Ian Sherwin, of conference and banqueting venue Wiston House, invites us to share his chef’s table
The chef - Ian Sherwin
With 30 years’ experience, Head Chef Ian Sherwin leads a highly skilled team, who are constantly creating new and exciting dishes to accommodate for a variety of guests. They have a wealth of experience, having catered for Heads of State, prestigious corporate clients, birthday parties and magical wedding days.
Whether for banquets, weddings or conferences, the chefs create dishes prepared with locally sourced ingredients wherever possible, including organic produce from the estate gardens. They take real pride in designing seasonal menus using their own herbs, fruit and vegetables.
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The dish
Ingredients - Makes two litres
6 cloves garlic
200g bread
1 litre olive oil
500g fresh local tomatoes
250g cucumber, peeled
200g green peppers
500ml vinegar
15g cumin seeds
500g ice
100g croûtons
100g onion, finely chopped
100g cucumber, diced
100g tomatoes concassées
100g green pepper diced
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Method
1 Peel and crush the garlic in a basin. Cut the bread into small pieces and mix well with the garlic. Add the olive oil gradually, making sure the bread and garlic are covered. Season with salt and allow to stand for 10 minutes.
2 Cut the tomatoes into quarters, chop the peeled cucumber, remove the seeds from the peppers and chop finely. Add all the ingredients to the previous mixture, season and allow to stand for 10 minutes.
3 Crush the cumin seeds, add to the mixture and pass it through a fine sieve or mix in a blender. Add ice to chill the soup and correct the consistency.
4 Serve the soup very cold and dress with the croûtons, finely chopped onion, diced cucumber, green pepper and the tomates concassées.
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Tomatoes Concassées
Remove the eyes from the tomatoes then blanch and peel them. Cut in half horizontally, remove the seeds and roughly cut the flesh into 3/4 cm dice. 250g of fresh tomatoes will yield about 175g of diced flesh.
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Croûtons
Remove the crust from a sandwich loaf or thick slices of bread then cut the bread into 1/2cm cubes. Fry carefully in clarified butter until golden brown and drain well.
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The bottle - Fernando de Castilla Classic Fino Sherry (approximate price £11.50 per bottle)
Served well chilled, dry sherry is a perfect partner to gazpacho. This Fino, from one of Jerez’s finest producers, has complexity and finesse that’s impossible to find in a bottle of table wine for the same price.
As recommended by Hennings Wine Merchants, www.henningswine.co.uk
