Albert's Table

Sunday, January 09, 2011 - A shortcrust tart of Dorset crab is made with rust-coloured brown meat and a pastry that cracks and crumbles in all the right ways. A salad of bitter endive, blue cheese and chives comes with a mustard dressing that makes its presence known. A thickly coated gratin of thinly sliced Jerusalem artichokes with hazelnuts has the kind of crust that has you picking away at it with a spoon. That dish was the last vegetarian moment before some serious meat cookery, which relies on slicks of huge-flavoured jus, and a lot of hot fricassee and saute action. The mains read complicated but make sense on the plate.