Stocks & sauces focus: Small but intrepid

MAKING THE best of limited kitchen space to turn out great pub grub is a situation which many pubs will sympathise with. At the Monk & Minstrel pub in Isham, Northamp-tonshire, head chef Steve Claridge leads a team of two trainee chefs, with total covers averaging 40 per day, rising to between 75 and 150 at Christmas and on special occasions such as Mother's Day.

With a small space to work in, the pub relies on using multi-purpose products that save time and storage space, as well as controlling costs. Steve uses the reformulated Knorr Demi-Glace as a quick and easy way to produce a variety of sauces and gravies. This helps keep the menu fresh and offers choice to customers.

"We have different lunch, dinner and children's menus and run special senior citizen two-for-one offers," says Steve. "But operating from a small kitchen means we have limited stove space."

Steve makes a large batch of demi-glace, which comes in dehydrated form, and keeps it refrigerated to be used when needed. "I can be assured of a consistently great tasting base to create a host of sauces and gravies to enhance my locally sourced ingredients," he says.

This also allows the Monk & Minstrel to deal with ad hoc menu requests. By adding boiling water directly to the powder "you don't have the task of making a paste first and therefore you never experience lumps in your sauces or gravies," says Steve.

The menu at the Monk & Minstrel changes every three months, built around a popular range of dishes developed by Steve, including:

• Bangers & mash with rich onion gravy
• Noisettes of lamb served with a cranberry and orange sauce
• Beef Wellington
• Lamb shanks with white wine and mint gravy
• Gourmet wild boar and apple sausages with cider gravy
• Pork & stilton pie, with the demi-glace used to thicken the pie filling.

Steve enjoys experimenting with different flavours and ingredient combinations. Dishes due to appear on the menu this month include:

• Chicken mousse, wild game, tarragon and mushroom sausages served on a bed of root vegetable mash with a tarragon and white wine cream sauce
• Oven-roasted partridge served with potato gratin, seasonal vegetables and a red wine and thyme infused jus, made using the demi-glace and Knorr chicken stock reduction
• Pan-fried sea bass on a bed of herb noodles finished with a sweet chilli sauce, using Knorr shellfish finishing bouillon and Knorr fines herbes
• Griddled sirloin served with a wild mushroom and bacon sauce made using demi-glace and Knorr porcini mushroom finishing bouillon
• Baked rump of lamb with a port and redcurrant sauce
• Roast turkey basted with thyme and white wine infused demi-glace, served with all the trimmings.