Paul Jobin has worked in hospitality for 30 years in restaurants and resorts, in both New Zealand and around the world. He now works as a private Chef at Annandale– a luxury, villa-style accommodation set on a working farm in Pigeon Bay, on the north side of Banks Peninsula.
“After looking after a lot of other restaurant kitchens and mentoring other chefs, I realised I missed stirring the pot and whisking the cream.” Paul explains. “I missed being able to be creative and create new food. I always pride myself on being global and keeping up with trends around the world. It’s really important to me that I live and breathe what others are doing, and that I keep up with it.”
Entrée
Verkerks salami shish kebabs
And
Verkerks salami pintxos
With
Granny Smith Apple and Ginger Salsa
For an entrée, Paul is going to make salami shish kababs. He starts by simply cutting the salami in half, folding it in half again and adding it to the skewer. Then it’s a case of just adding the extra ingredients, including red onion, mushroom, cherry tomato, sun dried tomato, baby spinach leaves and capsicum. Paul then drizzles some of the sun dried tomato oil over the kababs, and then adds them to the BBQ. After they’ve been on for about 2 minutes, Paul then sprinkles some apple cider over the grill, and that’s the kebabs done!
Next step is to make the salsa. Paul slices and dices some green apples which are high in acidity- this helps counteract the spiciness of the chorizo. Add some ginger – grated, crystallised and ginger syrup, and then add lemon juice, a couple of limes, and a pinch of salt, and we’re almost there.
The final step of this entrée is some delicious ciabatta bread. Paul coats the bread in Olivado’s gorgeous Extra Virgin Avocado Oil with Lemon Zest
Main Course
Honey-smoked Grilled Mountain River Venison
On
South American Flatbread
With
Avocado, Marmite and chipotle
To make the South American Flatbread, Paul starts with 400g of flour, sieved a couple of times to make it as light as possible. Then he adds the polenta and buttermilk and a wee bit of boiled water. Now it’s simply a case of mixing it up until it becomes dough. Paul then puts the dough away for an hour to settle while he works on the venison.
“If there’s a lot of moisture on the venison,” Paul explains, “That will turn to steam before it starts to seal and caramelise.” So he dries it off first with a tea-towel before cutting it into 4 portions and trimming off the sharp edges. He then drizzles Olivado’s Extra Virgin Avocado Oil over the meat, adding some sea-salt and pepper, seasoning it rather than pourng a lot of oil in the pan.
“We’re going to give the meat a smoked honey lacquer,” says Paul, “And the easiest way to do that is to take some Olivado avocado oil and add it to honey, giving the two a really good mix.” After coating the venison with this smoked honey lacquer, Paul then goes back to his flatbread.
After sitting for an hour, the flatbread is quite dry on the outside and moist on the inside, so what Paul does is fold the bread in on itself, and the rolls it out. After cutting it into even portions, he then rolls each piece into a ball, and then uses a rolling pin to flatten it out to a thickness of about 2mm. From there he takes a pastry brush and coats the dough in duck fat, before adding salt and rolling each piece into cylinders, and then rolling it out flat again.
Everything’s nearly ready, and all Paul needs to do is mix some avocado purée, whip up some sour cream and Marmite, and then add the flatbread to the BBQ. The result is a stunning dish of the mouth-watering venison on home-made South American Flatbread.
The unique and delicious taste of Olivado play a big part in these recipes. If you would like to know more about Olivado and what we do, you can read our story here, or if you’re interested in our many wonderful flavours, you’ll find all our products here. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.