Caramelised sweetbreads, comté cheese and morilles in Sherry, Sichuan smoke
Recipe by Sang-Hoon Degeimbre

Serves 4:
4 small 50 g sweetbread nuggets, blanched, 2 thin slices of Spanish belotta ham, 30 g of 15 month old comté cheese, 30 g of 'Doyenné du Comice' pears, 20 g chopped shallots, coriander, flat leaf parsley, peppermint, durum wheat flour, grapeseed oil, salt and pepper.

For the glaze:
100 g orange juice, 50 g soya sauce, 50 g muscovado sugar, 50 g chicken stock (see Basics), 50 g of sushi su*, a pinch of ras el-hanout, ½ coffee spoon of chopped fresh ginger.

For the smoke:
oak chips, 'Don Carlos' (Fuente) cigar, Szechuan pepper (see Basics).

Place the glaze ingredients in a saucepan. Reduce by half and set aside.
Finely snip the herbs and the bellotta ham. Cut the pear and the cheese into 3 to 4 mm cubes.
Blanche the sweetbreads for 10 minutes in salted boiling water and peel. Dust in durum wheat flour. Pan fry over a gently heat in the grapeseed oil. Lightly brown the surface of the sweetbreads to form a 2 mm thick crust. This process takes approximately 15 minutes.
Prepare a mixture with the aromatic herbs, the pear, the comté cheese, the browned, chopped shallots and the belotta ham.
In a hot pan, reheat the glaze. Place the sweetbreads into the glaze and totally coat with the sauce.
Place some of the pear and comté mixture in the centre of a plate. Arrange the sweetbreads on top.
Upturn a red wine glass and fill with the cigar and Szechuan pepper smoke (see Bases). Place the glass upside down on the sweetbreads.
Serve immediately, removing the smoke filled glass in front of the guests.

Note:
It was in 2004, at the Celler de Can Roca (Girona, Spain) that I discovered a cuisine that is precise and uses a wealth of techniques. Among the most spectacular techniques around at the moment is the instant smoke which envelopes the ingredients of a dish in a gentle aromatic mist. This ensures that a fine level of smoking is produced without being overpowering.

From a taste viewpoint, the contribution made by a great cigar (in this case, a cape African and a cigar designed along the lines of the famous Havana cigars of the past) is an interesting touch. The Szechuan pepper enhances flavour remanence, arousing the taste buds. The oak smoke is gentle and aromatic.

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