Introduction
This is a dish focussing on high quality local ingredients and by-product usage which are both pillars of our kitchen at Ozone. We use a mixed salad from Minicrops (a London based vertical farming initiative), green lentils from Hertfordshire by way of Hodmedod’s, ricotta made using the ‘waste-milk’ from our coffee bar and incredible trout from Chalkstream in Hampshire which we hot smoke in-house.
Method
Start with the ricotta. Place the milk in a sauce pan (preferably some barista by-product milk but regular will work fine) and bring up to a bare simmer. Add all the vinegar, lemon juice and salt in one go and stir 2-3 times in a figure 8 motion, then let stand still and allow the curds to develop. Cool until warm and then strain through a sieve with cheesecloth and hang for around 6 hours. Keep the whey for other deliciousness!
Make the preserved onions by massaging the lemon juice, salt and sugar into the thinly sliced shallots and allow to sit for 15 minutes.
For the lemon dressing, whisk all ingredients together until nicely emulsified, check the seasoning and adjust with more lemon juice and/or salt as desired.
Finally, simmer the lentils in lightly seasoned water until al dente and blanch the green beans in salted boiling water for 45 seconds and refresh in iced water to retain colour and crunch.
Now assemble! Whisk the ricotta with around 1 tbsp of the reserved whey to make creamy, season with lemon zest, salt & pepper and then spoon and spread on the base of a large serving platter. In a mixing bowl place the preserved onions, beans, lentils, salad leaves and flake in the smoked trout. Season with desired amount of lemon dressing and gently mix, place onto the ricotta on the platter and dig in.
