix.

Cover and cook on a medium heat until smoke appears, turn down to low heat and cook for 8 minutes – do not open as you will lose the smoke and the flavour.

When done, transfer the breasts to a hot fry pan and cook skin side down for 2 minutes to crispen the skin and to render a little fat – it should still be pink.

Let cool completely in the fridge and thinly slice to serve.

To Serve:

In 8 soup bowls, pipe 4 little mounds of pea puree and 4 of the minted yoghurt randomly in the bowl.

Scatter 6 slices of finely sliced duck breast.

Tear 16 cherries off their stones, tear them in half and again, scatter them in the bowls.

Finely slice 2 radishes into 16 slices and scatter them into bowls.

Add a few micro herbs such as basil and coriander (edible flower petals if you have some).

For the pea soup, place into a jug big enough to fit 8 portions – about 1600ml – and blitz with a stick wiz for 30 seconds to slightly foam and pour this into the bowls at the dining table.

Finish with a teaspoon of black olive oil drizzled on top.