Kicking off Lent with a Parsnip Tarte Tatin

With Carnival and Pancake Day over, some might remember (or would rather forget) the period of Lent that follows all the fun and food indulgence. I see Lent as a suitable period to remind ourselves of the rich and abundant life that we live and to try and give up one or two indulgent habits. As such, I am planning to cook more Vegetarian food until Easter and hopefully carry on afterwards! Though my partner and I love and eat  a lot of vegetables, we don't count ourselves as big fans of veggie food. In fact, we'd almost always go for a nice piece of animal (British!) protein on our plate if we had the choice. Missing out on it for a few days every week for a longer period seemed like a good effort to make, at least in our view.

So, to get Lent on to a good start, I tried to change our perception of vegetarian food with a simple parsnip tarte tatin. It really was delicious and we only marginally missed our beloved meat!

Parsnip Tarte Tatin

For 1 medium-sized tarte

• 3-4 large parsnips
• 1 onion
• 2 tbsp of olive oil
•  2 cloves of garlic
• 1 tsp finely chopped fresh chili
• 2 tso finely chopped fresh ginger
• 2 tsp fresh thyme
• 1tsp of brown sugar
• 2 tsp of clear honey
• Salt, pepper and nutmeg
• 50g grated cheddar
• 4 sheets of filo pastry

Preheat the oven at 200°C. Peel the parsnips and the onion. Finely slice the onion and cut the parsnips into 1cm slices. Parboil the parsnips and onions in salted water for no more than 5 minutes. In the meantime, mix together 1 tbsp olive oil with the garlic, ginger, chili, thyme, sugar, honey and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Spread the mix into the base of a pie or flan dish and place into the oven for 5 minutes. Once the oil is hot and the sugar and honey have melted, arrange the drained vegetables into the dish, season well with salt, pepper and nutmeg and scatter the grated cheddar on top. Cover with one sheet of filo pastry making sure the edges of the pastry are tucked well down the sides of the dish. Brush the pastry with olive oil and repeat this step with the remaining 3 sheets of pastry. Bake the tart for 30 minutes until the pastry is golden brown and crisp. I would suggest to serve it hot with a green salad or steamed green vegetables; or actually a nice piece of succulent meat would also got quite well I imagine, if the intention was not to create a vegetarian meal!

Petits Choux au Citron

Having terribly failed at making éclairs once for my mum's birthday several years ago, I felt it was at the time to give choux pastry a go again. In preparation for a Gâteau St Honoré that I had planned to bake for the event "East meets West" back in January organised by the Edinburgh Cake Ladies, I decided to make a few choux buns filled with the traditional cream "crème chiboust" but flavoured with lemon instead of vanilla. Sadly, a nasty virus prevented me from baking the final gâteau and going to what looks like was a great event. But I'd like to share the following recipe for a few choux buns as they are not as difficult to make as I thought and very pretty and light. I turned to my trusted book, the "Larousse Gastronomique", for the recipe and was very pleased with the result.

The following ingredients will make about 15 choux of the size of a golf ball - if well-risen, that is :-)

Ingredients for the choux paste: 

• 80ml water
• 13g butter
• 1/2 tsp caster sugar
• small pinch of salt
• 30g flour
• 1 medium egg (I found that large eggs make the paste too liquid)

Heat the water, butter, sugar and salt until the butter has melted. Add the flour in one go, remove the pan from the heat and stir with a wooden spoon. Add the whisked egg and beat the mixture very hard. You really have to work on this one. Fill the paste into a piping bag or, as I did, use a sandwich bag with the corner cut off and pipe walnut-sized balls on a baking tray lined with greased baking paper. Bake in a hot oven at 200 °C for 20-25 minutes until nicely puffed up and golden. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Crème Chiboust: 

•          125ml full-fat milk
•          1 lemon, zested
•          1 egg, separated
•          30g caster sugar
•          3g powdered gelatine
•          15g cornflour
•          small pinch of salt

Soften the gelatine by adding 1 tsp of water to the powder. Heat the milk with the finely grated lemon zest. Using an electric mixer, whisk together the egg yolk and sugar until fluffy. Stir in the cornflour. Add the warm milk slowly while mixing and return the mixture to pan. Bring to the boil and whisk in the softened gelatine. Cook over low heat while constantly mixing with a hand-whisk until the cream starts to thicken. Take off the heat and chill for at least two hours.

Assembly

When set, fill the cream into a piping bag. Pierce small holes into the bottom of each choux bun using a chopstick. Insert the nozzle of the piping bag into the hole and fill the bun with cream. Dust with icing sugar and enjoy!

Small choux filled with lemon crème chiboust

My pumkin and apple crumble recipe in the Guardian

The Guardian's new food magazine - issue 3

Recently I heard about a "Readers' recipe swap" in the Guardian's new magazine about food and drink called "Cook". Every week, food writer Felicity Cloake chooses a theme and invites recipe suggestions. The best tried-and-tested recipes will appear in the following Cook issue. I think it's a great idea! When I heard about it, the current theme was crumble. Vaguely remembering a sweet, spicy, warming and comforting crumble that I cooked a year ago on a cold winter day, I decided to send it to the Guardian. And two weeks later, I was told it would be published as the winning dish! I was very very pleased. You can see the article and a photograph of the dish taken by the Guardian's photographer here.

The recipe is a sweet pumpkin and apple crumble. I added some apples for extra freshness and replaced half the butter with rapeseed oil, which gives it a nice nutty taste and adds some omega-3 fatty acids. The Guardian called it an innovative take on pumpkin pie and wrote further: "The combination of sweetly spiced squash, tart apple and a nutty, treacly topping is inspired"! 

Here is the recipe to serve 6:

•    400g pumpkin
•     2 star anise
•    2 British apples, such as Cox
•   10 Medjool dates
•   50ml British runny flower honey
•   30g walnut pieces
•   75g  plain white flour
•    75g fine oatmeal
•   50g unsalted butter
•    50g rapeseed oil
•   100g dark muscovado sugar
•   1 tsp cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven at 180°C. Peel and cut the pumpkin into small chunks and place into a buttered ovenproof dish. Break the star anise into little pieces and mix with the pumpkin. Drizzle with 25ml of the honey and bake for 10 minutes. 
2.  Meanwhile, peel the apples and cut them into cubes. Remove the stones from the dates and cut them into thin slices. When the pumpkin has softened a bit, add the apples, dates, remaining honey and walnuts to the dish and toss well.
3.  Prepare the crumble: In a food processor or with your fingertips, combine the flour, oatmeal, butter, oil, sugar and cinnamon to crumbs and sprinkle on top of the pumpkin / apple mix. Bake for 30-35 minutes until bubbly and golden brown. I would serve it with home-made custard or simply a dollop of crème fraîche.

Competition prize: Tasting menu at Restaurant Martin Wishart

A tasting menu with matching wines at Martin Wishart's Michelin star restaurant in Edinburgh without having to pay: This is what I had been looking forward since I won the runner-up prize at his cooking challenge for amateur chefs. On December 21st, I redeemed this prize and my partner and me indulged in one, if not the best, meals we've ever had.  

I felt that taking pictures of the dishes would disturb our and other guests' experiences, but I will describe in words the wonderful meal we've had.

We were greeted with a beetroot macaroon filled with horseradish cream, which was the first of many surprises to come:

Amuse-bouches:
 -Cauliflower cream with caper relish and golden raisin

 -Breaded salsify with peanuts and pickled cauliflower mayonnaise

 -Queenie Scallop with pork jowl and crispy pork skin

And here the menu and wine list, which I was kindly emailed by the Restaurant Manager: 

CINDERELLA PUMPKIN SOUP

Apple curd and lobster boudin

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CEVICHE OF GIGHA HALIBUT

Mango & passion fruit

Or

LOCH RYAN NATIVE OYSTERS

Green apple, sauerkraut, caviar d’aquitaine

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GRILLED & TARTAR OF WILD SEA-BASS

Apple, pickled yellow radish, citrus and ginger broth

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FREGULA SARDA

Veal sweetbreads roasted in buckwheat, winter chanterelle

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ONGLET OF BEEF

Swiss chard, smoked marrow, caramelised onion, fresh wasabi,

knotroot, confit shallot red wine sauce

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PASSION FRUIT & AROMATIC ORANGE

White chocolate mousse

Or

VALRHONA MANJARI CHOCOLATE CREMEUX

Exotic fruit sorbet, chocolate sable

There was an extra luxurious dish of "Truffle Risotto with Scallop" that I had instead of the sea-bass. I'm not sure whether that was a clever swap, but we wanted to taste as many different dishes as possible and the risotto was decadent and delicious! My partner also had an extra cheese course with a selection of 5 cheeses that I all got to try :-)

Now here are the accompanying wines:

2011 DOC Soave, Campo le Calle, Latium Morini, Italy

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2010 Muscat sec, Les Fruits Defendus, Domaine de Provenquiere, France

Or

2011 Riesling, Eden Road Wines, Canberra,  Australia

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2009 Dry River Gewurtztraminer, Martinborough, New Zealand

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2010 The FMC Chenin Blanc, Stellenbosch, South Africa

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2010 Corbiere, cuvee classique, Chateau Ollieux Romanis, France

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2006  Montbazillac, Chateau Tirecul La Graviere France          

Or

2009  Reciotto della Valpolicella, Tommasi, Italy    

It was amazing how well the wines complemented each dish. Being very un-experienced and unknowledgable in wines (something I desperately need to change!), I was amazed to taste for example a creamy wine with my creamy risotto. It was the first time that we had so carefully matched food and wine and it was a great experience - one definitely to be repeated!

After having been treated to so much delicious food and wine, it was time for an espresso, which was served with chocolates flavoured either with raspberry, passionfruit and mango, salted caramel, praline or fresh mint; perfect to round up an excellent meal!

What a great evening! I couldn't stop smiling afterwards and will remember this meal for a long time. I'd like to thank Martin Wishart again for this great experience and for organising the competition in the first place. It was great fun and - from my point of view - well worth taking part!