The Gun
Owners: Tom & Ed Martin
Head chef: Micky O'Connor
Covers: 60 to 70
Covers a week: 700
Best-selling dishes: roast rump of Welsh lamb with baby vegetables, parsnip purée and lamb consommé (£18); pan-fried haddock fillet, scallop and Champagne fellute (£15.50).
On the menu: smoked fresh-water eel, new potatoes, horseradish dressing (£8.50); cauliflower cheesecake with piccalilli (£7); beef shin burger, rocket salad, home-made fat chips (£11.50); Gun posh pasty with confit duck and foie gras (£9.50).
New for 2008: Portugese BBQ will return in the spring. During 2008, Micky and the team will concentrate on the great food and service that has earned them a place in the Top 30. Micky has just employed a new sous chef called Gareth Thomas, who has worked with Gary Rhodes.
Three things that make your pub stand out from the crowd: Great produce from good suppliers; excellent service, with front-of- house team working well with back-of-house team; great location, right on the edge of the Thames opposite the Millennium Dome.
Best-selling beer and wine: Adnams Broadside and San Miguel; Sancerre.
Gun, 27 Coldharbour, London, E14 9NS 0207 5155222 www.thegundocklands.com
Recipe
The Gun posh pasty
Duck and foie gras-filled Cornish pasty with pea dipping sauce
Ingredients:
Filling:
80g/3oz Barbary duck confit leg meat
40g/11/2 oz grade-A foie gras
20g/3/4oz garlic butter
40ml/11/2fl oz red wine jus
10g/1/2 oz finely-chopped carrots
10g/1/2 oz finely-chopped celeriac
Salt & pepper
Puff pastry
Sauce:
250g peas
Two sprigs of mint
Knob of butter
Method:
Confit the duck leg in duck fat. Take meat off bone and shred. Sweat off carrots and celeriac in olive oil, salt and pepper. Add shredded confit duck to carrot and celeraic mix. Whilst mix is still warm, fold in raw foie gras carefully with a spatula. Season to taste. Allow mix to cool for 20 mins. Mould mix into a small rugby-ball shape. Assemble in Cornish pasty shape between 2 square sheets of puff pastry, crimping edges. Bake in oven at 180°C for 18 mins until golden.
To make the sauce bring peas to the boil in salted water and add chopped mint. Blend in food processor until smooth. Pass it off, then re-warm. Add butter and seasoning. Serve pasty with generous helping of pea sauce on the side.
