Summer may be around the corner but we’re not there yet and it still feels right for our vegetarian main course to be indulgent and rich rather than light. We make a raviolo filled with smooth baby lou potatoes and a raw egg yolk, blanch it and serve on spinach with a veloute of little white onions, cream and white wine. Finished with maitake mushrooms, confit jammy onions, black pepper and freshly grated Parmesan.
Ah, lobster season. The arrival of UK Native lobsters at their peak will always mean a great deal to us. Three years ago, as we attempted to get the finishing touches to the restaurant done and buried our heads in tomes of French gastronomie for our opening menu, it was our ‘Lobster vol-au-vent’ which caught the imagination most and flew off the pass in the first few days of soft opening.
There may be more news on its return to come shortly but for now consider this delicate fish dish a gentle entry into lobster-celebration season.
John Dory is fried with butter and hard herbs and served with a sauce of fish stock, butter, cream and verjus. To this rich and creamy dish, pieces of lobster glazed with a gastrique of shellfish bisque and sherry vinegar offer a sweet and tangy counter. Finished with piatonne beans and sweet semi-dehydrated datterini tomatoes.
“Octopus broth with flavours of Provence” forms the base of this main course - a rich fish stock imbued with saffron, tomato, coriander seed, basil and tarragon. A generous tranche of monkfish is roasted in brown butter and served with baby lou potatoes, braised octopus and squid vinaigrette, harissa rouille and wild garlic.
The sunshine may have been and gone but everything else less Summer-y that you see in this summary of life here at 64 is still very much all present and correct. From our wonderful front and back of house teams to new dishes and old favourites on the menu. Highlights from the pass include ‘Rabbit vol-au-vent à la moutarde’, ‘Duck à l’órange, prune & chicory’ being given its liver parfait macaron finishing touch, a new dish of John Dory and glazed lobster, the perfect spring galette and a couple of regen bistrot classics - a tarte au citron coupe and trout amandine.
Head Chef Charley talks you through this month’s Early Evening menu - 3 perfectly-matched courses from our a la carte menu for £49 (for reservations 5.30pm to 6pm).
First course - Lamb cailette & St George mushrooms
Main course - Monkfish, squid & octopus provençal
Dessert - Mousse au chocolat, Grand Marnier crème anglaise
The arrival of springtime in France would signal the beginnings of the river trout season and thus the arrival of ‘Trout Amandine’ on many an ambitious bistro menu. Denounced by Elizabeth David (“it is not cooking it is packaging”) this kitsch-y dish was considered too pretty and lacking in substance but we would politely disagree with La David and the purists on this one.
Lightly grilled Chalk Stream trout is topped with almonds toasted in brown butter and served with two sauces (one of almonds and sherry vinegar, another of sorrel, anchovy, pickled onion and mustard) and a garnish of peeled green grapes and soft herbs.
Egg yolk ravioli, champignons sauvages & white onion velouté
A painstaking, enjoyable and (we hope) rewarding dish from start to finish explained from beginning to end by our wonderful colleague Inayya.
Smoked haddock, gnocchi & sauce mouclade
Our new first course from Head Chef Charley. “Think Fish pie meets the South of France” she says and who are we to say no?
Provencal-y potato and parmesan gnocchi and dehydrated datterini tomatoes fuse delightfully with a couple of elements or more Northern/Western French cookery - chunky fillets of smoked haddock and a sauce mouclade, made famous near La Rochelle as a mussel-infused first veloute. Perfect with a glass of white burgundy (we would say that wouldn’t we?) from @chateauphilippelehardi .
Lamb caillette & morels is the latest effort from the kitchen to add to our list of first courses. And what a lot of effort it is…A farce of lamb mince, pork lardo, garlic, rosemary, chicken liver, maitake mushrooms and white onion cooked in duck fat is made and wrapped in pork fat with a disc of hispi cabbage on top. To garnish, lamb sauce made from Madeira and white wine, a mushroom puree and morels cooked in chicken stock.
We enjoy reimagining the glistening treats of the patisserie shop window to live inside the confines of our ice cream coupes. Here’s our latest effort - ‘Coupe glacée, tarte au citron’.
A lemon cheesecake ice cream mixed with lemon curd, grated frozen sable biscuit as an upside-down tart ‘base’ and to finish vanilla chantilly and lemon zest.
Cȏte de porc, boudin noir & turnips may sound like solid bistrot fayre but as the picture suggests this is a main course of some complexity. A cuboid of homemade boudin noir (slow-cooked pork jowl, oats and rice, glazed in pork jus of balsamic, honey, red wine and star anise) sits next to two condiments (pickled walnut and damson), spinach puree, baby turnips and brassica flowers. Once the chop has been sliced and plated the dish is finished with a pork jus enriched with Madeira.
Two spears of perfect asparagus are the centrepiece of our new, Spring-like first course. At the base of the plate are a crème de parmesan and buckwheat galette. To this, we add a spring salad of broad beans and white asparagus, an egg yolk purée and a rocher of ‘Boursin de la maison’, as we have christened our blend of cream cheese, chives and wild garlic.
