Veggie Week

Yes, as you know its been vegetarian and special diets all this week, culminating with an assessment on Friday. Now in our household we've kind of got used to catering for veggies, and discovered it's actually quite enlightening not only to go without a great lump of meat occasionally, but also to explore new tastes and textures, combinations, new worlds and civilisations, to boldly go... I digress. I think in our family we're all in agreement that veggie food can be pretty damn good.

Picture above: the lemon garnish I left under the table on Wednesday

The good folk of Scotland, however, don't necessarily share this view. Butcher Graham, for example, raised on a diet of raw meat, voted with his feet on Wednesday when we were asked to prepare a vegetarian dish, and presented Lizzie with a baked potato and cheese. She was too gobsmacked (or possibly frightened) to tell him off. While the rest of us slaved away with 4 different types of gluten-free flour trying to produce something that vaguely resembled a light sponge, he stolidly baked a cake using ordinary flour, shrugging and saying "What's the point?".

Friday's assessment was a little bit different to what we'd expected, so I had to change my plans a little. We were drawn out of a hat into 3 groups, or "corners", each being asked to produce 6 portions of 3 different dishes. One corner on starters, one on mains, and one on desserts. Our little gang, consisting of Stepan, Hunter Graham, Livvie, Kate and myself, were on mains. Thank God we didn't draw the short straw of desserts, which had to include at least one dairy free and one gluten free.

We produced an impressive set of dishes, featuring home made gnocchi with a rich tomato sauce; A taiwanese bean curd stir fry; and my Atlas Mountain Pie. All very very tasty, and we scored high marks from the judges, which was of particular relief to Kate, who had barely shown up all week, but who made it in (late, naturally) to the assessment to bask in our shared glory.

I'd like to focus on the pie for a minute. It was a dish I found on the internet, then modified to suit our purpose. More importantly though, I wanted to christen it Kristin Scott Thomas pie, in humble tribute to the goddess herself, and her role as the world's sexiest skeleton in The English Patient, when she dies in the cave up in the mountains before old Ranulph can get back to her. However, Graham, our chef de partie, wouldn't allow this. I have given it it's proper title below.

If you are cooking for a veggie dinner party I'd highly recommend this dish. It was demolished by the staff and students on both occasions I cooked it - the practice run on Wednesday and the assessment on Friday - and a number* of people have asked me for the recipe.

KRISTIN SCOTT THOMAS PIE
serves 6

Quite complicated, but well worth it, and looks fantastic.

For the filling:
2 tsp each cumin and coriander seeds
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
olive oil
1/2 butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch cubes
12 small shallots
1 inch cube root ginger, finely chopped
3 tbl ground almonds
3 tbl pine nuts (or pistachios)
100g mixture of prunes, dried apricots, dates, finely chopped
6 tbl agave nectar (or clear honey)
200g baby spinach

For the hummus:
1 tin chickpeas
1 garlic clove
1 tsp ground cumin

juice of 1 lemon
fresh coriander, chopped

For the pastry:
9 sheets filo pastry
butter

For the yoghurt dip:
1 carton Greek or natural yoghurt
mint and coriander leaves, chopped
harissa paste
chilli oil

1. Heat oven to Gas 6, 200 degrees.
2. Dry roast the cumin and coriander seeds in a dry pan for a few minutes, until they give off a lovely aroma. Grind the seeds in a pestle and mortar, or coffee grinder, until fine. Sieve to remove coriander husks if necessary.
3. In a roasting tray mix together ground spices, cinnamon and paprika with enough oil to make it spreadable, mix with the cubed squash, and roast for 20-25 minutes.
4. At the same time, heat oil in a large frying pan and fry the shallots on high heat until they start to brown. Stir in the ginger, ground almonds, pistachios/pine nuts, and stir until they start to brown also. Remove the shallots, quarter them, then return to the pan (this keeps them chunky but not too chunky, without them disintegrating). Chuck in the dried fruit, agave nactar (or honey) and spinach. Cook for a couple of minutes then remove from heat once spinach has wilted.
5. Stir the roasted squash and shallot mixture all together.
6. Gently melt 50g butter in a small pan or microwave.
7. Take a sheet of filo, and cut into 6 strips. Take a second sheet and cut into 6, reserving 3 strips so you are about to use 9 strips for the first individual portion. Brush one side of each strip with butter (easiest to do this before you cut it!).
8. Take a small ovenproof saucer, and lay the 9 strips so they overlap in the centre of the dish, spreading outwards like the spokes of a wheel. Make sure the bottom of the saucer is completely covered. Put a good dollop of the squash/shallot mixture in the middle of the saucer, then fold up each strip one at a time into a set of crinkly folds, making sure the mixture is completely sealed inside the filo. You will end up with a crinkly round mountain on the saucer, with Kristin safely hidden inside. Brush butter over the folds, then frizz them up a bit like Nick Heyward from Haircut 100.
9. Repeat steps 7. and 8. five more times.
[you can stop at this point, cover them with clingfilm, refrigerate, and keep them for up to 24 hours before cooking - very handy]
10. Melt more butter in a pan, fry more pine nuts or pistachios until browning, remove from heat and stur in the remaining agave nectar or honey.
11. Put drained chickpeas, garlic, lemon, ground cumin in a blender and whizz to bits. Season with salt and pepper. Drizzle in a little oil to get the consistency you want (I was serving the hummus in a ring mould and so needed it fairly firm).
12. Place all the saucers on a baking tray and bake at Gas 5 for around 25 minutes (longer if chilled). Keep an eye on the filo - it should brown nicely but not burn. Remove from the saucer before serving (that's the trickiest bit!). Drizzle some hot butter, nut and nectar mix over the top once on the plate.
13. Meanwhile mix the chopped mint and coriander leaves into the yoghurt. Mix harissa with a little chilli oil to loosen it. Creatively swirl the harissa into individual or shared portions of yoghurt.
14. You could serve with little flatbreads - I did, but there again I had Livvie to make them for me.

Picture right: the elements of the filling ready to be mixed together

* two