Seafood delights

Craig Keenan is head chef at the West Witton restaurant in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, where he has worked in the kitchens of the 17th century coaching inn for more than 10 years.

After attending college, he trained at the Michelin-starred restaurant at the five-star Grosvenor Hotel in Chester before gaining experience at other acclaimed UK restaurants. He also had a spell working with Raymond Blanc.

Craig moved to the Heifer in 2011 as sous chef and has recently taken on the responsibility as head chef.

The Heifer also has 13 themed bedrooms and had received five AA stars for its restaurant with rooms.

Craig says: “I am proud to have helped develop many of the new dishes at the Heifer. The Wensleydale Heifer prides itself on its award-winning seafood and innovative use of textures and flavours and we are very happy to share some of our secrets to enable people to try out some of our recipes at home.”

The Wensleydale Heifer is owned by chef/patron David Moss. David trained at Longueville Manor, which, at the time was the Channel Islands only Michelin-starred restaurant

Whitby crab tian & duo of salmon gravadlax

Serves 4

Ingredients

400g of salmon (divided into 2 pieces vertically)

1 vanilla pod

170g Maldon salt

150g sugar

5g parsley, dill & coriander (chopped)

Juice of 1 lemon

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

Potato mayonnaise

230g new potatoes

1 diced red onion

Juice of 1 lemon

2 tbsp full fat mayonnaise

5g dill (chopped)

Crab

125g white crabmeat (picked)

2 sprigs Dill

Small bunch Chives

Salt and pepper

Garnish

Red amaranth

Micro Rocket

Method

Blend the vanilla, 85g of salt and 75g of sugar into a fine powder and cover one half of the salmon with it. Leave for a day and then wash. Top with half of the chopped dill and the Dijon mustard and thinly slice.

Blend the rest of the salt, the rest of the sugar, the lemon juice and the rest of the chopped herbs.

Cover the other half of the salmon with the mixture and leave for one day. Wash, and then chop into 2.5cm squares.

For the Potato Mayonnaise: Boil the new potatoes for 20 mins or until soft. Cool, then dice. Add the onion, lemon juice, dill, mayonnaise – mix.

For the Crab: Mix the ingredients together

For the dressing: Slow roast the sun blush tomatoes with a drizzle of olive oil overnight at 65C. Thinly slice the asparagus diagonally and then mix gently into the tomatoes and other ingredients.

To serve: Warm a pan with a little olive oil. Place a cutter on the centre of the plate. Add the potato mayonnaise base, then top with the thinly sliced gravadlax. For the next layer add the crab. Remove the cutter. Sear the salmon chunks over a medium heat and then place on top of the crab.

Finally drizzle the dressing around the tian.

Trio of lobster

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 x 700g lobsters

Lobster tails

85g Gruyère or comte cheese

2 x large king scallops

12.5g panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)

Fish cream sauce

1 fennel bulb

1 clove garlic, 1 stick celery, 1 onion

200ml white wine

200ml fish stock

35ml brandy

2 star anise

400ml double cream

Thermidor Sauce

2/3rds of fish cream sauce (above)

10g English mustard

Lobster and prawn pie

70g Greenland prawns

35g capers

2 Maris piper potatoes (peeled, chopped and mashed with 25g unsalted butter)

Crispy claws

1 egg (beaten)

1 tbsp plain flour

12.5g panko

Salsa

35g brown shrimp

6 blush tomatoes (finely chopped)

1 red onion (finely chopped)

5g coriander, 10g dill, 10g basil (finely chopped)

Squeeze of fresh lemon juice

Method

Preheat fryer to 180C and oven to 200C

Stab lobsters through the back of the head and then add to boiling water for eight minutes. Remove and run under cold water until cold.

Cut each lobster in half, directly through the back of the lobster, discarding the brain and the tract pipe. Crack the claws and arms and remove the meat – keep the claws whole. Remove the tails with the meat inside the shell

Once completed on all the lobster halves, flip the tails over so the red tail meat is showing

For the fish cream sauce:

Peel and slice the onion, fennel bulb, garlic and celery. Cook for 5 minutes on a low heat, stirring occasionally so as not to colour too much. Add the wine, fish stock, brandy and star anise, reduce by half and then add the double cream. Bring to the boil, season well and drain. Divide the sauce into two pans, one third in one (Fish cream sauce) and two thirds in the other (for the Thermidor sauce)

For the Thermidor Sauce: Add the mustard to the pan with the two thirds fish cream sauce and bring to a boil.

For the lobster tails: Chop the scallops into quarters. Remove the meat from the lobster tail shell and chop into three nuggets.

Place the meat back into the shell, alternating with the scallop quarters. Add the cheese onto the lobster tails. Pour over the Thermidor sauce and top with the panko breadcrumbs and set aside until needed.

For the Lobster and prawn pie: Use a small dish, approximately 5cm x 5cm. Put the capers, prawns and two nuggets of the arm meat from the lobster in the pie dish.

Add a few drops of the fish cream sauce and top with the mash.

Place into a preheated oven for 4 minutes, then place the tails in the oven too and cook for a further 6 minutes

For the crispy claws: Flour the claws, shells removed, then coat in the beaten egg and then the panko breadcrumbs. When the pie comes out of the oven, pop the claw into the fryer and cook for 3 minutes.

For the salsa: Mix all the ingredients together and set aside for one hour to infuse.

www.wensleydaleheifer.co.uk

For more recipes from Relish north East & Yorkshire visit www.relishpublications.co.uk