MondoVeg

Saffron and paprika doughnuts with chili potatoes

Recipe

Rosemary Gnocchi

 Adapted from a recipe by Charlie Palmer

3 large baking potatoes, about 2 pounds total
2 egg yolks
2 – 3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary   
3 tablespoons olive oil (if sauteeing)

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Poke the potatoes a few times with a fork and place directly on the oven rack. Bake 25 –30 minutes, until fork-tender. When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, remove the skins and push them through a food mill or ricer into a large bowl.

Add the salt and egg yolk, and 2 cups of flour and mix together. Turn the mixture out onto a floured surface and knead, adding more flour if needed, until a soft (but not sticky), smooth dough forms.

Divide the dough into portions the size of your hand, and roll each into a rope about 1/2-inch thick. Cut into 1-inch lengths. If you’re inclined, roll each gnocchi firmly over a gnocchi board or the concave side of a fork. Arrange the gnocchi on a floured baking sheet as you go.

Bring a large stockpot of water to a boil; drop the gnocchi in batches into the water and boil until they bob to the surface, about 3 minutes.

At this point, you can sauce them up as you please, or lay them out on a tray and freeze them (transfer them to zippered bags when they’re solid) so that you have an emergency late-night gnocchi stash on hand .
If you want to sauté the gnocchi, set up an ice bath with a colander set into a large bowl of ice water. Remove the gnocchi from the boiling water with a slotted spoon and immediately drop them into the colander. Drain and toss with the olive oil.

Just before serving, sauté the gnocchi in melted butter, garlic and some spinach or dandelion greens. Pass the grated Parmesan.

Butternut and Zest puree

Butternut squash

Orange zest

Lemon zest

Parsley

Roast the butternut squash zest a lemon add chopped parsley and  puree.

Parsley braised baby carrots

Baby carrots

Parsley

butter

 braise the carrots  in parsley butter

Thyme and shallot gremolota

lemon zest and juice

Thyme,

shallots,

 garlic

 finely chop all the ingredients  and mix with olive oil.

Garnish:

Deep fried sage leaves

  pecorino shavings

Rosemary Gnochhi with a butternut and zest puree 

Recipe:

Hard cheese soufflé (taken from “vegetarian supercook” Elliot, R. 2006)

250g  Low fat soft cream cheese

4 egg yolks

150g strong cheddar cheese (grated)

5 egg whites

150ml double cream

50g of freshly grated parmasen cheese

Grease ramekins with butter

Put the cream cheese into a bowl with the egg yolks and beat until smooth. Then add the cheddar and season generously with salt and pepper. Whisk the egg whites with a clean grease free whisk until they are standing in stiff peaks stir a heaped tablespoon in to the egg yolk mixture to loosen it then gently fold in the remaining whisked egg whites spoon the mixture into the greased ramekins cook in a baine marie at 180.c for 15 minuets

Almond and Apricot Beignets (taken from “Le Gavroche Cookbook” Roux, M. Jnr 2001)

1 onion finely chopped

80g butter, softened

200g ground almonds ( with a little water added to make a paste)

4 eggs

4 tablespoons plain flour

8 dried apricots chopped

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Salt and pepper

For the coating

2 table spoons plain flour

1 egg beaten

200g dried breadcrumbs

Sweat the onion in about 30g of the butter until translucent.

Put the almond paste into a bowl with 50g of butter then beat in the eggs one at a time.  Stir in the flour, apricots, parsley and softened onion, and season to taste

Shape into quenelles and leave in the refrigerator to firm up

To cook roll the quenelles in flour then egg then bread crumb and deep fry.

Spicy fig chutney (taken from “Le Gavroche Cookbook” Roux, M. Jnr 2001)

250g bramley apples

75g demmera sugar

120g white wine vinegar

½ chilli finely chopped

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon of crushed black pepper

A few coriander seeds crushed

8 purple figs quartered.

Peel core and coarsely grate the apples, then place in a large, thick based, non aluminium saucepan add the sugar vinegar, chilli, and salt, and bring to the boil, stirring frequently to prevent thickening when almost dry add the spices and figs cover with a lid and cook for 30mins .

Hard Cheese Souffle with Apricot & Almond Beignets, served with a Spiced Fig Puree

Marinated Halloumi

1 packet halloumi

1 lemon

Tbsp honey

500mls buttermilk

Cut the halloumi in to reasonable sized chunks and soak in buttermilk to draw out salt.

Remove from buttermilk bath and marinate in a honey and lemon solution for at least 2 hours.

Halloumi Batter (adapted from “In Search of Perfection”, Blumenthal, H. 2009)

200g  Plain flour

200g white rice flour

1tsp baking powder

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1tbsp honey                        

300ml vodka

300ml larger (kronenbourg 1664)

Tip the plain flour, rice flour and baking powder into a bowl. Put the honey and vodka into a jug, stir and then add to the flour to create a batter mix. open the larger and stir it into the batter until just combined. It doenst matter if the consistency is a little lumpy the most important thing is to open the larger just before stirring and transferring to the siphon to retain as many bubbles as possible.

Transfer the batter to a jug then pour it into a soda siphon charge the siphon with three co2 charges and put it in the fridge for a minimum of 30 minuets to chill.

Heat ground nut oil in a pan to a minimum of 220 degrees

Remove halloumi from marinade and coat in flour

Shake the chilled batter siphon viggerously and squirt into a large bowl deep the halloumi in the batter and then strait into the hot oil

Drop little bits of batter on top of the frying fish to get an extra crispy coating.

Triple cooked chips (taken from “In search of perfection”, Blumenthal, H. 2009)

2-3 Arran Victory or Maris Piper potatoes

Wash and peel the potatoes, then cut them into chips about 1.5cm thick as soon as the chips are cit place them in a bowl under cold running water for 2-3 minuets to rinse off some of the starch, then drain,

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil (10g salt to the litre) add the chips bring back to the boil and then simmer until the chips have almost broken up make sure that the simmer is gentle to ensure the chips don’t break up before they are cooked through. Using a slotted spoon carefully lift the potatoes out of the water and place on a cake rack leave to cool and then put in the fridge until cold.

Heat a deep fat fryer to 130.c plunge the chips and allow them to cook until they take on a dry appearance and are slightly coloured

Remove the chips and drain off the excess fat. Place them on a cake rack and allow to cool then return to the fridge until cold

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Reheat the oil to 190.c and cook the chips for a third and final time.

Mint pea puree

50g dairy cream

200g of cooked pea and mint puree (thinned)

Combine the pea and mint puree with cream and water. Blitz and strain. Add agar and bring to the boil. Allow to set. Blitz the gel to a runny puree if to runny add xanthan if not runny enough add water. Charge the dispenser and heat in a saucepan of warm water ( 70.c) dispense and serve immediately

Lemon Fluid gel

2 lemons

200ml water

10g gellan

Add gellan to water and lemon juice bring to the boil allow to cool blitz periodically until the right consistency is reached

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By the Sea

Marinated Halloumi in a vodka beer batter 

served with triple cooked chips and a mint pea puree

This is a great little starter if your out to impress your guests courgettes and potatoes are stuffed with a delicilous caponta, a toasted almond tapanade brings a richness to the dish and the bitter sweet orange and saffron dressing packs that zesty punch!!

You will need for 4 servings:

For the stuffed vegetables 

3 Courgettes

2 medium sized potatoes (maris piper are ideal)

butter 

For the caponata 

1/2 Red Bell Pepper

1 red onion

1/2 Aubergine 

2 cloves of garlic 

the rest of the courgette your not using to stuff with

a hand full of sultanas

a hand full of olives

red wine

basil 

balsamic vinegar 

For the Orange and Saffron Dressing

2 oranges

1 shallot

a pinch of thyme

1 lemon 

1 bay leaf

a pinch of saffron

For the Almond tapanade

the other half of the red bell pepper

1/2 red chilli

2 garlic cloves

a hand full of corriander seeds

50g ground almonds

sprig of rosemary and thyme

half a lemon

Process 

Right then, begin by hollowing out your courgettes and potatos

for the courgettes cut the top and tail of them and then cut into three barrel shapes per courgette about 4cm long if you can repeat this until you have 8 courgette barrells, remember to keep the left over courgette for the caponata! theres no one particlar way to hollow out your courgette barrels I found the best way was to groove out the courgette with a peeler rotating and twisting the courgette around it however you get there you want about half an inch of courgette goodness around the diamater and the same half an inch left on the bottom so they look like barrels.

for the potatoes think about making a little potato boat  peel the potatoes and cut them in half length ways and shape out a little grove in the middle, again leaving half an inch from the bottom.

its best to cook your stuffing vegetables before hand, then you can just stuff them and give a quick blast in the oven before serving. 

for the courgettes just brush them with a little oil and bake them for around 15 minutes at 180.c till they soften up. when your courgettes are in the oven get on cooking your potatoes.

for the potatoes cook them the old school way, in a bath of butter, definitely not the healthiest way but damn tasty! just melt some butter in a frying man add a little water and place your potato boats in the pan to sail the sea of butter turn them occasionally till there soft and cooked.

right stuffing vegetables done, out the way we can forget about them now

lets get on the caponata 

ok so dice your vegetables to quite a small size rememeber they gotta fit inside your potato boats and courgette barrels

get some hot oil going on the saucepan first add the onions when they soften up add your aubergines (aubergines absorb oil like a greasy teenager so you  may need to add a little extra after you put them in) once there soft chuck in the rest of the vegetables, sultanas and olives, add a little splash of balsamic vinegar and a generous glug of red wine the vegetbales kinda want to stew in the wine so make sure theres enough, but not to much to drown them. turn down and simmer till every things soft and yummy!! dont forget to season at the end

ok so we got a stuffed vegetables done our caponatas simmering away now lets get started on the almond tapanade 

start by finely dicing the bell pepper, chilli, garlic, thyme, and rosemary d and stick them on a tray, drizzle a little olive oil and wack em’ in the oven till they soften up. when there soft put them in a mixing bowl. then toast your corriander seeds (they begin to smell almost like a nutty lemon when there toasted very delicious. when there toasted add them to the mixing bowl and then toast your almonds until they go a nutty brown again add to the mixing bowl. then sqeeze a little lemon juice and blitz all the toasted and roasted lovelies into a fine ass paste! if its a little thick just add a drizzle of oil and that should loosen it up.

ok right now we got our stuffed vegetables, our caponata bubbling away and our tapanade all mixed up and ready to go, so that leaves just one thing. 

the orange and saffron dressing

chop up your shallots and thyme get them in a frying pan an soften up those shallots. meanwhile get your oranges get there skins off and cut them into segments trying to get rid of as much of the pith ( the gross white stuff) as possible add them to your simmering shallots chuck in a bay leaf and leave to simmer for around five minuets.transfer to a blender take out them bay leafs there not welcome in the blender then whiz it all up squeeze a little extra zest with half an orange and lemon. then push your dressing through a fine sieve to get rid of any lumpy bits so your just left with a sexy silk dressing wack it in the fridge to cool until serving time.

ok everythings done, now lets put it together.

by now your caponata should be done so chop a little fresh basil and chuck it in there get your stuffing courgettes and potatoes and carefully stuff them with your caponata mix.

then put the vegetables in the oven to warm up. right then while there warming up grab your tapanade and make a pile of it on the plate. then using the base of a spoon drag the tapnande across the plate to form a tasty trench when your vegetables are warm through it shouldnt take long place them in the trench

drizzle some of the dressing over the top and garnish with some fresh basil.

Phew!! we got there in the end and trust me all this effort will look and taste like a Mediterranean heaven. 

Happy Cooking xx

Stuffed Provençal vegetables

served with a toasted almond tapanade and an orange and saffron dressing!!