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Vale Life spent an enjoyable afternoon in the company of Matt Powell, Head Chef at La Plie in Southerndown, foraging at one of his secret locations in the Vale.
RECIPE FOR SUCCESS
What is your background?
I learnt my trade as an apprentice to Raymond Blanc, then graduated to other French haute cuisine establishments in the Netherlands and UK. I think my obsession with food helps though!
What is your cooking style?
The cooking style often matches several elements; we try to stick to French classical techniques as much as we can. We do use a waterbath for our slow braises which just improves the tastes. Our passion is for food to taste how it is meant to. Fresh bread is made twice a day and we make all our fruit reductions ourselves. Turkish delights have become a new petit four now.
Where do you source your ingredients?
I am a keen forager. I am always looking for interesting wild foods on the shore and inland. As much as possible I use local sources for my ingredients, especially for meats, vegetables and dairy produce.
Locally, our suppliers are Ton Farm Vegetables, Merthyr Mawr and Oaklands Oganics of Cowbridge. We also use Slade Farm, that is just a stone’s throw away from the restaurant for mutton and lamb whenever we can. We use E. Ashtons, Fishmonger of Cardiff and Douglas Willis Butchers in Cwmbran. Less locally, I use Charlie Hicks Greengrocer, of Hay on Wye, in my opinion a purveyor of the best fruit and vegetables in the world. We also buy from Keltic Seafare of Dingwall, Ross Shire, Highland Game of Dundee and Tanner’s Wines of Shrewsbury. We source organic rose veal in from Alternative Meats in Shropshire.
What might we expect on your Spring menu?
Our menus are uploaded onto our website at www.laplierestaurant but typically our spring lunchtime menu will consist of dishes like slow cooked Usk Valley lamb breast, female fennel, pistachios and lamb juices or red gurnard (an extremely underrated fish!), mussel poêlée, sea lettuce and saffron mussel sauce.
Blood oranges are very good now - we use the whole fruit to create, in effect, a de-constructed Turkish orange salad but put back together as an iced mousse, a reduction of the juices, with a jelly sweetened tea created from the rind to flavour it and also a confit, which we cook in a water bath for two days, adding a real zing to the dish.
Our dinner menu consists of dishes like Scottish diver picked scallops, slow cooked carrot puree, lotus root and ginger crème, or rose veal fillet with baby onion and veal sweetbread blanquette, pommes maxims, roasted cepe and veal jus. Desserts follow suit such as Oldroyds Yorkshire forced rhubarb pannacotta, rhubarb sherbet, and sorbet and crisps.
What are your hopes for the future at La Plie?
We want to keep our customers happy and to make it more comfortable and more of an experience than simply a meal. I think if we keep cooking from the heart, then the accolades we want will come. We have just re-decorated our downstairs dining room.
There are only four tables of two, so the atmosphere is very intimate. It takes us up to twenty six covers which is large enough for the type of food we eventually want to progress to. We also want to use the room for private dining for up to ten people. The plan, this year, is to employ another member of staff in the kitchen and front of house.
FORAGING
Matt Powell’s guide to seaweeds
Sea lettuce
Sea lettuce is abundant around Britain and grows where nutrients are high. It contains most of the B vitamins and is even believed to reduce blood pressure. We butter it, deep fry it or steam/roast our fish over it.
Laver
Does the Welsh ‘caviar’ need any introduction! It is purple to brown in colour and found along the Welsh coast. It has high iodine content and works well with most seafood. It is the same as the Japanese nori seaweed.
Dulse
Dulse is a vivid purple and is high in all elements and minerals. It can be dried or it can be fried with butter or, as we do, it can be usedto steam/roast fish on.
Carrageen/Irish moss
Carrageen was traditionally used in Ireland as a medicine. It is apparently a natural E number. It has quite a peppery taste in its raw state.
Note: All seaweeds are washed scrupulously and lightly salted before use. |
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