Hooray! After months of treading water (well, laying ground work, gathering together all the reports we need, and a lot of slightly erratic planning), we have finally submitted for planning permission for the works on the barn. I’ve nailed the notices to the gate and everything. It must be official.
We’re also making headway on the grand plans for the teaching kitchen. I’ve even chosen the colour for the cupboards. Appropriately enough, given what the weather is up to in Halton Gill today, half of them are going to be in Mizzle (the other half in Blue Grey). It may seem like baby steps, but I was starting to despair of ever getting moving. I’ll post photos once the devastation starts in the kitchen.
In the meantime, we’ve been doing other things. I’ve been having some experimental baking time (the Aga and I are becoming friends, unless the wind is from the East, in which case, we aren’t talking). This means that The Beard’s office are being kept stocked with a steady supply of cakes. My latest attempt has been to rework the Tante Marie sacher torte recipe. Tomorrow they are getting a chocolate cake filled with white chocolate and raspberry cream. I’ve also had my first little bits of outside catering to do, which means I get to flex my cooking muscles.
So, I reckon it’s about time I posted a recipe or two on here and it seems only appropriate that the first one should be what I made for my catering at the weekend. Before we moved up here, one of my lovely Oxford Bods put me in touch with a cousin of hers who lives near The Beard’s parents. Sally has scooped me up and taken me under her wing, introducing me to all manner of fun and interesting people, and generally making me feel like part of the family (her lovely husband has even cut my hair for me!). So it was no small honour, and a chance to say a bit of a thank you to be able to help with the vegan/vegetarian/dairy free option for her son’s wedding last weekend. And what a wedding it was! Laid back, fun, quirky, homemade, musical, theatrical, and utterly gorgeous! I haven’t yet known Tom and Helen long, but it seemed to sum them up perfectly, so without further ado, allow me to introduce…
Tom and Helen’s Butternut Borek.
Serves 7 (I know that’s random but it’s how many sheets of filo are in a box)
- 1 butternut squash
- 2 red onions
- half a packet of thyme
- 1 head of garlic
- 1 tin of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 2/3 of a jar of sundried tomatoes, chopped to 1 cm squares
- 1 tsp allspice
- 1 packet of jus-roll filo pastry
- olive oil (lots)
- salt and pepper
tahini sauce to serve:
- 2 tbsps tahini
- juice of 1 lemon
- pinch of salt
- water to loosen
Pre-heat the oven to 180°c fan, or talk very nicely to the hot oven of the Aga.
Peel, then dice up the butternut squash into 1 cm cubes. The pieces want to be dainty or they will become hopelessly unwieldy when rolling.
Chop the red onions into quarters then slice them – again, dainty is key.
Mix together the veg, anoint generously with extra virgin olive oil, plenty of salt and pepper and sprinkle over the thyme. I opted to leave the thyme on its stalks, then fish them out once it was cooked and the leaves had fallen off. If you can’t face sifting through the cooked veg, or you don’t trust your eyesight to spot the errant twigs, you can strip the leaves off and scatter them over before cooking. Roast the veg for 20-30 mins until just tender.
At the same time, wrap the garlic head in a square of tinfoil, drizzle with a smidge of olive oil and roast that too, until the cloves are squidgy and tender (again, about 20-30 mins). Once the garlic is cooked, squeeze each clove out of its paper case and either mash the lot into some more olive oil with a fork, or blitz it in a mini blender.
Add the smushed garlic, chickpeas, sundried tomatoes, and allspice to the veg mix. Taste and adjust the seasoning. As this is going into a bland pastry, you want to err on the side of over-seasoning. You’ll be amazed how much encasing something in dough tones down the flavour.
Now for the rolling. I used jus-roll filo and found that that size of filo sheet worked to make a borek big enough to be a filling main. Other makes of filo will be a different size and shape and you may need to adjust your rolling accordingly. Filo can be tricksy stuff and likes to dry out and become inclined to crack the minute you aren’t watching. The best way to keep it malleable is to lay it between two sheets of clingfilm, so the air can’t get at it, preferably with a clean, damp tea towel over the top (though don’t let the tea towel touch the pastry or you will find a world of soggy). With your first filo sheet spread out in front of you, short side towards you and long side stretching up your chopping board, dollop a generous serving spoon of your filling on the end nearest you. Flip the sides over to cover it and extend the fold the length of the pastry – think folding a sheet of A4 into a menu with the outside edges coming to meet in the middle. Now it is just a matter of tucking and rolling to give a cigar shape. Roll up until the filling has been fully encased a couple of times, cut off any excess dough, and unroll by about half a length. Brush your exposed length with more olive oil, then brush the whole borek all over. This is a greasy game, but does make everything go delicious and crispy. Pop your borek onto a baking tray and repeat with the remaining filling and filo.
Once all your borek are rolled and oiled, roast them (still at 180°c, or thereabouts) for 20 minutes, or until golden and crispy. Serve them sliced in half on the diagonal with a generous puddle of tahini sauce.
To Make the Tahini Sauce:
Squeeze the lemon into the tahini and start to stir. Tahini is a curious substance and at first gets thicker with the addition of more liquid. Keep stirring to get rid of any lumps and start adding water, little by little, to get to the consistency of pouring cream. The sauce will thicken as it sits, so don’t worry if you make it runnier than you intended. Don’t panic if it seizes and looks like a lumpy, glowering mess in the bottom of the bowl. Keep stirring with a bit more water (and a whisk if it becomes really lumpy!) and it’ll come right in the end. The first time I used tahini, I assumed it had gone off, such was its unprepossessing lumpiness. Turns out I was just being impatient.
