Читать книгу Simple Beginnings: Beading - Aiden Byrne - Страница 22

SERVES 4

400 g beetroot purée (see page 204)

50 g caster sugar, plus 1 tablespoon for the mousse

juice of 2 lemons

4 gelatine leaves, softened

200 g crème fraîche

3 ripe avocados

1 teaspoon vitamin C powder

1 quantity yogurt sorbet (see page 219)

salt and pepper

MAKE THE BEETROOT TUILLES. Heat 200 g beetroot purée with the sugar until the sugar has dissolved. Leave to cool slightly and check the seasoning. You are looking for the sweetness from the sugar but also for a hint of acidity. Add a little lemon juice until you can just taste it.

PUT AN OVENPROOF rubber mat on a baking tray and spread the beetroot mixture over the mat with a palette knife as evenly and thinly as you can. Place in an oven as low as you can possibly have it to dry the tuille out overnight. (If you have a gas oven with a pilot light hold the door slightly ajar with, say, a wooden spoon.) When the purée is dry enough you should be able to peel it away from the mat as a whole sheet. If you cannot, you will need to dry it for longer.

WHEN IT IS READY use scissors to cut it to your desired shape. The tuille needs to be soft, pliable and slightly warm for you to do this. As soon as it cools it will become crisp. You can warm it again slightly to soften it. Keep the tuilles in a cool, dark place.

MAKE THE BEETROOT MOUSSE. Warm the remaining beetroot purée in a saucepan. Transfer 2 tablespoons of the warm purée to a smaller pan, add half the gelatine and stir to dissolve. Add this mixture to the larger amount of warm purée (this will make sure that the gelatine is evenly incorporated).

TRANSFER THE PURÉE to a stainless steel or glass bowl set over a bowl of iced water. Adjust the seasoning, bearing in mind that you want the natural sweetness of the beetroot to come out. Add a touch of acidity with some lemon juice and even a little salt. When the purée has set fold in half the crème fraîche.

CHECK THE SEASONING again and adjust if necessary. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and place in the refrigerator to set. (It will keep for two or three days.)

MAKE THE AVOCADO mousse. Peel, stone and chop the avocado and put the flesh in a blender. Dissolve the vitamin C powder in 120 ml cold water, add to the avocado and blend until smooth. Pass the mixture through your finest sieve. Reserve 4 tablespoons for serving.

WARM 2 TABLESPOONS of the purée, add the remaining gelatine and heat gently until the gelatine has dissolved. Add this mixture to the remaining purée and season with salt and a tablespoon of sugar. Transfer to a bowl set over iced water and fold in the remaining crème fraîche. Put a piece of clingfilm directly on top of the mousse and transfer to the refrigerator to set.

TO SERVE, spoon the reserved avocado purée on to four cold plates. With a spoon warmed in hot water, scoop a quenelle of each mousse onto each plate, then add spoonful of yogurt sorbet and place a tuille between two of the mousses.

David Adlard was one of my first true mentors, and I am eternally grateful to him for giving me my first opportunity as a head chef. Some of the dishes I learned as a young chef have stayed with me throughout my career and David’s version of this classic potato dish is one of them. You can’t prepare this in advance and it does monopolise your oven but it’s well worth it. Perfect with sirloin steak, béarnaise sauce and some fresh green beans.