Guest Chef Season's Classic - The Local Buzz Jean-Paul Tossens

Guest Chef Season’s Classic – with a twist

Jean-Paul Tossens, Chef de Cuisine at Le Monastère de Saint-Mont in Gers, loves reinterpreting local products with a touch of modernity.

“At le Monastère de Saint-Mont, we don’t sleep. We dream…”

Jean-Paul Tossens

The Fried Egg

Guest Chef Season’s Classxic:

The Fried Egg

(Serves 4)

4 Eggs

200g Wild mushrooms

4 Slices of Ventreche of the Pyrenees

50cl Red wine “Madiran Maestria”

50g Cold butter in cubes

10cl Veal broth

Salt, Pepper

1 Egg white

200g Breadcrumbs

Herbs for decoration

Boil the eggs for 5.5 mins in salt water. Heat the frying pan to 170°C. Reduce the red wine to 1/3rd and add the veal broth with salt and pepper. Finish with the cold butter and leave to one side. Bread the eggs and fry them for 1.5 mins in a frying pan. Fry the mushrooms with salt and pepper.
To serve, put the mushrooms in a hollow plate, then place the fried egg in the center. Add the Madiran sauce around, and finish by placing the slice of Ventreche and the herbs on top.

Another guest chef season’s classic:

Lobster – Miso – Ginger, roasted on an Adour pebble

(Serves 4)

2 Lobster (500g)

2 Courgettes, cut into fine tagliatelle

100g Brown miso

100g Yellow miso

20cl Pacherenc “Marie Maria Lutz”

10g Fresh ginger, cut very fine

5g Garlic, cut very fine

2 Pebbles from the river Adour cleaned well

500g Salt

Pre-heat the oven to 250°C and place the two pebbles inside for at least an hour. Boil the lobster for 3 mins in boiling salt water, and then place in ice cold water to cool. Detach the claws and cook them for another 3 mins. Once cooled, peel the lobsters, tails and claws. Slice the tails in two lengthways.

To make the marinade, gently sweat the garlic and ginger, deglaze with the Pacherenc, and leave to cool until just warm. Add the two misos and mix well. Refrigerate the lobsters in the marinade for an hour then drain the flesh on a small grill, retaining the liquid. Reduce the marinade to a syrupy consistency, reserve and adjust seasoning. Cook the courgette tagliatelle in boiling water for about 1.5 mins.

To serve place the coarse salt in a gratin dish, place the hot pebble on top and, at the table, finish cooking the lobster meat on the pebble, then add the tagliatelle. Enjoy with the sauce.

Lobster on a pebble

The Monastère boutique hotel welcomes you in its 11 rooms, The Spa, the tapas bar, and the gastronomic restaurant.

First published in the Jan/Feb 2020 issue of The Local Buzz

Images: Le Monastère