St Martin’s Day is the autumn holiday of viticulturists and winemakers when must turns into young wine. St Martin’s Day is associated with a traditional feast, but you can also prepare it with a modern, innovative twist. This time, we contacted chef Tomaž Kavčič from Gostilna pri Lojzetu at Zemono Manor, which boasts a Michelin star. Tomaž entrusted us with his innovative recipe for a St Martin’s feast, Zemono style.
St Martin’s Day, i.e. November 11, is a particularly merry occasion in the wine-growing regions of Slovenia. According to tradition, this is when must turns into young wine. Certain customs are associated with the holiday, but first and foremost, the festive table gives off the aroma of a traditional St. Martin’s feast comprising roast goose or duck, millets, stewed red cabbage and, of course, young wine.
The restaurant at the idyllic Zemono Manor is the culinary “playground” of chef Tomaž Kavčič, who remembers his childhood and typical Vipava flavours, intertwines them with modern culinary trends and offers them to his guests on a plate with a touch of his imagination and creativity. Since the very arrival of the global gastronomic giant Michelin, Gostilna pri Lojzetu has been the holder of a prestigious Michelin star.
You have learned some interesting things about St Martin’s Day, Gostilna pri Lojzetu and its chef Tomaž Kavčič. Now it’s time for you to put on your apron and get to work. Surprise people at the festive table and use the original recipe of one of the best Slovenian chefs to prepare a St Martin’s feast that even the most demanding culinary connoisseurs cannot resist. You will prepare a boneless wild duck with pumpkin cream, red cabbage, goat’s cottage cheese, crispy apple, purple potato lace and chestnut soup for four people. Ready? Let’s begin.
Ingredients:
Marjoram
Preparation:
Season the duck legs, put them in a container and let them rest in the refrigerator for 24 hours.
Then roughly remove the spices, place in a baking dish, cover with duck fat and bake in the oven for 12 hours at 85⁰ C. Remove from the oven and cool. Bone the cooled duck legs and make a sauce from the bones.
Sauce: Fry the bones well in a pan until golden yellow, then cover them with the vegetable stock and reduce all together to get a smooth sauce. Strain the sauce and quickly cool (“shock”). Remove the fat that has accumulated on top of the cold sauce.
Ingredients:
Salt
Preparation:
Clean and thinly slice the red cabbage. Heat the butter in a pan, add the red cabbage, season and sauté for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, increase the heat, add the wine vinegar, bring to a boil and remove from the heat. Grate an apple into the hot cabbage and mix well.
Ingredients:
1 tsp lemon juice
Preparation:
Wash the apple and cut it into slices. Fry the slices in a mixture of honey and lemon juice. Put the fried slices in a dehydrator or in the oven at 45⁰ C – dry until they have the desired crispiness.
Ingredients:
Salt
Preparation:
Peel the pumpkin and cut it into small pieces. Place the pumpkin, butter and sugar in a baking dish, mix and caramelise in a preheated oven for about 20 minutes. Put the caramelised pumpkin into a saucepan, add the vegetable stock, add the cloves, cover with a lid and cook at a low temperature for about 60 minutes. Blend the cooked pumpkin and strain.
Ingredients:
Salt
Preparation:
Mix cottage cheese and kefir, add salt and strain.
Ingredients:
70g 00 Manitoba flour or white wheat flour type 500
Preparation:
Peel the purple potatoes and soak them in cold water for 4 hours to remove the starch. Then boil the potatoes for 4 hours at a low temperature (below the boiling point – 95⁰ C).
After 4 hours, mash the potatoes and strain them through a kitchen towel to get potato water.
Mix well the potato water, sifted flour and oil with a whisk to form a smooth, homogeneous batter. Pour one small ladle of the batter into a well-heated non-stick pan and cook until the water and oil separate and you get a nice crispy purple lace.
Ingredients:
Pepper
Preparation:
Wash and boil the chestnuts. Peel the cooked chestnuts. Fry chopped onions, carrots and parsley well in butter, season and add peeled cooked chestnuts. Fry until everything caramelises, add the stock and cook for another 30 minutes. Blend the chestnut soup and strain.
Mmm, it smells good, doesn’t it? The delicious dishes are ready, and by now you’ll be dying to taste them. However, since we also eat with our eyes and it would be a shame not to arrange such masterpieces properly on the plate, Tomaž’s advice is as follows:
Draw lines of pumpkin cream on a large, warmed serving plate, then add lines of cream from goat's curd cheese. Place the duck in the centre of the plate, pour over the hot bone sauce and decorate with the purple potato lace. Add the sautéed red cabbage to the top left of the plate, on top of which place the apple crumble. Serve the chestnut soup in a coffee cup to the top right of the plate.
Enjoy!
If this recipe has awakened your desire to get to know Slovenian gastronomy even better, you are invited to explore all its aspects – from traditional to top cuisine, excellent Slovenian wines, Michelin stars and Gault&Millau toques. Slovenia puts great emphasis on sustainability, so get to know the “stars” of sustainable gastronomy.
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