Casa Colonial – An iconic Ibizan destination

Sitting proudly on the top of a hillside close to the town of Santa Eulalia, you will find one of the true jewels in Ibiza´s crown, Casa Colonial. This idyllic location has been the home of this stylish and sophisticated dining destination since 2001. Renowned for their excellent cuisine, a truly unique menu, and carefully curated wine and spirit selection, Casa Colonial sets the standard for fine dining in Ibiza.

This year will see the introduction of a separate gourmet menu, offering new food and drink concepts to their guests, with the freshest of ingredients, and dishes which will differ according to demand. If you are already a loyal fan of Casa Colonial´s creations, then never fear, all your favourite dishes will of course be featured, with the innovative and creative menu offering Colonial style French cuisine alongside a selection of tempting Thai style dishes. Enjoy the live cooking spectacle from the comfort of your table, and marvel as the chefs work their culinary magic preparing your meal. Should you be a lover of the finest of wines, then you will be in heaven with the outstanding selection of wines from Ibiza, Spain, California & France, and a well informed member of staff is always on hand to guide you to the perfect choice to accompany your cuisine.

Björn Klein, head chef at Casa Colonial, let us peek behind the scenes of this Ibizan gastronomic institution, revealing his favourite dish and favourite dessert. We got to see how the food’s prepared and kept the recipes for you in words and pictures.

Ingredients

• 3-4 beef cheeks (350/400g each)
• 700 ml red wine
• 1 carrot
• 1 red onion
• 2 sticks of celery
• 1 small stick of leek
• 10 pepper corns
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 star anise
• 1 tbsp. tomato puree
• Salt
• Oil for frying

• Clean the beef cheeks, fry in oil in a hot pan, remove and set aside. Heat the oil in a saucepan, sauté the parures of beef cheeks, add the finely chopped vegetables and brown. When the vegetables have browned, add the tomato paste and fry. Deglaze with the red wine and bring to a boil, add the bay leaves, pepper and star anise, put the beef cheeks into the stock and allow to simmer for 45 to 60 minutes. Remove the beef cheeks and strain the meat stock.
• While the beef cheeks are stewing, prepare the sweet potato purée and pea purée.
• Bake 2-3 sweet potatoes at 180 degrees for about 30 minutes until there’s no more liquid. Scrape them with a spoon then purée with a little salt and butter.
• Put a spoonful of potato purée and pea purée on a preheated plate, place a beef cheek (cut into slices) on it and pour the sauce over it. Bon appétit!

Base

• 100g ground almonds
• 100g flour
• 100g brown sugar
• 100g butter
• A pinch of salt
• Combine all the ingredients in a bowl, mix well and knead.
• Roll out half of it on baking paper thinly and bake briefly in the oven. Let it cool before crumbling.
• Press the raw dough into 2 dessert rings to form a thin cake base.

Filling

• 2 avocados
• 80g cocoa butter
• 80g coconut oil
• The juice of one lemon
• Grated lemon rind
• 70g agave syrup
• Red currants, wild strawberries, blueberries.

• Mix the avocado with the lemon juice and grated rind. Add the melted cocoa butter and coconut oil and blend everything together.
• Pour the filling on top of the cake base in the dessert rings and allow to stand in the fridge for 10 minutes.
• Finally, place it on a plate and carefully remove the dessert rings.  Put the red currants, wild strawberries and blueberries (mixed with a little agave syrup) on top and sprinkle with some crumble.