Chefs doing what they know best

Explorer’s Gourmet Club aims to promote and enjoy innovative and interesting food tastings. They meet once a month to sample special menus at restaurants put together by participating chefs in the capital. We joined them for a five course dinner (US$35 per person) at Emmanuels in the Avenues.

The evening started with a demonstration master chef style with chef Steve Hyde cooking the main course in front of us on an outdoor gas burner. Not quite starting from scratch — food preparations had been done beforehand — potato grated, beef stock reduced, onion marmalade made, pumpkin leaf galette ready to cook. The eland fillet was a perfect round wrapped in bacon and pan fried in front of us in a mixture of butter and olive oil.

Steve told us that in the kitchen he would finish it off in the oven — but outside he cooked it on both sides till medium rare — sharing a tip as to how to tell temperature from touch using the fleshy ball of the thumb and pressure from the different fingers to gauge meat from raw, to rare, to well-done. Very useful and you can find a similar method here on the internet: http://www.aspicyperspective.com/2013/05/finger-test-meat-temperature.html

Four pans were on the go — onion marmalade in one, galette in another, red wine jus — made from beef stock and red wine in a third and in the fourth — the star of the show, the grenadin of eland — finally finished off with enoki mushrooms bought at a local Spar that afternoon. A lovely looking dish — finished off with a garnish of oven dried tomato, fried herb and mini croquette — and served with bright green broccoli, carrots, red cabbage and sautéed potatoes, it was a stylish and tasty main course.

Starter was quail’s egg arancini — a soft boiled quails egg encased in risotto, bread crumbed and deep fried. Lovely combination of soft egg and crunchy casing — but I would have preferred a few salad leaves rather than the accompanying german fried potato salad. Thai spiced mussel broth featuring kariba crayfish tails met with mixed reviews at our table. I liked the spicy broth but was ambivalent about the freshwater crayfish finding them tougher than expected. It does however seem a patriotic duty to eat more of them as apparently they represent a potential crisis in the country’s rivers and dams. 

Introduced into Kariba for a fish farming project they are now threatening other fishlife as they compete successfully for food sources and don’t have a natural predator. I can imagine them being more appealing when grilled quickly on a skottle braai with lots of garlic and butter preferably on a sunset houseboat! A refreshing palate cleansing baobab sorbet followed —  cool, tart and delicious.

After main course eland — the finale was white chocolate cheesecake. A light and foamy concoction in a cylinder of white chocolate it looked like an elegant sailing boat with the tuile biscuit as mainsail and a spun sugar mast. Accompanied  by amarula icecream dusted with marula nut  sand on a swirl of blueberry coulis it was spectacular looking and tasted pretty good — even though I am not normally a great fan of white chocolate.

Following Meikles’ showcasing of indigenous ingredients in February it is good to see chefs producing high-end dishes with specialist Zimbabwe foods like baobab and marula nuts. Another brainchild of the Eatout Zimbabwe team Gourmet Explorers at Emmanuels was a fine night out with classy service, imaginative and beautiful food, a convivial host in Joseph Bunga, and a diverse and interesting range of guests — from chefs and industry players to food loving members of the public.

g.jeke@yahoo.com